GMU:CRITICAL VR LAB

Lecturer: Jörg Brinkmann
Credits: 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
Date: Tuesdays, 17:00 - 20:30
Venue: Performance Platform, Digital Bauhaus Lab (Room 001)
First meeting: Tuesday, April 10th 2018, 17:00

Description

This course emphasises artistic and opposing ways of working with Virtual Reality. Its aim is to establish individual approaches to VR, an increasingly widespread medium which offers artists new possibilities for expression and intercultural communication.

The practical part will be an Introduction to Unity 3D and Blender. We will look into contemporary and digital art related to recent sociopolitical and mediaphilosophical topics. We will create an artistic discourse on the topic of VR which will be presented in the form of individual projects at the end of the semester.

Criteria for passing

In order to successfully participate you will have to develop and document your own project on the GMU Wiki. Also, regularly attend to the sessions and participation is mandatory.

Student works

Syllabus

10.04.2018

Introduction

17.04.2018

Presentation of artistic examples and methods

HOMEWORK until 24.04.2018

create a short (7 min.) presentation of a VR experience
that you choose from www.radiancevr.co

explain what the experience is about and how it uses VR as an artistic tool

for example:
how does it challenge the medium artistically?

24.04.2018

Presentation of artistic examples and methods

08.05.2018

Introduction to Unity 3D (Marienstr. 7b, Room 104)
by Jonas Jülch

Consultations (Marienstr. 5, Room 208)
13:00 - 13:30 (put your name here)
13:30 - 14:00 (Ulas Yener)
14:00 - 14:30 (put your name here)
14:30 - 15:00 (Emilio Aguas)

15.05.2018

Introduction to Unity 3D (Marienstr. 7b, Room 104)
by Jonas Jülch

Consultations (Marienstr. 5, Room 208)
10:00 - 10:30 (put your name here)
10:30 - 11:00 (put your name here)
11:00 - 11:30 (Florian Froger)
11:30 - 12:00 (put your name here)

22.05.2018

Introduction to Unity 3D (Marienstr. 7b, Room 104)
by Jonas Jülch

Consultations (Marienstr. 5, Room 208)
11:00 - 11:30 (Eduardo Moreno)
11:30 - 12:00 (Sarah Pacheco Alvim (appropriation))
–
13:00 - 13:30 (put your name here)
13:30 - 14:00 (Paul Polze)
14:00 - 14:30 (Adam Streicher)
14:30 - 15:00 (put your name here)

29.05.2018

Introduction to Blender with Unity 3D (Marienstr. 7b, Room 104)
by Luis Henrique Mesquita

Consultations (Marienstr. 5, Room 208)
11:00 - 11:30 (put your name here)
11:30 - 12:00 (Chloe JY Yoon)
–
13:00 - 13:30 (put your name here)
13:30 - 14:00 (put your name here)
14:00 - 14:30 (put your name here)
14:30 - 15:00 Amy Jean Barnett

05.06.2018

Introduction to Blender with Unity 3D (Marienstr. 7b, Room 204)
by Luis Henrique Mesquita

Consultations (Marienstr. 5, Room 208)
11:00 - 11:30 (put your name here)
11:30 - 12:00 (Luís Mesquita)
–
13:00 - 13:30 Lucia Schmidt
13:30 - 14:00 (put your name here)
14:00 - 14:30 (put your name here)
14:30 - 15:00 (put your name here)

12.06.2018

Introduction to Blender with Unity 3D (Marienstr. 7b, Room 204)
by Luis Henrique Mesquita

no Consultations on this day

19.06.2018

Presentation of your concepts

26.06.2018

Lab Time: Working on your VR Experience

03.07.2018

Lab Time: Working on your VR Experience

10.07.2018

Lab Time: Working on your VR Experience

VR TOOLBOX

Software

Unity 3D - cross-platform game engine (proprietary)
Blender - 3D modeller with many features (open source)
Autodesk FBX Converter – convert OBJ, DAE, and 3DS files to or from multiple versions of the FBX format (proprietary)
MeshLab - system for processing and editing 3D triangular meshes (open source)
Meshroom - Photogrammetric Computer Vision framework for 3D Reconstruction and Camera Tracking (open source)
MakeHuman tool for making 3D characters (open source)
Meshmixer - "Swiss Army Knife" for 3D meshes (proprietary)
Open Broadcaster Software - streaming and recording program (open source)

Online Tools

Adobe Mixamo - Rapidly create, rig and animate unique characters
NormalMap-Online - create a normalmaps directly inside your browser
Sources/Sounds - where to get audio recordings
Abstract/Technical/Synthetic Sounds (under Packs are several Free ones)

3D Models (for download and use)

Unity 3D Tutorials

Unity 3D Assets

Blender Tutorials

Blender Beginner Series(new) by Blender Guru
Interface and Navigation
Modeling - Creating a kitchen (ignore part 2)
Modeling - Modeling a simple character
Materials - Basic properties of materials
Texturing - Applying textures to an object
Rigging - Rigging a character
Animation - 12 Principles of Animation
Animation - Animating a bouncing ball
Different (aesthetically) interesting Tutorials for Blender (2.8)