"More Than Meets The Eye" Animated VR Experience

 Quill anim brush test of falling leaves

 Quill animation played in Unity -  A quick fire animation using the anim brush in Quill

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGYtahQjmWQ

 Great advice and help from the Virtual Animation forum, when I asked what render pipeline to use in Unity, as I want to light my Quill drawings but add bloom and glow effects too. hey @Andrea_McSwan if you don't use a render pipeline you can use the post processing plugin to get bloom and a bunch of other VFX its in the package manager then you just have to put a "Post-process Layer" and "Post-process Volume" on your main camera [ hope that helps!! [ 19:38 ] oh wait a sec the quill shader is unlit... [ 19:39 ] here is a lit shader that you can turn up the emission to get bloom but it will blow out the other colors too If you’re solely trying to get bloom effects you can use any of the render pipelines with the Unlit Quill Shader. HDRP and URP have post processing built in, you just have to create a post process volume and add in bloom. The important thing in URP is making sure that post processing is active on the camera @Andrea_McSwan [

Tech steeplechase today and rabbit holes of settings.... Finally managed to apply a VR vertex shader to the mesh and I can now apply point lights to any FBX objects that I've created in Quill.  https://youtu.be/0R6GrWZ5kEY Using my sample Chinese lanterns created in Quill  - image below Next hurdle is to figure out how to apply blooms and glows.....  

I plan to create metallic objects for Aaron's world. Investigating Substance Painter to do this - having created the drawing in Quill https://academy.substance3d.com/courses/the-pbr-guide-part-1 Navigation is the same keys as Maya To move the lights Shift+Right click drag

Today's challenge: getting an FBX drawing from Quill into Unity. I wanted the lanterns I drew in Quill to import complete with colour and then to be lit in Unity. Problem encountered... I applied the Quill shader - to two separate materials, but the asset was not being lit by spot light Test below to double check that the Quill FBX drawing would be able to pick up light in Unity. Tested by applying a standard shader. It worked, but it meant that the file was missing the colours as created in Quill. Asked for help on the Virtual Animation forum... Below is a response: I’ve used a separate double-sided shader from the Unity asset store, and I also tried out the lit shader (Smoothly-lit VR-Paint Shader for Unity, $15 on Gumroad). Both ways work. Revisted the link below regarding Quill FBX into Unity. https://quill.fb.com/developers/how-to-use-quill-fbx-in-unity Created additional material slots by double clicking on the asset in the scene window Inspector>Materials>Size>(adju...

 Applying the quill shader in unity seems to remove the ability to light the asset. Image below using the Quill shader. Image below showing the asset, created in Quill with a standard material applied

Technical workflow to be confirmed... Quill > FBX > Unity animation Quill>FBX> Unity lighting Quill>Substance Painter>Unity  https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/substance-for-unity-by-allegorithmic#

 https://github.com/kanzwataru/UnityQuillFBXAnim#quillanimcomponent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R6GrWZ5kEY&list=PLR6NkeqscAx2exR5o6eTUmXmh2FbxxOdO&index=4 UnityQuillFBXAnim Using Quill FBX animations in a seamless way with Unity   There are two scripts included:   QuillAnimComponent Just drag and drop it onto a Quill FBX scene and press Play. It just works and loops infinitely. Enable/disable the component to play/pause. The simplest one to use for simple situations. Useful for using Unity as a renderer.   QuillAnimNode This is for using Animator state-machines It is mostly aimed at those who use Unity for creating games with Quill assets. Simply add it onto a state inside the Animator, drag-and-drop the desired animation into the slot, and set up your transitions. (make sure to turn off exit time and transition time since there is no blending) It will automatically spawn the animation mesh when playing the game.   If you want ...

 https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/working-with-animation-clips#5efefeadedbc2a001f3a0d03

 https://quill.fb.com/developers/how-to-use-quill-fbx-in-unity Using a curve, duplicated and rotated to create this Chinese lantern. Next step, import into Unity and light. Optimise, hide all other layers and export from Quill as an FBX. Edit>Project settings>8x multi-sampling Import new asset > download Quill shader (in link above). Warning shows mesh has no normals.  Select model and review inspector model tap  https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/FBXImporter-Model.html Create two new materials >drag Quill shader onto both new materials>one double, one single>set one to double sided in the inspector panel

 

 Incorporating reference images into VR to colour pick. Tests re-creating some of Sally's imagery. 

 Participant, Sally Booth, rides the London underground, drawing commuters, fragments of people all in a hurried rush. Each tube line has it's own 'flavour'. Using the London Underground connections map, based on the actual geographical layout of the tube lines, to form the base area of the VR environment. Using Quill paint in VR and using the actual colours of each tube line.

 https://www.othart.com/vrdemo Environment inspiration using Quill and exported into Unity Email reply below from  Oth Khotsimeuang, creator of the above video  of Toyko Streets, stating the workflow he uses between Quill and Unity. I paint- normally like I would in quillVR. I would say most of the light- 95% of it is done in quill via painted vertex lights. I'm also a painter so all of the colors is painted by hand. We only bring it into unity to throw glow or bloom shaders on it- ALSO the unity camera is better. We use the unit camera to do a steady smooth camera motion so we don't make the people motion sick- with our own handi-cam in quill.   Then we import the objects into Unity and put a vertex shader on it. Then I export the camera- in unity into flat images- sometimes at 30fps when converting it for Premiere- avi or movs.   (see the link below for dealing with FBX files. https://quill.fb.com/developers/how-to-use-quill-fbx-in-unity ...

 Understanding the grid. Creating planes using the line and ribbon brush tool. Alt trigger to snap to grid. Grid can be moved and scaled to work easily. Set new spawn area to set the camera/view and this can be scaled. Top of pole of spawn area icon, represents approximate head height. Set the move function on the paint layer to move the object. If this isn't on, then I tended to grab the grid instead. Imported image planes and played with a rough landscape and an escalator in the middle. Imported an image plane - via the import new image layer. Images can form part of the scene of be used as reference.

 Inspiration images from Aladdin, for animated fire

 Inspiration from Cinderella for dark and light environments

 Dreamworlds Production Design for Animation Hans Bacher Imagery below for simple concept art and composition, for negative space.

 https://youtu.be/gBbKBAMNUy0 Start working on the grid and snap to it Snap to Grid - left alt trigger and line tool - line snaps to grid Duplicate - left alt trigger and grab Import spherical image -  https://youtu.be/gBbKBAMNUy0?t=378   1k x 1k gradient. png import and set to 360 equirectangular. Creates sphere. To scale select transform tool and select 'reset transform' the sphere jumps to the centre and snaps to grid. Then use gizmo to scale. The sphere then creates the perfect horizon line. B Button - for colour picker https://sketchfab.com/blogs/community/art-spotlight-naam-creating-art-oculus-quill/

 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3039426572761567&extid=QKG8uDhgQIcYrmTj

https://youtu.be/0R6GrWZ5kEY

 Test animation in Quill using the nudge over time tool and animation paint brush... Exporting the tree from Quill into Unity Painting in Quill Exported into Unity  https://youtu.be/0R6GrWZ5kEY

Using the paint tool in Quill and the 'nudge over time' and 'anim paint' tool to create movement in leaves and blowing leaves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWHiSCt1oBk&list=PLR6NkeqscAx2exR5o6eTUmXmh2FbxxOdO&index=2&t=240s  

Test plan today: Create an animated leaf, using the animation paint tool in Quill. Export into Unity https://quill.fb.com/developers/how-to-export-models Create a Mixamo character  https://www.mixamo.com/ and import into Quill.  https://quill.fb.com/developers/how-to-import-models

Quill test using the animated brush tool >Timeline>Left Joy stick up to create keyframes>choose say 25>set to loop>play>select paint>draw brush strokes>set animation line duration. Beginning prototype testing of animated lines, to represent the sonic wave, wayfinder for Aaron's world.

 https://quill.fb.com/developers/how-to-use-quill-animated-abc-in-unity

 Familiarisation with the Quill interface Using brushes Importing a 2D image plane Zoom and grab tools Animating lines in Quill   https://youtu.be/HWHiSCt1oBk?t=1296 (start 21:36) Layers and Groups  

  https://store.steampowered.com/app/544420/VRCapture/ Record content and click 'share'. Google cardboard to view?

 Artist environment: Aaron Soundwave - animated- Research Tree ring portals - light Animated leaves - animated. Quill? Blender? Pools of light - Model, Texture, Light Bronze Bowls- Model, Texture, Light Bronze objects - Model, Texture, Light Pouring molten metal - Research Sound - Ambisonic Piccaddily Circus buildings - assets. Neon Information panels Teleport  Sally Tube map - research import of image plane? Create in 3D Line drawings of commuters - Quill? Blender Trains - asset store Sounds 3D people standing gait - asset store. Lighting. Information panels Teleport David Kaleidescope Milk bottles that emerge - model. Animated. Five points of touch - animated? Visible objects that show once touched - asset store Finger print interactive object Cone - model and texture. Light Information panels Teleport

To create a game using Oculus Quest - to be tethered to a PC (as per Oculus Rift) using Unity. How to view creations in Unity on a PC, on an Oculus Quest.... Instructions: Unity version 2019.4.8f1 Import: Oculus Integration Delete: Main camera (hierarchy) Search prefabs: OVR player controller Drag into Hierarchy Search prefabs: Local avatar Drag into Hierarchy and make a child of the tracking space in the OVR player controller Make for android: File (top left) > Build Settings Switch platforms (takes a while) Click Player Settings XR settings - click '+' button and add Oculus as the first SDK (software development kit) Other settings - click '-' button and remove Vulcan. Other settings - scroll down Graphics APis down to Minimum API level - select Android 4.4 'KitKat' (API level 19) Go into phone settings Pair to Quest Go into developer mode in phone settings and enable- Build settings, click 'Build and Run'

  Create a grid in Photoshop using a transparent background 8192 x 6144. Create square 2048 x 2048 on new layer. Drag guides to edges of square. Reposition guides. Duplicate square and create more guides. Import images or create new in each box. Note: Middle band = Left. Front. Right. Back          Top          Bottom Save as .png in assets folder. Select .png and in inspector mode, select advanced wrap mode/Clamp. See previous tutorial re creating a new skybox. Select  new material and rename (new skybox). Select and drag and drop png files to corresponding sides. Note: swap right and left.

DRHA2020 notes: Mon 7 Sep Intro: Alan Walker (Dean) . Yellow folders in his study (nice!) Digital connectivity has taken on industry 4.0 (fourth industrial revolution) Project details noted and email to a.j.walker1@salford.ac.uk sent - as unable to locate on the web. Reply: http://www.ade-futurelab.com/ http://www.ade-futurelab.com/index.php/index/school/id/19 I’m not sure though that the details of the project you’re looking for is included in these links, so I’m also sending you the contact details for Yibing Wang Y.Wang27@salford.ac.uk who organised our stand at the exhibition in Shanghai. Manoli Moriaty is the researcher who produced the project on performance in the blind and he has recently left Salford to take up an Academic position at Liverpool Hope University.  His contact details are manolimoriaty@gmail.com and I’m sure he’d be delighted to hear from you and please do send him my regards Beth Hewitt Creative Director for Media City at the University...