Internship Report

Virtual Reality Movie ZHJLAB

Internship Report 2015 - 2016

Student: Sandra Yuen Student number: 464474 Internship coache: Ger de Vries Organization: CHECK-IT group 13 Company: ZHJLAB Study: Communication & Multimedia Design School: HAN University of Applied Sciences School year: 2015 - 2016 1

Content

Reflection p22

Preface p5

Context p6

Project and products p8

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Resource list p44

Dynamic of the organisation p20

Similarities and differences in approach between school and business p19

Appendix p24

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Prefase.

Currently, I am studying Communication and Multimedia Design at the HAN University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. I am in order to complete my third year curriculum and I have to conduct a 5 months internship. I have always wanted to do my internship abroad.

Therefore, I have chosen to do my internship abroad, in order to learn and discover other cultures, to gain more experience and knowledge within my major field. I also want to get a sense of the international business world.

to communicate with the people in Xiamen, due to that they only speak Mandarin.

In this internship report I will describe about my experiences during my internship period.

The internship report contains an overview of the internship company, the activities, tasks and projects that I have worked on during my internship. In this report I will also describe and reflect my learning objects and personal goals that I have set during my internship period.

I have chosen Xiamen, China to be my internship location, because my parents are Chinese and I like to know more about the country.

Especially, because China is one of the biggest international business country of the world.

Therefore, I want to experience and develop new skills by working abroad.

At first sight, it seems convenient for me, because I’m also Chinese but that is not the case. My parents are Chinese and we speak Cantonese at home.

However, it is a bit difficult

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Context Check-IT is a partnership between Xiamen University, the University of Leiden and a number of Dutch universities of applied sciences. It offers Dutch and Chinese student the opportunity to work in mixed project groups on assignments for companies and institutions. Due to the special nature of Check-IT and the design of the project work, a stay in China can serve as a work placement or a minor.

Li Jing: Program Coordinator CHECK-IT and International Affairs Secretary, Xiamen University.

The Team.

Students stay in Xiamen for about five months to complete their internship.

A Dutch ‘Resident Teacher’ (David Dankers) guides the course at the Check-IT Center. Furthermore, there are also Chinese teachers present one day per week at the Check- IT Center.

The Check-IT team consists of the following people: Prof.Lin Kunhui: Director of Check-IT, member of the steering committee, and vice-dean of the Software School at Xiamen University.

Drs D. Smeets: Chair of the Check-IT steering committee and director of the HAN Academy for Communication and Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering.

Drs. Jaap de Bie: Member of the steering committee, Senior lecturer at The Hague University of Applied Science.

Prof. Dr J. Kok: Member of the steering committee, Professor at Leiden University.

Drs H. Frencken: Advisor, lecturer at ICLON, Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching.

Yan Zheng: Check-IT project manager, lecturer at Xiamen University.

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Jan Dankers: Head of the Dutch Check-IT project office.

Sophia Kelders: Assistant Check-IT project office.

Check-IT Center.

The Check-IT Center is located at Softwarepark 2, Wanghai Road, building 39 on the fifth floor. It features a large working room, a meeting room, a spacious office for the Dutch Resident Teacher and a spacious office for the Chinese project manager.

Working hours.

At the Check- IT center we work five days a week from 8:30 am till 5:00 pm with a lunch break between 12:00 pm till 13:30 pm. The Chinese students are available four days a week (Monday till Thursday), and sometimes on Friday and in the weekends to compensate their missed out working time.

ZHJLAB Company.

ZHJLAB is established in 2014, it is a professional Virtual Reality content producer. Their current business model is to provide Virtual Reality Room/ Community solution for the real-estate industry. The company currently has 12 employees working at the main office in the Software Park 2 in Xiamen, China. Until 2015, the company has finished 20+ VR Room/Community cases in 10 cities in China, like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Suzhou etc. On September 2015, one VR Room case from ZHJLAB was published into Oculus Share, the biggest VR content platform.

ZHJLAB also initiate an internal studio for VR Story. In the future, ZHJLAB plans to produce consumer VR product as VR mini film and VR game.

In the end of 2015 ZHJLAB will launch its first VR movie.

The Non- Interaction Virtual Reality project is being organized by the company ZHJLAB. ZHJLAB is our company that we are working for. It is a small company with about 12 employees working at the main office in the Software Park 2 in Xiamen, China.

ZHJLAB creates Virtual Reality applications for the real-estate

market and wishes to expand into other Virtual Reality experiences with us in this project.

ZHJLAB project.

Our team will be working together with ZHJLAB to create ZHJLAB’s first Virtual Reality story/ experience, it will be created in the game development engine “Unreal Engine”.

Thus the whole story will be made up from computer graphics which will be designed by the 2 designated designers in our team.

The final product will be delivered in January 2016. We will deliver the completed Non- Interaction Virtual Reality story parts and possible supporting documents about design decisions and our interaction research.

The team of this project consists of 4 students: Carlos Lubbers, Sandra Yuen, Xiaoyuan (Leila) Peng and Bingqing (Kris) Luo. This team will be responsible for completing the project according to the requirements. The team will be led by Carlos Lubbers.

The project owner of this project is Luke Chen, he is the CMO at ZHJLAB. Furthermore, Frank Bloemendal is our production designer for the project.

He is the director of the story/ movie and he is also responsible for the overall look of the movie. He must select the settings and style to visually tell the story.

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Project and products Organization This project is being organized by the company ZHJLAB. ZHJLAB creates Virtual Reality applications for the realestate market and wishes to expand into other Virtual Reality experiences with us in this project.

Project Goals For the team to deliver a proper final product, we have a concrete goal: Our team will be publishing ZHJLAB’s first prototype VR story in January 2016.

Project role In general I am a designer of the project of my internship. The project is about creating a Virtual Reality movie, but before creating the Virtual Reality project, I have to do some trainings to develop my designing skills.

In this paragraph I will further describe three sub-products that I have created during my internship period. These sub-products are linked to the skills that I have learned in my previous Game semester at the HAN University. The Game semester is the only semester that is related to my internship, because the project is also made by a game software called Unreal Engine that I have worked with during my semester.

Proceedings My internship is divided into two parts, the first part of the training assignment lasts for about two months.

The second part is about creating the real project called Fermi’s Successor into a virtual reality movie.

In the beginning of the internship we as the VR team have received an assignment as a training from our company. This assignment doesn’t have any requirements in the beginning, 8

because this is like a test for the whole team to get familiar with the software that we are going to use for the real project Fermi’s Successor. There is only one thing that the company requires, is that the assignment needs to be created with the software called Unreal Engine.

Because the real project Fermi’s Successor needs to be created in the Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine is primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genre, including stealth, MMORPGs and other RPGs. Therefore, this software is the best software for creating a virtual reality movie, because nowadays Unreal Engine has developed a new feature with Oculus Rift. With this feature you can run your game or movie in a virtual reality mode.

During my training’s week we have created a virtual reality demo called Candy Island, which is a training to get familiar with the Unreal Engine and to test out our knowledge and skills like I mentioned before. After we have finished our first version of our Candy Island, the company requires us to upgrade our demo. We have built the Candy Island in a cartoon style, which everything looks cartoonish. The company requires the demo to be like realistic, this means that we needed to change every cartoon object into realistic object. The manager of the company also told us if we cannot meet the requirements to turn the Candy Island into a realistic Candy Island, we are not allowed to attend the Fermi’s Successor project. Therefore, we have worked as hard as possible to meet the requirements of the company and we have passed the test to attend the Fermi’s Successor project. In the next sub-paragraph I will specify the requirements that need to be

accomplished before attending Fermi’s Successor project.

In the last two months of my internship I have worked very hard on the Fermi’s Successor project.

This project is a totally new project and it’s also a new product line of ZHJLAB Real Estate Company. The company already asked another company to make a script for them and I worked according to what is written in the script. The director (Frank Bloemendal) of the project divided the script into 5 scenes and told us that we won’t have enough time to finish all 5 scenes, but, try to work till where we can get. Therefore, we can only do as much as we could to realize a prototype for the company.

At the end, we as a team managed to completely finish the first and the second scene of the movie. It is still a prototype, but 60 to 70 percent of work has already been done by us for the final version. The quality of the objects need to be changed in both scenes before the final version.

In the next sub- paragraph I will specify my task that I have done for the Fermi’s Successor project and according to which competences/ indicators my tasks are.

Training’s week assignment: Candy Island Sub-product: Storytelling.

Sub-product: Storytelling.

For the Candy Island I have created the storyline. It’s because I am the only designer that know a about storytelling, like I mentioned before, I took the task to create the storyline for our Candy Island.

At first, my team didn’t know what to do, because our project owner told us that we need to build a demo so he can test out our skills. There weren’t any requirements requested to build the demo, like for example what subject or what kind of style do we need to use, everything is invented

by ourselves. Everything was possible and then I suggested my team to begin with a storyline. Without a storyline is difficult to begin or to start building something. Therefore, I use the same structure that I have learned from the Game semester and used it for our Candy Island. First I have discussed with my team about certain subjects that might be simple but nice and easy to create in the Unreal Engine. The following step that I took is to brainstorm or making some mind maps about the subject that we as a team have chosen. After brainstorming the whole subject or idea, I told them that we need to make a story for our subject that we already have agreed with. The storyline is very short, because the project owner requires 1:00 to 1:30 minutes of scene. My idea is to create a short mystery storyline, because it is very difficult to create a storyline for that short of time. If the story is too complicated, there will be a lot of work to do and if it too simple it doesn’t show much of our work or skills. Therefore, I suggest to make a short discover mystery story. When there is a storyline it seems like there is a base to begin with. My team has followed the storyline like a “base” to create the Candy Island.

Because, if we have a storyline, the following steps will be easier to understand and to build. I also told them that we cannot build something out of nowhere, but that doesn’t sounds well and it’s also unprofessional. Even though it is a test demo I want to make the best out of it. For an overview about the storyline that I made for the Candy Island you can find it in the appendix under the name “Candy Island Storyline”.

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Fermi’s Successor movie The most important part of a movie is the script, because it contains phrases of the narrator. From the script we need to analyze and create a proper storyline. Analyzing the script isn’t easy as it looks like, because from the script I need to make a logical storyline to unfold the scene.

The script is divided into 5 scenes, like I mentioned before and my task is to create a logical storyline for each scenes. In each scene, I need to design the environment, the actions, objects, atmosphere and many more.

In short, you can say I need to come up with the basic idea/story of the scene. From the basic idea/story I need to deepen into the details, like for example in scene 03 is about time traveling. How does the alien activate to go time travel? What kind of effect does it have when time traveling is activated? How does the user notice that the environment is time traveling? Why do we need time traveling? What is the time period to time travel? All of these questions need to be answered before completing a storyline of a scene.

Therefore, a storyteller needs to know how to fold and unfold a scene.

To have a better view of my storyline of each scene I refer to my Design Doc Time Traveling document in the appendix.

This part of sub-product is connected with the following skills that I have learned in my Game semester, Game Play, Dev2.1 The student can give a global description of a movie (game) to be developed, wherein goal, story line, and type of game play are treated. Game Art, Ana2.1 The student shows by means of case of study that she can analyse the narrative elements of a movie (game). Dev2.1 The student uses a personal and creative appraoch to create “internal” logic in a story.

Rea2.3 The student is able to briefly 10

describe her theses pieces in the sense of context interpretation.

Besides of creating a proper storyline I also need to create a storyboard for each scene. Storyboard is actually a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. From the storyboard the programmers can see what the actions or movements are in that scene. Besides of the storyboard I have also created several floor plans. A floor plan is a drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces and other physical features at one level of a structure. Dimensions are usually drawn between the walls to specify room sizes and wall lengths. In the floor plans also include details of fixtures like sinks, water heaters, furnaces, etc.

Usually a floor plan include notes for construction to specify finishes, construction methods.

The most important thing is to scale everything correctly in the floor plan, so the level designers can see where to position everything on what scale. I can say this was my biggest challenge during my internship, because it was not easy to have everything correctly on scale. We are working on virtual reality scene, this means everything is different when you test it out on virtual reality mode. I need to measure every object that will be placed in the scene, however the programmers can also scale the objects in the Unreal Engine but then it take too much time to have it correctly. Every single object that I have imagined, I need to measure the size of the object and the distance between the object with another object. This is my first time creating a virtual reality scene and

the size is very important to have it correctly. I have tried to use the actual realistic size of an object like for example a hill is around 50 meters high. In the virtual reality it doesn’t look that big and actually it is very small. That is why this is the biggest challenge of my internship.

For a better idea of my floor plans and storyboards you can find them in the appendix list under the name “Storyboard” and “Floor plans”.

This part of sub-product is connected with the following skills that I have learned in my Game semester, Game Play Dev2.6 The student can describe in detail movie element, giving exact description of interaction and rules.

After making storyboards, I also created mood board for each scene.

From the mood boards I want to illustrate my imagination and idea how the scene will look like. The mood board also gives a look and feel of the scene.

Here below is a mood board that I have made for the “Ancient Forest” in scene 03.

The mood board illustrates the scene will take place in the forest. Based on the high rocks with big trees in the mood board you can notice it is an ancient forest. The wild and extinct animals also indicate the time period is like a million years ago. Furthermore, there is also a caveman in the image and cavemen give an indication that the setting took place more like thousands of years ago. Deep in the forest, it looks very mysterious, because of the fog is covering most of the trees.

This part of sub-product is connected with the following skill that I have learned in my Game semester, Game Play Dev2.5 The student can give an impression of the “looks” and atmosphere of the movie through moodboards and other graphical aids.

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and have very high technology. The black crystals around their body provides power to give them mind control power. For example, they can fly in the air and lift object without touching them.

Profile: Name: Slayon Location: Taunican System Planet: Zebilia Height: 2m - 3m tall Skin color: Grey This type of alien come from another galaxy located in the Taunican System.

Their planet is called Zebilia and it is very far away from the Milky Way galaxy. The planet has an extremely cold climate. Zibilia planet has many mountains and surrounded with black crystals. You can see they use the black crystal on their armor, because these black crystals give them extra power. These aliens are very strong and base on the black crystals they have several mystery force or power.

His appearance is similar with our human kind, but still a bit different.

He has two medium eyes which sit tightly in their sockets and can often make them appear to be evil. Their eyesight is a little bigger than the human race. They also have a small mouth and a little wide nose.

The color of their skin is greyish, strong and thick. They are very smart 12

Slayon is like a kind of soldier in their country. He is nominated by the king of their race to take the mission to search for another planet, because he is very brave, strong and has the courage to accomplish the mission.

Therefore, the king ask him to travel far away in the space to search for a new planet, that later might be their home planet. The king knows that one day their planet will be vanished and destroyed by a big star called “Nubia”. This big star is similar to the sun of our planet “The Earth”. It is a spherical ball of hot plasma, with internal convective motion that generates a magnetic field via a dynamo process. Nubia is approaching to Zebilia planet day by day faster and one day Nubia will destroy Zebilia.

This character creation is made for the Fermi’s Successor movie. By designing the character I used the Maretzky method that I have learned in my previous semester to create this character. Maretzky is a good method to know what you are going to create. It’s a method to describe your character in details. Like for example knowing his background and name is a really important part. From the description you can tell what kind of person he is.

I didn’t have enough time to create a character like this in the training’s week, because the character for the Candy Island is a first person shooter. The audience cannot see the character selves, but in the Fermi’s Successor it is different. The alien will be seen by the audience in the first scene and therefore a character description is necessary. The audience can judge by the appearance of the alien, if it is coming for peace or to destroy.

This part of sub-product is connected with the following skills that I have learned in my Game semester, Game Art, Dev2.2 The student can describe story character in words and elaborate on them. Dev2.3 The student creates imagery for her character.

Dev2.5 The student can experiment with composite (existing) characters and/or symbols, and thus create metaphorical imagery.

Besides all of these I have created some storyboards for scene 03 Time traveling. A storyboard is a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence.

To have an overview of the storyboards that made see the appendix list under the name “Storyboards scene 03”.

This part of sub-product is connected with the following skills that I have learned in my Game semester, Game Art, Rea2.1 The student is able to state in an easily inderstandable and exciting manner some actions, acts, expressions of his characters in word and image.

Furthermore, I have designed a poster for scene 02. This poster is just a part of the scene 02, it’s the view of the environment when the audience lands on the ground. Here below you can the poster that I have created.

It is a wasteland, because the Earth has been destroyed by the human and after some years the city become like this. The human has destroyed the planet by nuclear bombs. Everything has died on Earth and the climate has become warmer and warmer, just like a dessert. You can notice that the climate is very hot by the color range in the picture and you can see everything is already destroyed. Far in the distance you can see a city, where all the buildings are collapsed and ruined. The human has destroyed the Earth so badly that after years and years the surface of the Earth has magma fissures.

This part of sub-product is connected with the following skills that I have learned in my Game semester, Game Art, Rea2.2 The student is able to “catch” her desired look and feel in one ultimate applicable image.

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Training’s week assignment: Candy Island Sub-product: Modeling.

For the Candy Island I have created several 3D models, like 3D candies and cupcakes by using the software 3Ds Max. I have some experience with 3Ds Max, because I have learned that in my previous Game semester. My skills in 3D design is not on a high level and this time was a good moment to further develop my skills in 3D modeling. I am really interested in developing my skills in Polygon modelling, because what I know is just the basic steps to create a low poly 3D model. There are several designer colleagues of the ZHJLAB Company who taught me some techniques that I didn’t know about.

For example, the model needs to have connected edge, this means every edge should loop around the model, otherwise you will have several small pieces that you need to connect them together manually. Sometimes, when I use the Unwrap UVW tool it doesn’t unwrap the model like I want it. This time my colleague teach me different ways to

have it correctly. You can say it is difficult, but it is also easy when you get through the settings. It’s all about knowing which settings or tools to use for what kind of model.

The first step of making a 3D model is to sketch out the 3D object that I want to create and the next step is to create a low poly 3D model in 3Ds Max software.

Here below are some sketches that I made for the Candy Island before creating 3D models. To view all of my sketches and 3D models I refer you to the appendix list.

Making the 3D models was not very difficult, but putting the texture on was a challenge for me. To make the texture looks perfect on the 3D model in the Unreal Engine, it needed quite some work and time to have it correctly and at the quality that I want. The Unreal Engine works somehow a bit different when importing the 3D models, because it changes everything and I need to check what is causing the problem. There were

several times that I had to fix my 3D models in 3Ds Max, because there were overlapping UVs. Therefore, I need to repair that several times in the 3Ds Max software and import them back again in the Unreal Engine. I have also created the textures by myself with Photoshop, by saving the UV and paint it in Photoshop. You can find all the 3D models and the textures that I have created in the appendix list under the name “3D models”.

After finishing the model, I need to export the file from 3Ds Max into a FBX file so it can be imported as an object in the Unreal Engine. Exporting

the model is not that easy, because before exporting, I need to make sure every settings is correctly selected.

For example, the model needs to be aligned in the center, otherwise the object will be flying in the air when importing it into Unreal Engine. The pivot needs to be down in the center of the object, so it can be placed right on the ground when importing it in the Unreal Engine. Furthermore, the object needs to be exported with upaxis z-up, this means the object needs to be face up like you model it in the 3Ds Max.

3D Ice cream

Texture

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Fermi’s Successor movie

my appendix list.

During the making for the Fermi’s Successor project I didn’t create that many 3D models like in the training’s week, because my task as a designer for this project is only storytelling and sketching out every ideas. Even though modeling wasn’t my main task, I have still created 2 low poly spaceships for our first prototype version.

I were wondering how other 3D designer can create such great complex 3D model from one box or planes, but it seems like I was wrong. To create a complex 3D model, it doesn’t need to be created from just one box, but with several other separates boxes and modify them to the shape you want. As last you need to attach them together as one object. Once again I have learned something new in my internship. To view my 2 low poly spaceships and sketches I refer you to

This part of sub-product is connected with the following skills that I have learned in my Game semester, 3D Modeling Dev2.6 The student makes sketches of an object that she wants to create as a 3D object. The student makes a front view and a side view that can be used as a blue print in 3D. Rea2.5 The student can create texture for a 3D model and she can apply the texture to the model. Rea2.4 The student creates ‘planes’ in 3D software from sketches and build a low poly 3D model. Rea2.6 The student can export a finished 3D model for use in a game engine and import this product into the Unreal Engine level.

Side view

3D Spaceship export

front view

3D Hallway

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Training’s week assignment: Candy Island Sub-product: Unreal Engine Besides creating 3D models, I also designed the environment in Unreal Engine.

To create a realistic scene is not only about realistic objects, but the light is the most important part of an immersive scene. For our Demo I needed to create a realistic scene by placing realistic 3D models in the right place. The placing of the object needs to be in a logical way, like for example a realistic forest. In the forest there will be trees, grasses, flowers and stones. These are like the basic objects that will be used when you think about a forest. What else would you think, if you want to make it realistic?

Well, to create a realistic scene, there are many other things to think about and to adjust before it becomes a realistic scene. For the forest in our Demo, I have placed movable trees, just to create the effect of wind blowing at the trees and grasses. Furthermore, a forest needs to be a bit foggy, because a forest is a little bit moist. Lights and shadows are very important to create a realistic scene. Therefore, I have tried with different settings for the lights before I got it correctly.

The light needs to be in the right position where the sun actually is, it’s more like you can tell what time this scene is being created when you look at the sunshine light of the sky.

At last, I did correct and have the right position of light for our Demo.

Everyone liked the scene, because it looks very realistic.

On the right side of the page are several screenshots of the environments that I have designed for the Candy Island. In these screenshots you can also see the enhancement of light and shadows to create a realistic view.

Furthermore, there is no need to export the project into a different file for virtual reality mode. The Unreal Engine has a plug-in where you need to download it and you can play it in the virtual reality mode with your helmet connected and installed on the computer. There is like something similar to export the project so other people can also play it on their own computer and that we called “package the project”. Packaging the project is very easy, just go to “File”, “package project”, “windows”, “windows 64bit” and the package is done for virtual reality mode without running the Unreal Engine software.

This part of sub-product is connected with the following skills that I have learned in my Game semester, Modeling Rea2.7 The student can creates a complex scene using various 3D objects. Game Play Rea2.1 The student shows in the Unreal Engine demolevel her mastery of the following basic skills for level design, by having working items in his/her level for the following: geometry with materials, static meshes, lighting, movers, triggers, skydome, terrain with decolayers and volumes.

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Fermi’s Successor movie

In the galaxy

Like I mentioned before in the first paragraph, my main task is storytelling for this project. This means I didn’t work with Unreal Engine in the last two months. I do test out every upgraded version of our prototype to make sure the environment, scaling, positioning, speed effect and so on are correctly like I have designed the scene.

Spaceship hallway

Spaceship control room, holograms

Similarities and differences in approach between school and business.

This paragraph is about the similarities and differences between school learning and business practices. At school we usually work on the assignments that we get from our teacher. Most of the time the assignment is very detailed written and we can proceed our work without any problem. In the business practices, it is a bit different from school. The main difference is about clients changing the assignment that they have already given to the company to work on. From this point of view, it’s a risk working in the business world, compared to school. I see this as a challenge to work in the smart or the flexible way to avoid or to solve the problem when the assignment has changed. It is also a risk for us as employers to proceed with the work/ assignment, because we will not be able to make it before deadline.

Some people have told me, what you have learned at school will not be used in the business world, however this isn’t true. I have applied or used every skills that I have learned at school in the business practice.

The process of work in the business world is quite similar compare to our school work. For example work process that needs to be done before designing a 3D model is almost the same. In my previous Game semester I learned that I need to do research about the subject and the object that I am going to make first. The next step is to brainstorm about ideas for the object and then follow up with a mood board for the object. The final step before creating or designing is to make some drawings/sketches so the idea become in shape. All of these steps

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are similar what I have learned from school in the Game semester. Actually, at school all of these steps will be documented in a Design document.

Furthermore, doing the research is also the same as what I have learned in the CAVI semester, like for example what kind of research and how do I need to research about the subject is also documented in the Research document like what we did at school.

However, in the business practice we don’t need to document those steps, because all of these steps are just for yourself to have a structural process to your final product.

At school we need to write down every details about the idea of the design or the design choices that was made.

In the business practice, it doesn’t require a report for all of that, the only part that the client will worry about is the final product. If the client likes it, then I will continue with my work. Another difference between school and business practice is that we will go out and visit the client. This is a good experience to visit and to have meeting somewhere else which is not in a classroom.

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Dynamics of the organization.

Sometimes, we have misunderstandings at school that lead to a difficult situation to proceed the project/ assignment. In the business world it is also the same, because we all could misunderstand each other, therefore I will describe two situation that I have been through. To give a better explanation on the situations, I will use the STAR method to describe them.

The STAR method is a structured manner of responding to a behavioral-based interview question by discussing the specific situation, task, action, and result of the situation you are describing.

Situation 1 We as a team of two designers and two programmers were accepted by the company ZHJLAB to research about Virtual Reality Interaction scenes.

However, that was not the situation, because later on we were told to make a demo/assignment. The purpose of the demo/assignment was very unclear, because after a few weeks working on the demo/assignment, the manager Han told us that if our demo/assignment is not up to level, then we cannot take part of the real project. The real project is to create a Non-Interaction Virtual Reality movie.

The first project we had, was to create a demo scene with the software Unreal Engine. This project doesn’t have any requirements, this means it’s a totally free project. We can do whatever we want, like for example the subject and theme are free to create.

I had the task to create a storyline for our demo and to create 3D models, because I am the only designer in our team that have some knowledge about storytelling.

of creating the demo. During the meeting with Han the manager, I asked him politely what the purpose of the demo is. I also told him that this isn’t what we have expected, because at first we were told that the project will be a research project on Interaction Virtual Reality and now it has become creating a NonInteraction Virtual Reality movie. Han our manager answered me very politely that the project had been changed and that he forgot to tell us about it.

After all, he told us what the purpose were for us to create the Demo. The demo was for him to test out our skills and our skills as designers and programmers. Han was sorry about the misunderstanding and he proceeded with the details that we needed to build the demo/movie. I have accepted what he said and begin to understand the tasks for the Demo. Therefore, I have tried my best to put all my knowledge and skills that I have learned, in the Demo.

I think my behavior on this situation was good, because I didn’t got stressed out or got angry. Actually, I was very stressed out about the real project, because if the demo was for nothing I have wasted my time working on something that was not even important, but I didn’t think or react that way. I took this situation as a challenge when some situation changes suddenly you need to learn how to deal with it, instead of being anger or negative. I choose to be open and accepted the challenge that I was facing on. Therefore, I did my best to show Han our manager what my skills are in our demo.

Situation 2 The second situation that I have been through is about working with my Chinese colleague Leila. We as two designers of the team are responsible for all the design work. This means that we need to do all the design tasks for the movie that we are going to make. Design tasks includes also storytelling, like sketching and drawing concepts. Storytelling is also about studying the script and knowing every details of the scene. Therefore, we need to start making a storyboard for the first scene. In the beginning Leila didn’t know what a storyboard is about. So, I need to teach and tell her what the meaning of a storyboard is and why it is an important part before creating 3D models and others tasks. During the making of the storyboard we had some discussions and disagreement with each other, because we had different ideas and point of view. Almost at the end of the storyboard, we had a big discussion with each other. The discussion was about misunderstanding each other. She doesn’t understand what I mean and she thinks that I don’t understand what she means. We were discussing about the transition of the first scene to the second scene.

can understand, but still that didn’t work out. Till the end of the day she still didn’t understand what I mean.

I was telling myself to give her some time and maybe she can understand later.

I told and explain my opinion to her, but it seems like she doesn’t understand what I mean. She tries to explain her opinion to me like I don’t understand what she means. It’s very complicated and confused, because we both want to explain to each other our point of view of the problem instead of listen to each other. After the discussion I was very stressed out and a bit frustrated because she doesn’t understand my point. For the whole explaining process I tried to be calm and make some more effort like explaining in details to her so she

I have learned in this situation to give other people the chance and the space to understand what she/he didn’t experienced before.

Well, actually what I did, turned out good, because she came to me the next day at work and explain to me that she understood what I had told her last time about the transition of the scene was not good. She explain it to me that her point of view was a technique for a real camera movie, while I mean is about camera transition for Virtual Reality isn’t good. The difference between me and Leila was, one was based on real technique and the other one was based on the point of view from the audience as Virtual Reality audience.

In this situation I think it could be better instead of arguing or discussing the problem for hours. That was a disadvantage for our project, because time is important. I could just tell her my opinion and if she didn’t understand let her think about it for a while, instead of keep arguing or explaining while she cannot understand it on that moment.

I was very calm, but still very confused about what is the purpose 20

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Reflection.

One of the good occasion is that we have a friendly team leader, he always supports us and help us out when we have problems. I have told him once that he needs to take the role as team leader more seriously. He needs to ask more about others tasks and what the other team members have been doing in the last days or weeks. It’s more like he needs to keep updated about the tasks or situation that is going on in the team. I saw that he took my advice and improve his role as the team leader, because he sometimes asks us what we are doing or going to do for today or for the upcoming weeks. I think that was good, because the team leader accepted what I have told him.

There is another occasion about miscommunicating with the Chinese colleagues in the team. There was a period of time that I tried to explain to my colleague that she needs to start to learn how to work with the software 3Ds Max, because our company is also working with that software. It will be very convenient if she learn how to work with that software, because if we encountered some problem, our colleagues from the company can help us easily. She didn’t do what I have asked her to do, because she was still working with another software. In that case, I think I should be more patient with people around me or especially when I am working in a team. Being impatient is my weakest point I think, because I can get very frustrated when people doesn’t understand my point of view. So, in this occasion I really have learned to be more patient with people. I have realized that, because I have stopped pushing her to do stuffs and then she did it by herself later on the next week or days. Well, not every one of us are perfect, we need to give each other the space 22

and chance to learn. Not everyone has the same speed in learning or understanding each other.

There was also another occasion about discussing or arguing during the process of the project. We as two designers in the project need to work together and I mean not only helping each other but also understand each other ideas. Both of us are trying to convince each other to understand why this or that design is better than the other one, but I realize this is not the way it has to be done. I was frustrated about the situation at the end of the day, then I have realized that my colleague is very calm and she didn’t get frustrated about our discussion. From that moment I realized that I can get frustrated very easily and this is not a professional behavior to handle situation like this. I can learn from her how to be patient and not to get upset when arguing with other people, because both of us want to do the task the right way. The only way is that our thoughts are different and that I need to accept, because we are not the same. We need to understand for each other. I did learn how to overcome with some arguing without being upset or frustrated for the whole day. To learn it is very difficult, because that is who I am and how I usually do.

I am still learning from my colleagues on how to overcome certain occasions.

This is a good point for me to learn about.

I can say I am really satisfied with my team, even though we had some misunderstanding with each other, but we really had a great teamwork. My team was working quite well, because every one of us know their tasks.

Sometimes, we also help each other with their tasks when other team members has encountered a problem. I can say that I have never had a so great teamwork before in my previous projects. All of the team members they listen to your opinion and they respect your point even if they didn’t agree, we as team will come up with a solution to solve our problems.

Working with the Chinese students was quite a challenge for me, because they don’t really understand English. I can say they understand English, but most of the time I needed to explain in a simple short phrases so they can understand easily. After working awhile with the team, I realize the teamwork is getting better than before, because every work process was going very smooth and ordinary.

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Appendix.

3D models

Candy Island storyline Candy Island Demo Storyline There is marine who just woke up at the beach. He looks confuse and also lost. He stands up and look around, he is on an island. This island looks a bit strange, because he is never been here before. He sees a forest and walks into the forest. The forest is foggy.

The marine can barely sees his own hands, but he keeps on walking through the forest.

Suddenly there is a strong, bright light shining through the trees. He walks forward and uses both hands to seperate the leaves so he can see what is going on there. The marine is shocked and freezes for several seconds. He is surprised what he is looking at.

He just find an entire different world in the middle of the forest. This little world is surrounded with water. everything on that land is made of candies. There are so many candy trees and there is also a candy house. The marine walks through the candy land and stands in front of the candy house. He is starring at it like he wants to eat it immediatly, because he is very hungry. Meanwhile, it begins to rain, but it is not just rain of water drops. It’s candy rain, alot of tiny and big candies are falling from the sky. The marine starts to run to avoid the big candies falling from the sky on him. Finally he got out of the candy land and forest. He is back on the beach and sees a bamboo raft floating on the shallow water. The marine walks to the bamboo raft and jumps on it to see if it is stable or not.

The raft is stable and he is thinking to use this raft to escape from this mystery island.

Synopsis of the Candy Island There is a marine who woke up unconsciously on an unknown island. The marine has discovered a secret about the island. It looks like a normal island, but there is something special about it. He discovered a Candy land at the center of the island. The Candy land is surrounded by water, so it’s an island in an island. It seems like someone has lived there before, because there is a house in the center of the Candy land. The house is surrounded by big candies, ice creams and cupcakes. It’s a whole different world, because it even rain candies. The marine passes through the Candy land and finally find his way back to the beach and left the mystery island.

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Textures

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Sketches

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Storyboards

Complete storyboard for scene 01

A part of storyboard for scene 03

This scene begins foggy and the fog slowly fades away.

The audience is in the ancient forest, surrounded with many trees and there is a creek on the right side. The 4 pods are flying up in the air while they are connected with a laser light together. There is a background birds sound effect.

There is a caveman standing next to the creek and he noticed that the audience appears.

There is a caveman walk to the audience and stares for a couple of seconds.

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art of storyboard for scene 02

Moodboards

art of storyboard for scene 04

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Mindmaps

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Floorplans

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Holograms

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Resources.

Swinburne University of Technology (z.d.). Star.

Accessed on 10 October 2015 of http://www.swinburne.edu.au/corporate/careers/emerging-leaders-award/star.html Confused (2014, 17 February). Improve 3Ds max modeling.

Accessed on 9 October 2015 of http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/27199/some-ideas-to-improve-myskill-in-3ds-max-modeling Unreal Engine (z.d.). Running stand alone game.

Accessed on 29 September 2015 of https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Platforms/VR/CheatSheet/index. html#runningastandalonegame Unreal Engine (z.d.). Unreal Engine level design.

Accessed on 29 September 2015 of https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/QuickStart/index.html

Virtual Reality Site (z.d.). What is virtual reality.

Accessed on 10 October 2015 of http://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/what-is-virtual-reality.html Steven James (2011, 7 March). Great storytelling.

Accessed on 12 November 2015 of http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-first-chapterget-started/3-secrets-to-great-storytelling Sean Buvala (z.d.). Storyteller.

Accessed on 12 November 2015 of http://www.storyteller.net/articles/296 Ffion Lindsay (2014, 28 November). Storytelling techniques.

Accessed on 14 December 2015 of http://www.sparkol.com/engage/8-classic-storytelling-techniques-for-engagingpresentations/

Bryan Bishop (2015, 26 January). First movie from Oculus.

Accessed on 28 October 2015 of http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/26/7919177/oculus-lost-virtual-reality-film-sundance Carolyn Giardina (2015, 24 September). The Martian virtual reality.

Accessed on 22 November 2015 of http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/oculus-connect-martian-islatest-827155 MICHAEL CIEPLY (2015, 20 November). The Martian virtual reality.

Accessed on 22 November 2015 of http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/21/business/media/martian-trailer-in-virtualreality-is-released.html?_r=0 Steve Meretzky (2001, 20 November). Storytelling Meretzky.

Accessed on 22 November 2015 of http://www.gamasutra.com/resource_guide/20011119/meretzky_01.htm Wikipedia (z.d.). virtual reality.

Accessed on 9 October 2015 of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality Jonathan Strickland (z.d.). How virtual reality works.

Accessed on 9 October 2015 of http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/other-gadgets/virtual-reality.htm Margaret Rouse (2015, May). Virtual reality.

Accessed on 9 October 2015 of http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/virtual-reality

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