Students' Final Project from 2010 Fall

3D Interactive Sound Player by Cameron Brand

This project is an interactive 3D sound environment. The engine behind it is a library for Max/MSP/Jitter called Cosm, developed at the University of California Santa Barbara for use in their immersive interactive environment called the Allosphere. This library works with the openGL and Jitter matrix renderers to make creating a 3D environment with location-specific audio more straightforward. The environment I created is very simple and most of the focus was spent on creating the synthesized sounds which the user can interact with. Each object generates a sound, and this sound is spatialized so that it’s location can be inferred in the virtual world much like we can infer the location of a sound in the real world. As the user navigates the environment, moving objects pass from left to right, top to bottom, and all around. When the correct speaker system is set up, the sound will be heard to follow these objects. Some objects are interactive, and upon “colliding” with them, a new sound is created or the current sound is transformed, as well as the visual form of the collision object. The sound created for this environment is mostly ambient, with certain objects having an unmetered but rhythmic quality. There are regions that emit harmonic drones so that certain overtones are more dominant depending on where you navigate through the environment. This project is best realized with a quadraphonic sound system and a projection screen so as to create an immersive environment. Ideally the sound would render a meditative state for the user.

Chub Chub by Daniel Santiago

The concept of this interactive piece is to navigate the character named “Chub Chub” through this mage and meet the Janitor on the other side. Upon navigating through the maze, you are asked to do two things: First is to collect all the “Throw Stars” laid out in the maze. For this piece there are only four pieces to collect. Passing right through them will cause them to disappear and that is how you will know that you have collected that Throw Star. Second is to cause the “Robots” in the maze to explode. Simply passing through them will cause them to blow up in this piece. It’s a simple concept. Once you have gone through the maze and reached the Janitor, the interactive piece is over.

Shadow by Hillary Shapley

I made a game for my final project in Interactive 3D, in which the player controls Shadow, a living shadow born into a dark underground. She was born from the shadows, but if surrounded by them, she will become one with them again, and cease to exist. She wishes to escape to the surface to avoid the fate of nonexistence, and her only means to do so is an old generator that is no longer working due to missing parts.
I designed the game to be a sidescroller, forcing the player to view Shadow’s world from a stark black and white perspective. From this angle, along with some strategic lighting and the color palette of the environment, it provides the game with a solemn atmosphere and a look of moving silhouettes.
The player must explore the underground to find the way to repair the generator, to lead to the next stage in Shadow’s attempt for freedom. If the player accomplishes this, her fate is left off there in a moment of darkness, leaving the next leg of her journey uncertain, as to whether she successfully activates the elevator, or is swallowed by the dark.
The game art and design was all my original creation, and the music was composed, performed, and edited by Evan Sitt.

Ghoul Run by Michael Morua

After waking from a nap, Benny the Ghost finds his prized gargoyle statue collection missing. A band of soul collecting demons have stolen them and placed them throughout the neighborhood. Facing an obvious trap, Benny must venture out and reclaim his statues. This is the storyline to the game that I developed. Using the arrow keys, the user moves the ghost character around the map trying to collect 5 statues while avoiding the demons. If the ghost is hit 3 times by the demons then the game is over and the ghost is dragged down beneath the ground. The ghost can go through fences and the thin walls of the houses. The demons cannot enter into the houses and are sometimes stopped by the fences, while other times they can fly over the fences. The demons do move a little faster then the ghost so the user must dip in and out of the homes /yards to escape the grasp off the demons. My game consists of an opening title screen that lists the story as while as the objective of the game. After pressing enter the title screen disappears and the user moves the ghost through the level trying to get the statues. The user either collects all 5 in 3 tries or the game is over. I have a few sound effect incorporated in my game that includes the sound of fire from demons, action sound when collecting a statue, sound for getting hit by a demon and a sound for when you are dragged down beneath the surface.

Alter(nate)(ed) Realities by Jesus Duran

Alter(nate)(ed) Realities is a comical exploration of dual realities through a metaphorical use of augmented reality. It allows a user a physical interface and uses technology to create a “mirror” whereby a user is allowed to manipulate beer cans on a table. These beer cans correspond to a common agent in altering many people’s daily reality. Using a camera to track these physical objects, a one-to-one relationship is formed between three metaphorical virtual objects which often manifest themselves in the resulting reality created by consuming too much alcohol.
The explosive behaviour (often violent) is represented with a bundle of dynomite, a statue of a demon manifests the burden alcoholism many carry and an ideal female form provides a reference to the cultural “beer goggles” reference.

The projects uses the VirtualTools, Processing and Reactivision software packages. Within Processing the OSC and TUIO libraries are used. All 3D entities are used from the VirTools software platform.

Dark Child by Livia Jones

Dark Child is about a 10 year old human girl named Nia who lives in the distant future. People now live underground so their evolved into a different form of Human than what we know in the present world. Nia is taking care of by robots called the “Void Obstinates” but after finding out that that there not really her care taker, and more or less, just studying her in a Lab she wants to escape her underground prison, and that's where her story begins.

Untitled by Jose Diego Arozamena

For my final project I have done exactly what I set out to do in the beginning of the semester. Foreseeing possible problems that could arise at the development stage I decided not to get too ambitious with my project and make some basic interactions. The object of the experience or “game” is to walk around and experience the scene while collecting apples from cherry trees. Yes I know it doesn’t make much sense but I think of this piece as a work in progress always. If I can keep on making it better then it is not done. Next semester I will continue this class and push this project even further. The whole purpose of my project is purely the experience. I have no narrative as of yet. Those of us who have been doing animation for a while now know how tedious and arduous the process is of creating something successful so instead of setting myself up for failure by doing something too ambitious for one semester. Of the major problems I ran into this semester my biggest one which is not really my problem but a problem nonetheless is the computer’s processing power. I had originally intended to have a forest instead of a few trees but to make a forest or any type of nature scene in 3d requires too much processing power and the program shuts down. My other big problem this semester was the animations. And in that respect I learned a great deal. I learned to plan ahead by learning all the steps and fixing problems in the present before they become problems in the future.