Cycle 1

Cycle 1

I went through a few different ideas for this project and had a hard time settling on something due to the amount of directions I thought this project could go in. After a few days and some research, I decided that I wanted to explore the medium of 360 degree animation. From a technical standpoint, I thought it would be interesting to learn and left a few different options open for interactivity as well. Then came the challenge of deciding what the animation was going to be about. In my thesis work, I’ve been battling with the idea that storytelling is what I really want to focus on, so this project needed to be more focused on storytelling as a medium than previous projects.

Initially, I started out by figuring out what the benefits of making a 360 degree animation were that a traditional film medium didn’t possess.

  • The ability to move from one screen to another
  • The immersiveness of the space – like you are really there
  • The abundance of details simultaneously included
  • Forcing people to move

And the limitations

  • Lost details
  • Not everyone gets the same exact story or experience
  • What is most important to focus on

In this case, the limitations weren’t necessarily bad things, but both lists were things to consider and try to find ways to design stories around.

My first idea was to do a series of vignettes. The story would take place in a town square and would be focused on the lives of people around the town. It would show planes flying around and interacting in the air, people dancing, musicians playing music, people having a conversation, a booth selling food, ants stealing the food, etc.. The idea here was that of a story centered around capturing a location rather than any one particular person’s experience. I used these ideas in the final project idea, but they originated here in this form.

My second idea was centered around the idea of perspective and what it would mean to show two sides of the same story simultaneously. I thought it could be interesting to show the hero and a villain both working on their side of the same conflict at the same time. The idea here was that depending on who the audience watched more, their opinion on the conflict would be swayed. Due to time constraints and a variety of logistical reasons, I didn’t think this was very feasible in the amount of time left in the semester, so I opted for something else.

There was brief consideration of adapting this idea into a story about two paths crossing from different storylines. Each half of the room showed the life of a different person until they ended up crossing paths and bumping into each other. Then the story would continue on and show the aftermath of the meeting.

My next idea was centered around the idea of time. I thought it would be cool to utilize the immersive environment and showcase the shifting of time and how a space changes when in it. I did a couple of projects in my undergrad centered around lost things and I thought it could be cool to continue this thread. I also used ideas from this in the final idea that I settled on.

The biggest challenge I’ve been facing for the past couple of years is figuring out what kind of storyteller I want to be and the kind of stories that I want to tell. I need to start doing a better job at exploring what is important to me and finding ways to reflect that in my work. With that in mind, I moved onto my final idea for this project.

My grandmother started getting sick right after Thanksgiving last year. After her passing in August, we visited her house to do some housekeeping things and saw that all of her Christmas decorations from the previous year were still up in her house, despite the fact that we didn’t get a chance to actually celebrate Christmas there due to her being in the hospital. It was a super surreal and haunting moment walking into that house. I took pictures of everything and documented the way she left everything the best I could so that I could look back on the memories. Recently, we started clearing out the house and sorting out her affairs. I’ve received a lot of things back that I had originally given to her as gifts and also a lot of things that I loved playing with and looking at when I visited. It’s made me think a lot about both the strength of memories that can be tied to physical things and the fleetingness of physical assets. There’s nothing quite like receiving back a bear that I gave my grandmother twenty years ago with my voice memo telling her I love her in it.

This parallel of objects containing memory is one of the biggest things I want to explore and capture. For myself, I’d like to recreate my grandmother’s living room (with some potential abstractness in the design to better fit the theme) and showcase these fading memories and the past.

Project idea:

  • Time capsule of my grandmother’s living room/house.
  • The concept of living memory, living ghosts, and nostalgia.

Memories to include:

  • Playing and drawing on the carpet. (child’s drawings, tic-tac-toe, etc.)
  • Playing on the piano
  • Sweeping the fireplace broom
  • Dinner at the dining room table
  • Riding lawn mower outside window
  • Making paperclip necklaces
  • Playing board games

Other features:

I want to make a story without people/actors and focus only on the memories living on through objects in the house.

In the beginning, all of the different objects moving around the house and memories being showcased will be present. As the animation goes on, different things will fade away. At the end, there will only be the still, silent house (set up for Christmas) that has been left behind in her wake.

Intentionally, due to the 360 degree design of the animation, not everyone will see every memory or focus on every detail that is happening in the space. This is meant to symbolize the uniqueness of memory and the loss of it as time goes on. The idea is that everyone’s experiences in the space will be slightly different and unique but still represent a holistic experience of memory. Collectively, everyone may be able to talk about what they witnessed and remember, but alone, they are unable to capture everything.

I also spent some time learning about the technical side of things for cycle one. I explored how to use animation software to make a 360 degree animation as I had only ever seen them made with live action 360 cameras before. The process wasn’t nearly as difficult as I was anticipating and was able to do so with a few careful setting changes.

Here is a link to a test I made with a few assets I had lying around from another project. 



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