INTERACTIVE MEDIA ART EXHIBITION AT SEOUL NATIONAL MUSEUM
Intro
It is a media art project at Seoul National Museum in May, 2013. I remember catching butterflies in the small town when I was little. I and my team developed the idea of making a digital art experience in nature(very controversial), so people can have experience of catching fireflies in the city. This 3D modelling interactive media art was created for my graduation exhibition at Soongsil University (Seoul, South Korea) and Seoul National Museum.
Concept & How It Works
This 3D exhibit leads users into a beautiful virtual forest where they can interact with hundreds of fireflies. It is dark before anyone comes close to the screen (but still hear the sound and see the dark view of graphic). As they walk closer, the screen becomes brighter and the forest night view opens up before them. Using Kinect, the user’s hands become sensors, with fireflies following wherever you wave your hands. Not only does it gives you visual satisfaction, there is also an auditory element to help enrich the user experience. Calming forest sounds and the hum of fireflies, combined with responsive visuals made for an incredibly immersive experience.
Coding
We used Unity 3D and code was done with C#. I will talk about what variables used and how they work.
1. Global Light- control light of entire scene
2. BoxMover- Carry information and value of hand's location from Kinect
3. PlanTint & Global loop - make the background visible when Kinect recognizes user
4. Firefly- including all fireflies' action, and it is related to brightness and speed of fireflies. Fireflies randomly moving around before it receiving input from Kinect. If they are around the hand's location, the fireflies will make sounds and become brighter.