In my presentation, I discuss the soon to be released space exploration game, Earthlight. Developed by the award winning Opaque Media Group, with large amounts of help from NASA, Earthlight provides an immersive experience for anyone looking to become an astronaut. Through a simulation of training in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, the SES and other sections of the Houston, TX HQ, players are able to go through the rigorous training program and eventually explore space and the International Space Station. Scheduled to join the Playstation VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive by...

Every year, First Year Players, an entirely student run musical theatre organization, puts on a fully fledged musical in Syracuse University's Goldstein Auditorium. This year, we've decided to present Heathers The Musical, based off of the movie. For my final project, I would like to create an immersive musical experience, inspired by the 360° video produced for The Lion King on Broadway. Join the Heathers Experience an exciting performance from exclusive positions View from the Pit Orchestra Backstage with the actors and crew, waiting to get on stage On stage, during the...

In my previous assignment, I had already included an animated mixamo character, jamming out to the dino jam. For this assignment, I decided to add in a walking character, so that I could use Playmaker to move him from one spot to another. After adding in a walking Elvis, two cubes, and a cylinder as a trigger object, I ran into the problem of controlling the character animation. I didn't know how to have Elvis only start walking when triggered to move from one cube to another. After looking through...

While Unity took some time to learn, Playmaker took my time, played with it, and then refused to give it back. The first class we had, Playmaker wasn't as hard to follow as originally learning Unity--there were less things to create and simple rules. But that's where the easy part ends. After discovering the plethora of actions available for all Unity objects, and then the multitude of states required to make these simple actions possible, I soon admired the animators and video game creators who had to do this for...

Ah Unity, we meet again. During our first attempts at creating a Unity scene, I struggled with new ways to use the mac mouse, while maintaining a satisfying perspective to continue my work. I quickly fell behind during our step by step instruction, and left the class feeling frustrated. Determined to become more efficient at using Unity, I made sure to utilize the video tutorial (provided by our lovely professors) and took my time getting to know the program. In the same way that my younger self learned to play and create...

When Skyping or FaceTiming a friend, you only get to see what they allow you to see on the other side of the screen. Whether it's "sick at home" or "studying hard", their story is all you see, but with 360 video, I'd like the viewer to discover that there's more to a story than meets the eye. THE SCENE: When the viewer puts on their headset, they'll start by facing a student in her dorm room, Skyping her parents. She's dressed conservatively, with a calendar on the wall and...

Virtual Reality, whether it's utilized for video games or tourism, has always intrigued me about the broadening horizon of new technology. It's interactive opportunities highlight many of the exciting features that I love about live theatre, when compared to film. Walking into the innovation center, I couldn't believe that we had the unbelievable opportunity to experience a multitude of VR headsets and interactive stories. By the end of the class, I was able to try out the Samsung VR Gear and the Sunnypeak VR headset, as well as observe my fellow...