'Only time will tell' was a project based on a design brief provided by a Design for Digital Media course at the University of Edinburgh. The brief outlined a futuristic alternative timeline and the project requirement was an interactive digital museum app that was based on this. The project centered around a particular area in the futuristic world, and a chest and object that were meant to be the items on display through the digital exhibit. The inspirations for the project were regional artifacts from the Nile Delta and the Steampunk era that tied in with the central concept of time. Users can interact with particular objects through the app and learn about them. Emphasis was placed on the visual style with the UI/UX elements working in cohesion with the 3D environment. The software used was Maya, Substance Painter, Adobe Photoshop/ Illustrator, and Unity.
Video walkthrough of the app (x2 speed)
The design brief outlined a timeline of sorts for the imagined future, and the goal was to build upon this and create a cohesive story for the objects. The timeline is outlined below:
The project required one chest/box, one item and 2D contextual items to add meaning to the objects. Rather than copying an object, I combined various influences and kit-bashed my objects together. Since the box was meant to be secretive and hold an object of power, I was influenced by movies such as The Da Vinci Code (2006) and the Mummy (1999). I found some fascinating examples of interactivity, and decided to combine the opening mechanism of the ‘Key of Hamunaptra’ from the Mummy, and a combination lock/
cipher with dials from Edwardian tobacco boxes.
cipher with dials from Edwardian tobacco boxes.
The most challenging aspect of modeling the chest was the lid. I used Adobe Illustrator to chart a layout, which I used as a reference while modeling in Maya. I then worked on the ornamentation, with a focus on the columns that emulated sarcophagi, the puzzle lock with dials, and the pipes, which serve as an inlet/outlet for the steam that powers the chest.
I combined Steampunk time machines and the astrolabe into my object. It features rotating dials with a view-port to set the date and a central power source. It is operated with keys, and 6 keys are hidden in secret compartments at the object’s base. The shape of the keys is inspired by the Ankh and Shen symbols, which represented protection and infinity in Ancient Egypt. Some additional models were also created to populate the scene.
As per the timeline, the contextual items are the diary ,the cipher and blueprint. These were made by photo-bashing a number of creative commons images.
The box and object were textured in Substance Painter. I created custom alphas for detailing and worked with creating and tweaking the materials. I wanted the Egyptian influence to come across and used hieroglyphics, the wedjat and shen symbols. A second damaged version of the objects were also created. Some of the renders can be seen below.
Since I wanted the exhibit to be immersive, I designed the UI elements to complement the Steampunk design aesthetic of the objects. I referenced games such as ‘Bio-shock Infinite’ for inspiration. Several variations of metallic, crystal and paper buttons, panels and sprites were created in Adobe Illustrator /Photoshop. The pointer was created to resemble an Ancient Egyptian hand relief and the logo for the museum includes a trident. Sprite sheets with some micro animations were made in Adobe After effects. The fonts and colour theme complement the objects.
The scenes were built around the Steampunk table, with the objects being rearranged and given importance based on the focus of each separate scene. I used lighting to set the mood and draw attention to different objects. Users can interact with particular objects in each scene, with mouseover tooltips included to indicate interactivity. Several C# scripts were used to add functionality. The animations were either brought in with baked models or added in Unity itself. Other aspects of interest include some micro/lighting animations and particle effects. The particle effects were sourced from the Unity Particle Pack.
