Week 18

Research

This week I read a chapter on the physics that is used in Unity. For my project I had already been using rigidbodies and colliders, but it was interesting to read up on their exact definitions. I learnt that rigidbodies are used to make gravity and other forces affect the object their attached to and colliders are needed to define physical shape and create collisions. I feel this has helped me understand the need to add them to my objects that are interactable in my scene. I also learnt that it’s important to use realistic measurements in the rigidbody component, to create life-like physics. Overall, I felt the chapter that I read this week has really helped me understand some of the physics behind Unity and how I can create better experiences in VR.

Workshops

In this week’s sessions I finished off the lighting for my room, therefore finishing all the sections of the tutorial. I had heard of ‘baking’ before when it came to unity but never knew what it was until I completed the lighting for my scene. I am very happy with how the lighting look in my finished room. 

As I had finished the tutorial, I then moved on to adding custom script into my code. I chose one of the prefabs available and based my custom script around that. The prefab I chose was a dart gun. I felt that the scripting for this would be similar to the bubble wand that I added, therefore something I could do with ease. In the technical workshop, in between the project sessions, we were working on more 3D modelling. I took this opportunity to model a dart prefab that could be used as a projectile for my dart gun (my model is pictured below). Although I was happy with how my asset came out, I felt that the dart prefab already provided matched with the dart gun better than my version. It was still interesting to sculpt my own version and the skills I’ve learnt from this will be very useful going forward. If I ever need to add my own prefabs to a scene. 

Lecture

This week’s lecture was given by guest lecturer Jonathon Carey. He is head of development for Mission Made and been in web design for over 20 years. He stated that web design is the intersection of art, design, and technology. I had never been particularly interested in web design before the start of this academic year but quickly realized how much fun it can be. Carey introduced us to some of his projects he’s created over the years, showing just how creative you can be with CSS. He showed us one project where he created interactive experiences in emails, something that had yet to be done to his level. I really liked seeing his ideas being able to go forward and be recognised for how creative they are. Carey told us a little about the process and development workflow that is often used in web design. It was interesting to see how little of the process is actually creating the idea/project. To finish off the lecture he then talked to us a little bit about AI and its uses in web design. I found it very interesting to hear the perspective of someone who actually works in the field and how positive he was about its uses.