Introduction
The second week of lessons when we were introduced to Pierre and given actual instruments to experiment with, more specifically, the 360 degree camera. We were split into teams of 2 or 3 and were presented with our first artifact, the 360 degree film. We were asked to film videos on campus and create an interactive film, including one completely digital scene in a newly introduced software called After Effects.
I teamed up with Sam. Rithwik was put into our team later as he was not there at the time the teams were being made and Pierre asked us to take him in ours which we happily agreed with. Sam and I then proceeded to roam around campus and take videos of different locations like the Cafeteria, the Canteen, the Tech Lab, etc. We were unable to take a video of the library despite asking permission from the librarians due to a privacy issue which seemed understandable but I would also like to point out that no one in the other locations seemed to mind our presence. Out of all the six campuses of UAL, ours is the only one that has a bar and I’m weirdly proud of that, so needless to say it was imperical that it was put in our film and therefore was also one of our filmed locations.
The way the videos that we took with the camera were saved, was through an app called Theta. I had downloaded and connected the camera to my phone but what I didn’t know was that if I didn’t render each video then and there, it won’t be saved even though it was showing on the app. We shot 7 different locations resulting in 7 different videos but in an amazing feat that I’ll never be able to understand, rendered and downloaded only 5 of them. The two videos that remained were now deleted. The Orb is a website used to borrow and hire tools from the kit room, which you would think would be the perfect way to rent equipment and record the remaining videos again, but we were unable to do so due to the immense work-load we didn’t know was coming our way in the next few weeks.
After shooting all the videos, I composed and edited them in After Effects, adding sound and shapes to make it easier to add the hotspots on it using a website called Eevo.com. We tried to think of ways to create an interactive film and though of doing a tour of the campus starting from the entrance and slowly going to different locations. After further deliberation, I came up with the idea of the Hub, a room entirely made in after effects where the user would stand in, which would be the anchor from where he could navigate to different areas and rooms of the campus and experience the live movements in 360.
Moodboard and Brainstorming
The initial idea of a standard 360 tour seemed good but after discussing with Pierre we realised it was too basic and upon further thought, we brainstormed the idea of the hub.
Working on Eevo
Compiling everything on Eevo was challenging as I was unable to add hotspots despite having a 30 minute Zoom session with Pierre who tried his best to help me and assured me it was a glitch in the website. I proceeded to physically add circles on the videos in After Affects as you can see below.