After specifying my main areas of interest last week, I was hoping to form a group with other students interested in the “From static inspirations to dynamic projects” project. Their ideas for creating an interactive experience and focusing on an artistic approach (drawing inspiration from traditional imagery and illustration) were in line with the values, and themes I would like to explore in my work. In addition, a few students from the Padlet concentrated on getting involved in the field of VFX, which gave me hope that this project would use many programs and techniques to create visual effects.
However, during the actual group meeting, it turned out that most people already had a very specific idea for the assignment. None of them involved the immersive experience inside the paintings(which was the most exciting premise for me). Most of them were tasks focused on game development, which I already explored in my undergraduate studies. I was interested in collaborating on a project examining traditional Chinese ink paintings but since the group consisted of only VFX students (and a few outside collaborators), I wasn’t sure if joining it would be productive for me. It would have allowed me to learn new VFX techniques, work with Houdini and learn more about FX, but I would have lost the opportunity to collaborate with other Majors, and that was much more important to me.
In the end, I decided to look for another group, which turned out to be quite difficult. Most people already had clear ideas and were looking for others to fill the tedious tasks. I also felt that very few groups were looking for VFX artists, most just wanted 3D modellers. At first, I wasn’t interested in creating 3D models, but when Nira asked me to join the dystopian VR project, I decided to change my approach.
The project seemed interesting since it would allow me to work with established artists and had the potential to become a bigger assignment worth putting on my resume. I liked the premise of creating an interactive experience that focused on climate change. It sounded organised and I could get some guidance from the lecturers. I saw the challenges of working with so many people, but I thought it would allow us to create a better quality piece. I was also very interested in working with VR/Unity as I am thinking of possibly using it to create immersive VFX experiences for my Final Project. After all, even though my role would be 3D modeling, it looked like I could do some VFX on the side and explore new software.