Hi folks,
I meant to send this much earlier, but all my notes had got deleted from my
Palm computer somehow, and hadn't been backing up properly to my PC... grrr
:-(
Anyway, here goes....
There is a problem with VR Fiction in that it is difficult to know when to
cut or fade to another scene if your viewer is able to wander around the
world. You may have set up the story to deliver an important piece of info
to build suspense then cut to another scene for dramatic impact. Or you may
wish to use some of the time-compression tricks that books and cinema use,
where a lengthy, but uneventful, period is cut from the story to avoid the
audience becoming bored.
Here are 3 possible solutions to add to our toolkit:
- The user could be tugged gently toward the viewpoint where the
important event is to happen. The pull on the user could even be in
proportion to the importance of the event. If the user wants to continue to
explore they can easily resist a gentle pull, but ignoring the strong tug
of an important event would be difficult. Playing out an amusing joke would
have a soft tug associated with it, and a pivotal plot device would drag
the user almost irresistably to the viewing position/angle. In both cases
the tug is released as soon as the event is over so that the user is again
free to wander.
- The user could be attracted to the important pice of action by
capitalising on psychology. Loud noises, bright or blinking lights,
movement, certain sounds (telephones, baby cries, human screams, etc) are
difficult to ignore and can bring the viewer to the scene without intruding
on the user's sense of freedom. If a person looks in a direction fixedly or
with some unusual emotion showing then that also makes audience members
look toward the same thing. Magicians know all about these tricks -- how to
direct a person's attention where you want it to go. Many artists, too,
understand how to direct the viewer's attention around their picture (my
own drawings are not as detailed as they appear because I tend to put
detail only in the parts people look at).
- The user could be confined by natural barriers. Locked doors, walls,
cliffs, stampeding elephants, an impenetrably dark area, interior of a
vehicle...
Some time back on this list, I think, the question was asked as to how time
could be compressed. Movies and books do it well. An example was given of a
character grabbing her keys and exiting the room, getting in her car and
driving to another place 20 minutes away. Writing that is easy -- I just
did. Filming it is more difficult but still can compress 20 minutes down to
just 20 seconds by cutting from scene to scene -- inside, external, inside
car, arriving at destination. Making the same sequence in VR could be quite
difficult if the user is allowed to wander, but here is one way it could be
done.
The actor-character can get a phone call which they don't answer
immediately. Letting it ring for a while gives time for the viewer to
become curious and come back to the room if they have wandered elsewhere.
Then when she answers the phone she can be angry and yell at the person at
the other end. This ensures that we have the viewers' attention. Being
dramatic like this won't be necessary in the future when we have an
understood set of signals that viewers will easily understand, but at the
moment the art is in its infancy and we will probably need some degree of
overkill to get our point across. Remember though, that loud is not always
the best to way to get attention.[Some time back I was in a room crowded
with people all talking, and two people started to whisper. Everybody in
the room stopped to look and listen. The two ceased and looked
self-consciously around the room. Everybody realised what had happened and
broke into laughter.] Anyway back to the example... the character now asks
something like "What? It is there now?! OK, this I gotta see! I am coming
right now!". She hangs up and exits the door, runs down the stairs to the
car looks in her pocket for the keys (giving the viewer time to catch up),
unlocks it and gets in. Now she delays by putting on her seatbelt, finding
the car key, perhaps looking at the street directory or finding the address
written on a piece of paper, or waiting for a break in the traffic. This
gives time for the viewer to get in the car. After a while the car pulls
out into the traffic and drives off. Some way down the road the car car
fades out and fades in near the destination. To the viewer inside the car
this would be accepted as a cinematic trick to compress time because not
only the vision but sound would have faded. The car would now pull in to
the curb and the driver would switch off the engine and exit the vehicle.
The viewer would follow, curious to find out the reason for the journey.
OK, so there are a few tricks. Anybody think of other useful devices?
Best wishes,
- Miriam
How I wish I could enumerate PI easily
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http://werple.net.au/~miriam
http://web.access.net.au/miriam
http://ariadne.iz.net/~miriam
Virtual Reality Association http://www.vr.org.au
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