Manimation - Nov 16th

Manimation has been AMAZING. I have got sooo much out of today and it has been most enjoyable. I have been funded too attend via Leeds Film in prep for co-ordinating the VR Zone next year, and it has been most valuable for that.

It was great talking too companies such as Sumo Digital, Brown Bag, Studio Liddell, Factory, CHF entertainment, Silo games, Arcus studios, Flipbook and Mikinnon and Saunders, especially in the 1 to 1 session at the end of the day, like an interview session.. Throughout the day, meeting the head of VR at Studio Liddell was also very enjoyable and having a go on their Rift.

The VR talk was great, if not a little short, with some great considerations of the future of the medium too. It was fantastic meeting Alison Norrington from Story Central too, who is eager too help with some workshops come LYFF next year.

VR Arts Lab - 17th-19th Nov

Bring on round 2 of the lab!

Day 1.
It was very exciting to arrive back in the Shed, ready for some VR making.. The brief was set, to create a storytelling VR experience influenced by Ready Player 1. (one way or another) This day was all about idea generation and narrative stimulation, and really considering what makes good and bad VR. I even did a presentation of my 31 days in VR for Inktober. Our team this time is very balanced, a perfect and even match of skills. It took us a while to finalize on an idea and make everyone happy and passionate but we finally got there!

Day 2.
With the foundations of our idea established it was time to create. Our idea, inspired by chapter 19 of Ready Player 1, explored a room where a person lays motionless within their dirty, unkempt apartment. The narrative is one encouraging discovery. The spectator is the author of the narrative, by exploring the environment you uncover pieces of the narrative surrounding this person, why they have abandoned the real and who they are. If you go close to the person, you can actually take off their headset and from lifting too your eyes, you see the world they are viewing, which is infact new memories. This motionless individual is plugged into a software called 'Replay' a software that lets you 'replay' your memories and in doing so, change them. From this we piece even more of a narrative together from this person... I feel our narrative idea really targets what VR storytelling is all about and is tailored very well for it

My part in the production process is the 3D creation of environmental assets, and UV mapping and texturing, ready too export to Unity.

Day 3
Production continues, assets are combined and full interactivity added. We had a little complication getting my materials across from the FBX files but I soon resolved that. I also created our teams production diary video, as well as the stitching of the 360 video memory experience.

Manchester Animation Festival - 14-16th Nov

Manchester Animation Festival

Manchester animation festival has been a blast. My favorite and most insightful/educational talks were the Nexus and Seb Burnett talks. 

Seb covered the pipeline of non linear storytelling and game development.

Even down to the app interaction. Which was very beneficial for my area of study.

Nexus' talk was fantastic and everything to do with what I am currently creating, even down to the gaze driven material.

Heres the interactive pipeline map, very similar to Seb's:

Something I need too consider creating for my experience. I have had an extremly eye opening time at MAF this year, it has felt different approaching the festival with a more professional head. I enjoyed meeting with Claire Cook afterwards and having a long and insightful chat, and catching up with others.

Yorkshire Games Festival - 10th Nov

YGF was a fantastic opportunity to experience a range of fantastic talks from leading professionals in the gaming industry.

Talks from David Wise, Iki Ikram, the makers of Overcooked and Gang Beasts and Criterion on Star Wars VR were most insightful!

Net-tweeting

Twitter as a networking tool

From attending networking events, I quickly learnt that twitter seems to be the thing most people use too communicate and promote themselves, so I felt it appropriate to update my Twitter and evaluate how effective a networking tool it really is.

When I started my account I had 16 followers, all friends.

From attending networking events my spread reached to the two hundred mark. 

I researched popular tags on twitter, even time posting windows to get the most global reach. #screenshotsaturday is a great example of a popular tag for game devs, as well as the usual #gamedev #indiedev tags usually get a lot of attention on your game material.

I also tailor some of my content towards current trends.

Gaining popularity is harder with Twitter than any other platform I believe when your starting from scratch with no other major online presence, because of its more fleeting audience.

With October and Inktober approaching I felt this would be a great opportunity to practise my VR art, doing my own take on 'inktober' as 'InktobVR' Each day a different drawing in VR.

before Inktober I had gained 280 followers.

From posting my VR content daily for 31 days, my tweets gained traction. Reaching 78K people in those 28 days.

You can see the progression here:

My tweets were even being retweeted by Tilt Brush themselves due to tagging effectively, which aided in the exposure. I even worked out a sweet spot to post to Twitter for global exposure, and that is 7.30pm. 

By the end of Inktober, I had reached 400 followers.

I have loved learning the ins and outs of Twitter and using it as a tool for exposure. Exposure on social media is networking, as it's expanding your network of people. 

When at Manchester Science Festival, I had a company recognize my business card from my logo on Twitter, which is a great example of the exposure in action.

Through Twitter I have also networked through contacting people. From following Sumo Digital, I saw they had a Splatoon 2 team, so I contacted the members of the team by sending them my Switch Friendcode, and now we play Splatoon together! 

Through my Inktober, I have networked with Tilt Brush, to the extent they have personally contacted me for opportunities: 

LIFF VIP Opening Gala

Me? VIP?

Because I was running workshop at the festival it meant I got a free VIP pass into the opening gala where I got to see the opening film, 'The Square'.

I first enjoyed a networking session in the Town Halls underground forest bar, the best type of bar. Really nice atmosphere too.

What was fantastic was seeing the 4 Sparks campaign outside, with my face on.

Had to get another picture.

I haven't really seen much independant avante garde cannes type films before, so I didn't have high expectations of the The Square. But I was wrong, I really really enjoyed it! Very powerful and emotive, highlighting the many flaws in art culture and our society as a whole, it made you think... As well as laugh and gasp. From an artistic perspective it was very aesthetic, strong compositions and repetition of 'the square' through composition was fantastic, I really liked that. I can see me watching more of these films now, I can't believe I have never given them time before.

InktobVR - 31 Days In VR

For inktober this year I decided to do a VR drawing every day, InktobVR.

After each day I posted my 3D creation on Twitter and Instagram gaining an impressive following, especially on twitter.

By doing a drawing everyday my efficiency in Tilt Brush increased massively, I knew how to work around the tools and what they could offer me. I became quick at making 3D pieces, and stories.

I still used the original inktober prompts for each one, creating a whole story and piece of 3D artwork surrounding a single prompt each day. 

I was quite imaginative with my responses and really played to the VR medium with the fantastical aspect I injected into many of my works.

Doing this has given me a VR portfolio:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Jmvan

And has planted the VR artist seed.