CINE1102 2017-18 Animation Studio: Research

CINE1102 2017-18 Animation Studio: Research

Introduction:

For this project, I would like to create an interactive animated experience. Instead of simply being an animated video that viewers view from a controlled perspective, viewers have control of how the animation is viewed and could potentially interact with it. There are three fields I have been researching and testing; augmented reality for mobile devices, Virtual reality using devices like the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift and finally gyroscope technology in mobile devices. The aim of this project is to produce an animated experience that is immersive and provides an experience just watching an animation could not.

Ideas:

What are my interests?

When thinking of ideas I'd like to pursue and develop, I considered what my interests are and how they could translate into this project. My main interests are video games and their development, animation and technology; conceptualising ideas that involve these interests was relatively simple as I have experience with both AR and VR and a project developed for those platforms

Is it interesting?

Secondly, I need to consider whether the ideas are interesting and if it's something I feel would challenge me and develop me skill-set. While I could have decided just to create a 3D animation using Autodesk Maya, I decided to challenge myself and learn by developing for VR or AR.

Is it achievable?

Finally, when pursuing ideas that are outside my area of experience, I must contemplate whether I can realistically and successfully see the idea to completion. If I decide to work in a group, any idea becomes significantly more achievable due to working with people with various skill-sets.

Initial Ideas:

Augmented/Virtual Reality

My first idea was a project that involves augmented reality or virtual reality. For augmented reality a lot of concepts were considered, such as what platform and augmented reality system I would use, and the complications involved with them. As mentioned above, Google's augmented reality platform, ARCore, has not been released for my mobile device, meaning developing for it will not be possible at the time of writing. Developing for Apple's ARKit would be possible if working in a group due to possible members owning an iPhone.

Originally, I sought to use augmented reality to develop a simple application that could be used to view an animated scene from any perspective the user desires. As my only experience with animation was with scenes where I am in control of the camera, I wanted to explore animation ideas that could make immersive use of the user being in control of their perspective, viewing it from any angle, while still involving my focus, animation. This scene could have involved anything, from just a simple fight scene, to anything I'd find interesting.

For virtual reality the concept of the user being in control of their perspective is the same, except the virtual reality user would have a more immersive experience if they were inside the scene, instead of viewing it from the outside. Making use of video game engines, interactive elements could be possible using controllers, conventional console controllers or VR motion controllers like the Oculus Touch or the HTC Vive controllers. Interactive elements could include moving objects or throwing them at characters who would react to them in an immersive way. This would be a challenging concept that tests my animation skillset and as such I would ideally prefer to use virtual reality.


Complex Character modelling, rigging and animation project

As an animator, working with character rigs is an essential part of the animation process. To further develop my skill-set, I considered going through the entire character creation process to challenge myself. While I do have experience modelling characters with a low polygon count and limited texture work, I've never tried to model, rig, and animate a photorealistic character who could be used in a video game. While modelling isn't my focus as an animator, rigging and creating a control rig for the character is the main focus of this project.

Character animation project

Finally, a more conventional animation project that involves animating a voiced scene with characters. Most of my animation experience revolves around animating for video games or animating dialogue of single characters; as such I would use this idea as a change to focus entirely on animating a full scene involving interaction between characters.

Initial background research:

Augmented reality:

- Google hasn't released ARKit for every device yet - end of next year release planned.

- Allows viewer to view from the outside.

Augmented reality is a field that has grown increasingly popular in a short amount of time, seeing use in hugely successful apps like Pokemon GO and Snapchat. These apps use augmented reality to display characters on surfaces that the user can interact with. Pokemon GO, developed by Niantic and released on the 6th of July 2016 smashed expectations by reaching the top of the iOS and Android app stores and earning $1.6 million dollars a day on iTunes within it's first week. Not only did Pokemon GO's success expose the world to augmented reality, it demonstrated how powerful even a basic implementation of augmented reality can be in improving the user's experience and immersion. The app's integration of augmented reality is little more than positioning characters in the real world via the camera, but this paired with the player's position being tracked at all times provided a  experience that had never been seen before.

Google have been publicly interested in augmented reality for many years now with their 2014 augmented reality computing platform, Tango, that saw a small release on select devices for researchers and software developers and have begun focusing on a consumer implementation of the technology in the form of ARCore to complete with Apple's ARKit. Google's ARCore has seen a small scale release on select Android devices, those being the Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8, with expectations that 100 million Android devices will be AR ready by the end of 2017, and hundreds of mllions by the end of 2018.

Virtual reality:

- Allows viewer to watch from within the scene.

- HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are expensive and would be difficult to develop for.

- The most immersive option.

Virtual reality is a concept that has existed for many years in many different forms, with the most recent and most popular being the consumer releases of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, the two biggest kits on the virtual reality market. 2014 was a landmark year for virtual reality and saw the purchase of Oculus VR by Facebook, the announcement of Google Cardboard and even the announcement of Sony's virtual reality project that would eventually become PlayStation VR.

Gyroscope/360-degree video:

360-degree videos have become increasingly popular recently with Facebook and Youtube integration on mobile devices and any hardware that has gyroscope technology. It allows viewer to watch from within the scene with limited immersion but with the same appeal of being able to view a video how you want. 360-degree videos are not just limited to mobile devices but also VR headsets and mobile VR kits, making this option the most available and cheapest option. With the release of Google Cardboard immersion can still be achieved without needing an expensive VR headset, however this option lacks any interactivity, at least if it is just a video and, if Google Cardboard is used, means that interaction will be awkward due to the mobile device always being mounted on the user's face.

- Safest option with least risk, options include simple playing a 360 degree video or setting up an unreal engine animation that allows for gyroscopic camera control

Documentation Research:

In order to efficiently learn how to work on these projects, I will have to rely on documentation on the software I will be using; as such, it is very important that I see how extensive documentation is as this will be a significant influence on what project I pursue. Epic Games have an extensive library of VR documentation available on their site, making pursuing a project in VR far more realistic.

Further consideration:

Can the software run on my device?

As with all experimental technologies, there comes issues of incompatibilities with certain devices. Mentioned earlier, Google's ARCore is at a stage in development where it is only designed to work on the latest Android mobile devices, which excludes my mobile device. Apple's ARKit currently works on a far larger range of Apple devices and would be the preferable option to ARCore at the time of writing.

Virtual reality on PC is usually a very demanding task, as the computer will need to render two screens in the headset, and the computer's monitor, at a frame rate of at least 90 consistently. This means less powerful computers will have an even harder time of providing an immersive VR experience than if they were just used for conventional games on a single screen at 60 frames per second. This means that if I pursue the VR game project I will need to use a powerful PC for development and be mindful of the performance of the game if I want it to work on less powerful PCs.

Do I have alternatives?

Apple's ARKit currently works on a far larger range of Apple devices and would be the preferable option to ARCore at the time of writing, however, as mentioned before I do not own any Apple devices that run ARKit. After forming a group with multiple other students we now have an iPhone we can develop an AR app for using ARKit.

Currently, I do not own my own HTC Vive anymore and as such I will have to rely on the Oculus Rift at the University for developing the VR game project, however there are no motion controllers, limiting our interactivity to the keyboard and mouse or controllers. Unfortunately this means that the room-scale VR I was hoping to develop for on the HTC Vive will not be used, and the player's immersion in the VR game will be limited to looking around and moving with their control scheme.

Is it realistic?

With no experience developing for augmented reality, and relatively little for developing a virtual reality game, achieving my AR/VR idea seemed very unrealistic; However, I have now joined a group with several other classmates of various skills whose strengths will be an immense help in seeing the idea of a augmented reality or virtual reality project come to fruition. As others can focus on their respective fields, I will have more time to focus on developing using Unreal Engine 4 and animating, while improving my ability to work with a team.

Conclusion:

At the time of writing, I have decided to pursue a project relating to virtual reality, with augmented reality being an alternative if virtual reality does not seem realistic. While my concepts for the projects were relatively simple, due to my limited experience with augmented reality and virtual reality, our team can concentrate on developing more interesting ideas that hopefully challenge all of us equally and develop out skill-sets.

References:

Kharpal, A. (2017). Google says augmented reality will be on 'hundreds of millions' of Android devices next year. [online] CNBC. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/07/google-augmented-reality-will-be-on-hundreds-of-millions-of-android-devices.html [Accessed 6 Nov. 2017].

Robertson, A. (2017). Google ARCore gives Android users augmented reality without Tango. [online] The Verge. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/29/16219696/google-arcore-augmented-reality-platform-announce-release-pixel-samsung [Accessed 7 Nov. 2017].

Szymczyk, M. (2017). Pokemon Go Is Driving Augmented Reality And Geolocation Adoption. [online] Zugara. Available at: http://zugara.com/pokemon-go-is-driving-augmented-reality-and-geolocation-adoption [Accessed 7 Nov. 2017].

Docs.unrealengine.com. (2017). Virtual Reality Development. [online] Available at: https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Platforms/VR/ [Accessed 18 Nov. 2017].