THE PORCELAIN DRAGON
Vietnamese Dragon - Avatar - The God of Rain
DESIGN
challenges
A DISTINCTIVE DRAGON
1.
The challenge is to create a dragon which has to look different and can be recognized as a Vietnamese dragon. Possible solution: extensive research on Vietnamese dragons, culture, vibe, shapes, patterns, the meaning of colors, and implementing those findings to create a unique style for the Avatar.
Approach: 3D modeling in Maya and UV Mapping to create impressive skin for the dragon.
A MYTHICAL ATMOSPHERE
2.
For the dragon to be able to perform its supernatural ability, the environment and atmosphere around it have to be effectively designed to intensify the scene and the power of the dragon. All of the additional elements such as rain, clouds, thunders, and lightning has to be carefully constructed and combined. Other elements such as ambient sound and foley must also be implemented to make the virtual world more realistic.
Approach: more research on the process of forming clouds and rain, watching more animations and movies to see how a mythical ambient could be constructed.
UI ELEMENT
3.
The user should be given appropriate and suitable instructions on how to control the avatar using simple or very minimal UI elements. A messy or unrefined user interface can destroy and tamper with the user’s experience.
TECHNOLOGICAL
challenges
SMOOTH AND REALISTIC DRAGON MOTION
1.
The dragon is a mythical creature so it is hard to imagine how it actually moves in 3D space. What we only know is it has a flexible body like a snake and able to fly around like the bird. Moreover, the Asian dragon is quite different from the Western one, which provides fewer materials for reference. The solution is to look for animating and rigging tutorials on animals who have similar body movements like those and combining the findings to create the most realistic and natural swirling movement as possible.
A TIMELINE OF EVENTS IN UNITY
2.
The process of making rain needs to be built by a timeline of events in Unity. Unity’s Timeline helps us create cinematic content, game-play sequences, audio sequences, and complex particle effects. Some free Assets in Unity like "Rain Maker - 2D and 3D Rain Particle System for Unity" comes really helpful with this step. With built-in weather for wind, rain collisions, light handling and seamless sounds, Rain Maker is an easy drop-in solution for rain and mist.
MAPPING HUMAN BODY PARTS TO THE AVATAR
3.
As human and dragon do not have the same body structure and direction of movements, it is quite hard to map those body parts together. While the human move towards by using 2 legs, the dragon moves horizontally with its head being the direction for its body movement. This mapping could only be successful after trials and errors. This requires extensive testing on Motion Capture software to constantly adjust and come up with the best possible solution.