Humans have always been inquisitive about transcendental experiences or traveling to another world. Though today, this is primarily achieved by virtual reality and the affiliated fields, in history the Shamans where the only ones who could have helped.
The topic I chose for my first project is " Shamanism ".
Shamans are Healers who are most prevalent in the south American continent exist in different forms all around the world .
These shamans, through their rituals are known to transport the human mind to an alternate world using psychedelic music and psychedelic environments. I see this as yesteryear's visualization and that is the reason why I have chosen it. Plus, I listen to a lot of
psychedelic and tribal music. Those where additional reasons for me to get interested in the same.
The environment starts off at a hallway, where the user is
surrounded by Pictures and artwork relating to shamanism. On the left side of it is 4 pieces of art created by me for this project. These are abstract art forms depicting shamanism in some way. The pictures on the right side are that of shamans from 5 different countries. The pictures where borrowed from the internet. These pictures serve as an introduction to the walk through. This environment is also the internal environment required of by the project.
Once the user is done with the above, he drifts on the dream environment. I tried to make my own textures for the project after being inspired a lot by Ms.Daria. adjacent to that we
have an old temple built element by element to enable physics. Textures for the same have been borrowed from gamedev.net. The structure resembles an old mayan temple and is made up of multiple level open space outside it. It is a semi open structure.
Interesting part
Moving on, we have a set of 4 platforms that have a few wierd math based animations and shapes. Programming these were the toughest part of the project.
1) platform1: 4 eyeballs that rotate along their own axis and also along the center of the circle along which they lie. The animation looks interesting as the spheres rotate in all 3 directions on their own axis which sets interesting patterns
2) Platform2: The next one is an animation of a sun like
character that keeps expanding and contracting sinusoidally with the circle changing to an ellipse at times.
This one took a lot of time too.
3) Platform3: Rotating stars- These are 4 stars in different scales aligned along the same axis. The alternate stars rotate in opposite direction giving us a psychedelic effect.
This is prevalently used by shamans in most cultures. Especially the ones in tibet who call it the "mandala" or the
"wheel of time".
4) Platform 4: Cloning ring. This ring rotates along the circumference of a circle and leaves a tail that self destroys in few seconds. Originally aimed at producing a smoke effect, this one turned out to be more extrusion than smoke.
I found this intriguing and challenging as this is my first time doing some real programming ( done nothing more than some VRML and Matlab). It was great to see how the human mind can so easily spatialize stuff in the mind when it is so tough to code it.
Interaction ( Physics based creatures!!!!)
when the user steps on one of the platform and presses the middle button in the joystick, few cubes drop down. These cubes are physics based creatures that move at random due to the internal forces generated by 2 identical cubes being "hinged" together.
They look very natural as the movement is totally random and provides the effect a buzzing insect.
Physics usage
Beyond the platforms, there is an arrangment of two C shaped
architectural structures with an arrangement of 6 pillars that are balanced based on the principle of momentum. When the user presses the left button, two identical balls drop at the same time
on to the C structures and roll over to fall on the balance. The structure collapses due to imbalance. It is very interesting to see
that these two balls that were dropped where identical in everyway
and their routes traveled where also the same. The only point that makes so much of a difference is the angle of rotation with which they where dropped in air using math.random. This change of orientation in thin air affects the behavior emphasizing the physics.
Above all the whole environment is being revolved by the planets that according to shamans determine the future of every person. These planets are flat cylinders that rotate about their own axis and revolve about the center of the environment. Programming this again was tedious. The art work on each of these planets are again hand drawn using a digital pen. Some of these also have the "Mandala" imbibed in a different form.
The whole environment is covered by a wall that separates the inside from the outside.
The galaxy entity is made use of to give a dotted effect which I assume to gel well for a dream environment
The moon is a sphere that has been elongated on one side and the texture applied on it has been borrowed from the NASA website.
Audio
The environment has sounds attached to most of the objects.
I have focussed mostly on psychedelic and avant-garde music to
keep up with the mood of the environment.
The hallway plays a "shamanic flute" by Bodhi. It is simple short and
mysterious enough and suits well for the hallway.
Sounds are borrowed from "Greg Ellis" a percussionist who him selves works with shamans to produce "therapy music". These hang around different places like the 3 mayan faces.
Few other sounds are also borrowed from avant garde pianist " Tim Story" which are attached to each of the above 4 platforms.
Some of the 3d models where created in Pro/Engineer and the rest in 3ds Max. AC3d was used just for texture mapping due to its texture map editor and its portability with electro.