MANA - Intercultural Dream Worlds Luca Coromines, Minna Radakovits & Constantin Rifaat Chair of Architectural Informatics Technical University of Munich
2 MANA - Intercultural Dream Worlds Chair of Architectural Informatics Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Petzold Interactive Visualization Lars Wüstemann, Nick Förster, Gerhard Schubert, Frank LucaPetzoldCoromines, Minna Radakovits, Constantin Rifaat 03676295, 03753913, 03764411
3 28221210864 Introduction - MANA Dream Segment 1 Dream Segment 2 Dream Segment 3 Concept Development Final TableContactResultofContents
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The project is based on the feeling of being in a dream, the concept of shifting realities and the breaking of the boundaries of the natural world that can only be achieved in dreams, or, as we aimed to prove, in the digital format. These dreamlike states, and the unnatural cut from one scene to another, the impossible surroundings, and circumstances, are the basis for our 3D environment and the brief.
Janina Totzauer has previously made similar video projects, such as Into Ur from her series „the Symbiosis saga“. This series centers around the meeting of the digital and the analog environments, and mirror the style of a first person perspective game.
Introduction - MANA
The project we worked on is called MANA – Intercultural Dream Worlds. It is an art project we helped to create for Janina Totzauer, who will use the digital environment we made in a half-analog, half-digitally produced art film.
MANA - Intercultural Dream Worlds is based on dreams Janina herself has had, more specifically three environments, or segments, we have tied together into a storyline. To tie together our digital creation with her videos, there was careful consideration and focus given to „clipping points“, where, in this case, one environment shifts to another, or the medium changes from virtual environment to IRL film. That being said, our input is not the end of the line for this project, and the artpiece is not complete until Janina has taken what we create and edited it to her vision. We are very excited to see the final result of this, as well as to have collaborated with her and created a virtual environment that can also be used to experience her vision outside of the video format.
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The forest is meant to feel wild and unkempt, as if untouched by humanity, completely natural. The type of plants in the forest are however not entirely the same as those in these reference pictures, but rather were replaced by plants more fitting to the nature of Janina‘s shooting location, to create a more cohesive visual profile for the project.
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Initially, we had thoughts of creating structures in this forest, like those seen on the reference pictures here, but in the end decided against it as this might distract from the other things, as well as clash against the natural focus of the project.
Dream Segment 1
The first dream segment is a lush, vast forest landscape, inspired by forest in Mexico.
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This dream segment is the basis for the non-virtual environment which is to be filmed by Janina herself, as well as being the concept we ran with for the clipping points as entrance and exit to segment 3. It is inspired by the desert in Mozambique, which is also the filming location for Janina. The warm-toned sand is also something that needs to be taken into account when considering the texture at the entrance of the tunnel system, the idea for which also came from the image of these holes in the desert that Janina found, which she had also had recurring dreams about. This desert landscape becomes a stark contrast to the lush forest of the first dreamsegment.Dream Segment 2
These cave systems are inspired by real caves, and when moving into them, you‘re meant to feel how you‘re entering into a restricted space, where the only light is emitted from the tree roots from the forest above - tree roots which glow in a eerie, almost magical blue tone. This uneven, rocky interior opens up from a narrow tunnel system into a slightly bigger central caveroom, in which the roots of the mother tree can be found: On one of these roots, there is the blue apple.
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Dream Segment 3
It is depicted as a sort of cave system, as she described having dreams of moving through holes and tunnels. This cave system is also where the primary action of the project and video takes place: it is the location of a mysterious blue apple, growing from the roots of the mother tree which we saw in the forest, and being a sort of focal point in the storytellling.
This concept of caves with a bluish glow is not entirely unique to this project, nor completely fictional, but rather in part inspired by real life phenomena of bioluminescence in caves , be it from microorganisms or crystals.
The third dream segment is perhaps the least realistic one, and the one where we have been able to take the biggest creative liberties when realizing Janina‘s vision.
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Throughout the project, we had near weekly meetings with Janina about her vision and the direction of the project. Rather than just fulfilling a script for her, she wanted our input as well, both on what would work best from a technical standpoint (what was possible to create, what would be easiest, how the programs work and their limitations, etc.) and on the ideas and creative side of things. During these meetings, initially, we would discuss and brainstorm, and then the further into our project we got, the more this shifted to fine tuning and discussing details and uncertainties.
In addition to meeting up, we also all had a joint Miro board, which we used as a moodboard and a communication platform, as well as a space to create and showcase our presentations for the course so that we had the documentation secured and so that Janina could take part in the process as well.
What was certain from the start was the concept of dreamscapes, and the need for a break from reality and an exploration of the lack of limitations to environments and experiences when dreaming. This, coupled with the clear vision Janina had for how the final product would be constructed (a mix between the analog and the virtual, where the clips she filmed herself would need to be combined with a video of what we created), was the baseline for the project. From there on, we discussed with her about which dream concepts to use, how the clipping points (which were a focal point for the project) would work and what the storyline would be.
Concept Development
Initially, we discussed having a number of different dreamscapes, and creating a split from different worlds where the shift at the clipping points would be quite large, but both because of Janina‘s creative vision and the time limits and general contraints of the project, we ended up limiting it to just two types of environment and one clipping point type, which were the ones mentioned earlier. The sketch and the models seen here are the first drafts of how the environment would look.
This Surface had cutouts for inserts of a 3D-modelled entrance and exit, and was essentially built by splitting it in half and mirroring everything around an open space in the middle, reserved for the mother tree. Said mother tree was then chosen, with extra care being put into modifying and highlighting the roots.
At this point, we had moved from Blender to Unreal Engine, in order to be able to work on this big space as one without overloading our computers. When working with natural environments, especially with plants, the assets and models tend to become very heavy and high poly, which would make the work process endlessly tedious, and which a program like Blender would not be able to support. Therefore, moving to Unreal Engine, we were able to work with the entire environment at once, while using realistic assets and textures, and adding in more parts as the project progressed.
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When the general base concept for this upper plane, i.e. the forest, had been decided, we could move on to modelling other parts and connecting this upper plane, the entrances, and the tunnel system together.
Afrer narrowing down the selection of environments and deciding on a concept, we created storyboards for the sequence of events, and then started formatting how each part would fit together. First we needed to figure out how the general scheme of the area would look, and create a base to which we could add detail and complexity, just to see if the sequencing made sense.
We create an entrance point and an exit point situated on a surface, representative of the forest, in Blender, and added foliage assets to allude to said forest milieu.
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The cave system, in turn, was based on 3D-scan assets of real life cave systems, both to save the huge amount of time creating something like this from scratch would take and to be able to create an environment that is believable and fits together with both the virtual environment and the filmed one.
This cave system scan was also couples with assets of tree roots cutting through it, and realistic textures to imitate rock surface. These first prototypes with the glowing crystals were also using rock like assets that glowed, rather than the proper roots.
This cave system was then duplicated and crossed, with a central cutting point being enlarged to house the cave room for the mother tree roots. As this space would have been entirely devoid of light, this is where the glowing roots fill their purpose. Initially, however, these roots were represented by crystals or plant life all over the walls of the cave rather than actual roots, just to test out how the concept of glowing objects along the walls would work.
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The entrance space was, as mentioned earlier, designed as an inlay for the forst, that would then be connected to the cave scan - essentially, it is not only a clipping point for the video, it is also a connection between the different environments in the virtual space. It starts as a somewhat uneven slope down into a hole, where the ground also acts as a roof one you get into the valley and enter into the actual hole. From the entrance, the mother tree should also be clearly visible and have a direct line of sight. These images (p. 18) show a first draft of what this looked like, working as a trial image just to test the concept. All these assets were then replaced with more realistic and fitting ones,where the entrance was made more organic and uneven, and rock and boulder assets were added to it to create a realistic feel and a smoother transition into the cave.
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Following the creation of the basic structure of the environment, as well as the connection between the three segments (forest, entrance, tunnel), texturing and adding assets were the next step. Finding foliage and plants that both fit together, fit the vibe of the project and match the planned landscape of the video was the natural next step. The same also goes for rock assets and textures. We wanted to create a convincing model of nature, something which, had we tried to create these assets ourselves, would have been next to impossible. Nature and plants are among the most difficult things to model because of their organic shapes and need for Whendetails.having dealt with finding all these assets and placing them in a convincing way on the forest surface, the next sstep would be to adjust the environmental factors to choose the right lighting and physics.
The same thing applied to inside the tunnel as well. The lighting conditions for the roots also needed to be decided, and how they would illuminate the cave scape.
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The lighting conditions we decided for above ground were a soft afternoon sun, which makes the plant life look lush and gives of a sense of warm heat.
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Result
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Now all that is left is looking forward to seeing what Janina makes of it, which we are super excited for, and taking the experiences and lessons learnt from this project with us in our future endeavors.
Final
Following are images from the finished model, complete with trees meant to reflect the look of a more fitting nature to the landscape of the analog shooting location, as well as with roots, rocks and nature looking closer to as intended. When not limited by the capabilities of the computers and programs, ideally, the forest would have been more lush akin to the reference photos provided by Janina, however part of creating projects like this, be it for art or other purposes, is also coming to conclusions about what is possible from the perspective of your own knowledge, talent, and hardware.
The same goes for the inside of the cave - a higher level of detail would have been ideal, as well as more rock like structure of the cave and more or more detailed roots. Aside from this, however, the project turned out very well, and both we and Janina are proud of what we‘ve achieved and recognize that this has been a lot of work that has paid off in the end.
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28 Contact Luca 5.03676295CorominesMastersemester Minna 2.03753913RadakovitsMastersemester
29 Constantin Rifaat 2.03764411Mastersemester
Thank you! MANA
