Virtual Environments - a huge post for a my huge Secret Lair

Looking back at the three projects by the end of DP2, I have to admit, that, probably, Virtual Environments one was the most enjoyable in both execution and result. And that is fairly strange, considering my next years’ chosen pathway, which is Moving Image.

The whole thing started a while back, when, at the beginning of the module, we were introduced to the goal we will have to achieve in each pathway. Knowing the briefs instantly made me think about what I wanted to make for all three of them. Of course that did not last long, as we dived into our current projects. However Virtual Environments never left my mind completely, as I expected it to be the biggest challenge, because everything there was completely new to me. I started picking up influences from the world around me and by the time it was time to crack on working, I realized, that the picture was already there, all I had to do is give it a shape.

The first unnoticeable influence came from my gaming experience earlier this year as I was playing the newest “Assassin’s Creed” game. The hero of that game, a stealthy assassin, was a very appealing figure, not only because I followed his life through all his installments, but also because of his character and how well developed he really was. From that moment I knew that my Superhero would not be an all powerful being, but a stealthy freedom fighter, who’s only superpowers would be his will to survive and his irresistible charisma. Little did I know that his made up personality would grow into a story with a fully developed past and a complicated, but intriguing future.

Other things kept building up and soon a side project I have been making for my girlfriend turned to one of the main focuses in my Virtual Environment. The “sort of” London Underground train I was building for her (yes, maybe building a train from scratch for my first 3D model was a bit too ambitious, but the result turned out to be pretty nice, so I guess that was a good call) got me into thinking about the place I wanted my hero to be in. An abandoned underground station came to mind as a great place for a stealthy character running from someone to hide. I started researching the usual layout of service rooms that appear in an ordinary underground, and it turned out that most of the service constructions underground consist of 1 big room with whatever in it. This posed a challenge, as our brief stated that we needed to create 4 rooms and to connect them in some way. To keep things realistic, I tried working my way around one available room and the idea of separating it with lights into, at least, 4 different sections struck me. It felt like a goldmine, and after some experiments I stuck with it. Creating environments in those sections caused quite a mix of emotions. I was building an average hideout with some over the top things, like 5 big widescreen monitors, as every superhero should have, but it all felt very basic and uninteresting, even thought I was very happy with the models themselves. I started adding things like books and ashtrays to populate the area when the whole image slid into place. Somehow, through these manipulations, my hero started to develop his deeper personality. He became a smoker, thus rendering him a stressed out person under a lot of pressure. I highlighted that by turning one of the ashtrays upside down and adding a shattered texture to one of the monitors, as if he threw it into the screen. Taking to the account the characters position, his environment and his looks (I was working on them too, that is how his armor and weapons got to the middle of the lair in the first place. No guns, just swords) I added specific books to his place of study. They were all strictly revolutionary or historical. That is how the background of the story slowly formed.

Speaking of a story, the last page to it was added through the characters appearance. His back was covered in glowing tubes shaped as a double-sided letter “Q”. At first it was just a decorative element, but as I started thinking about its practical use, I realized it had a huge potential. It evolved into a logo and I placed it around the environment as if stating that this was the official place of some organization, adding a huge chunk to the story, which now looked like this:

“In the future (in our future, for the character it is past) information is a “weapon” which, by the people in power, is considered too dangerous. The once mighty World Wide Web is gone, schools are being monitored and censored, knowledge flow is reduced to minimum and learning anything beyond your assigned duties is considered a highest offence and is punishable by death. Whole nations were drawn into slavery, and those who escaped that fate are either dead or brainwashed by the “flow”. Centuries have past in this state and there is less hope with every year.”

The “flow” is the liquid that passes through our hero’s body armor and weapons, and was created a few hundred years ago by the company that used this symbol as its logo.

The “flow” is an information storage device of a very high capacity. It also can transfer information with incredible speeds, using liquids molecules. When this system was invented it opened new possibilities. It could almost make people “smarter” by increasing the storage capacity and the process speed of their brain. It could also transfer commands to computers in objects with astonishing speed, reducing reaction times, even in the melee weapons, practically uniting the weapon and its user. This potential seemed either too dangerous or too revolutionary to not to seize it. It fell into powerful and greedy hands. The device was used to “brainwash” people into submission, basically replacing their memories with the ones that have been created by the new masters, overflowing the victims brain, until it cannot tell the difference between his own memories and someone else’s. With this overflow of knowledge in certain levels of hierarchy, the information flow to the whole planet was stopped, basically putting people to slaves. The people of the organization that was responsible for the “flow” were traced down and killed. Some of them escaped this fate and established bunkers where they hid knowledge and the “flow” for future generations to find. It seems that our hero found just that.

This was a huge idea, and I tried to place every single hint right where it belonged to make this at least somewhat noticeable. As my tutors told me at the end of my presentation – I succeeded. I think the whole project was a big success, well, for me. I loved every single bit of it, and even though sometimes I felt like I was going to break down, I came out empowered.

The video is at the top of the page and if you have already watched it you can run through it again and try to spot all the hints that were there for you.

Thank you and enjoy.

Ed.