Immersive Visual Effects - Project 02: Production
22/10/2025 - 27/12/2025 | Week 04 - Week 13
Koh Sher Wei | 0353816
Immersive Visual Effects | Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
MIB
Project 02: Production
Instructions
Based on Project 01's proposal, students are to put ideas
into practice. The final outcome should be a visual projection
integrated with audio and immersive element.
Sculpture Making
As was mentioned in Project 01: Proposal, I decided on using recycled cardboard to build the heart. Then add on flowers using coloured plastic. However, I didn't want to work with plastic yet so I thought building the heart base first would be more efficient.
I happened to have a box of recycled cardboards and delivery boxes, so I just used that and some previously bought craft papers and tools that I already had at home. So material costs is completely free for this stage.
The initial measurement for the sculpture was meant to be in A3 size, so I estimated the measurements on an A3 paper and drew a heart on it.
Once I had the base drawing done, I traced the over a cardboard and cutout the base. Then started building the 3D sculpture bit by bit.
However, after feedback from Mr. Fauzi, he suggested I up the size of the heart and try to look up references for cardboard sculptures. He mentioned that A3 might be too small for projection mapping. Furthermore, we discussed about the shape of a heart and how it may be too complicated to produce a 3D one with an accurate front and back ratio. So, I proposed to change it to a partial 3D on canvas instead. Which would give me more time to focus on the details and textures of the sculpture.
Before starting, I decided to sketch out approximately how I want my heart sculpture to look like. I didn't want it to be a smooth plain sculpture, as I felt it wouldn't bring out a clear presentation of the heart anatomy. So, I sketched out different sections, added textures and essentially gave it a bit of personality. It would then also look more interesting as a standalone product.
When I was happy with my complete sketch, I started building the sculpture exactly according to my sketch. The entire process took about 2 and 1/2 days.
When I completed my heart anatomy base, I showed it to Mr.Fauzi. At this stage, I wasn't sure if adding the plastic flowers would be a good choice. Mr.Fauzi also felt it would be better if I left this as the final product and add the flowers on as visuals instead.
For a few weeks, I only used the A2 black board as the frame until I bought a wooden frame on Shopee which I felt fit perfectly with my sculpture. Them just used glue to stick it on and that was my final complete sculpture.
Learning Projection Mapping
On week 07, Mr.Fauzi did a demonstration on Resolume Arena during our tutorial session. He also asked us to try doing simple projection with our own sculptures. However, at that time I haven't completed mine yet so I watched as my classmates did their projection mapping and learned from there.
Since I had a projector at home, when I was done with the sculpture, I tested out the projection mapping and learned how to use Resolume Arena. This was also to check that the colours and visuals would show on my cardboard texture. Thankfully the visuals and colours projected well and clear on the sculpture so I didn't have to paint the sculpture white.
On week 08, Mr. Fauzi told us to start developing our content but at that point I was still unsure on what type of visual content would work on a sculpture that had so many curves so I just tried out a simple projection. My original idea was to use a lot of lines and tried projecting that. When I did the projection at home with all the lights off, it seemed clear and doable.
However, when I brought the sculpture on campus to try the projection, the lines didn't show up at all. It was very light and unclear due to the lighting in the room. That was when I realised I will not be able to go through with the line art idea.
Developing Visual Content
On week 08 - 10, I focused on developing the visual content. Mr. Fauzi said we should try to implement narrative into our content instead of just doing static projection on loop.
I started by importing my sculpture as reference into Adobe Illustrator and traced out the shape of each section of the heart sculpture, as well as the frame. I did this so it would be easier to manage the layers in After Effects for motion editing.
I imported all the layers into After Effects and started working on the content part by part. A beginning which showcases the heart and the different sections, then a mid-section and ending which is meant to represent the journey of a person's emotions. The beginning was relatively easy as they were just solids with some blur and glow effects. Then I just had to adjust the duration and opacity of each layer.
For the mid-section, I tried to do this "core" bubble thingy that would flow to the middle of the heart sculpture. I followed a youtube video tutorial to create this gradient flowing bubble to achieve like a "fluid-filled" looking bubble.
The initial idea was actually to create a static/abstract like bubble but all the tutorials I searched up required plug-ins. So, I settled on using this gradient sphere instead which turned out looking quite nice.
After that, it was more just playing with different colours and effects like blur, fractal noise, glow and gradient. Piecing each layer together with different durations, opacity and speed among other elements. This led to many many layers and multiple pre-compositions as seen below.
This was the final outcome of the visual graphics.
Adding Audio
Upon completing the visuals, I started working on the audio. I searched up background music, ambient sounds and sound effects on these platforms:
1. Youtube
1. Youtube
2. Pixaby
3. Freesound.org
I compiled and adjusted the audio on Adobe Premier Pro, importing the visuals from After Effects for reference. I used a 3minute instrumental with a gradual build up as my background music. Then added some ambient sound and sound effects to enhance the build up with every loop in the visual.
Production 01
On week 11, I started testing the complete visual and audio projection at home with my sculpture. I didn't do a proper set up, I just tried it anywhere with a plain background. The purpose was to make sure the flow of the content is okay and that I would be able to familiarise myself with mapping out each corner of the sculpture.
This is a timelapse of how I mapped the points of each section and the overall shape of the heart. There was a bit of trial and error so the overall process took quite a few tries, almost 2 hours just to practice the mapping.
On week 13, we actually had to present our work in class. So, we had to properly set up our sculpture and did some documentation on it as well. The set up I used consisted of a small round table with a few stacked boxes, then we placed a black cloth to cover the stack and table.
This was the timelapse of setting up and doing the projection mapping. I also made a mistake of not checking whether the depth of the table/boxes stand would be too deep that my projection would leak over. Which I didn't realise until after i had mapped out the heart and started on the frame just to realise the bottom would leak. So I had to redo the set up for my sculpture by adding another box behind to bring it forward. Also had to redo the projection mapping.
Final Production after Refinement
After the feedback I received from our 1st showcase, I took Mr. Fauzi's advice and refined the visuals as well as the audio for my final outcome. Then, I did the final presentation at home and sent it to Mr. Fauzi for approval.
My setup was in a relatively dark corner of my house with a plain wall. So the final video I filmed was not really HD due to the low brightness.
Submissions
IVFX Project 02: Production by Sherwei Koh
Feedback
Week 04 (Start Sculpture):
- The idea of the sculpture is good but make sure it is executable within 3 week time frame.
- Make sure to check if the texture of the cardboard is suitable for projecting.
Week 05 (Sculpture Progress):
- A3 sculpture might be too small, try A2 instead.
- If the sculpture is better as a partial 3D on canvas then try that instead.
- Don't put too much detail into the sculpture or it will make projection mapping more difficult.
Week 06 (Sculpture Progress):
- Looks good, continue working on it.
Week 07 (Finalise Sculpture/Testing Phase):
- Try out and familiarise yourrself with Resolume Arena if you have a projector at home.
- Final Sculpture looks good but consider switching the black board out for a different board/frame.
- Go for bolder and brighter colours for projection, also try not to use lines as they don't show up very well when projecting.
Week 08 (Start Content):
- Produce visuals that can be looped.
- Import your heart sculpture into illustrator to help make it easier to do the motion graphics in After Effects.
Week 09 (Content Progress):
- ILW (independent learning week)
Week 10 (Content Progress):
- Try to give narrative to your content with visuals and audio.
- Static loop without narrative is commercial, so try to put more narrative into your content.
Week 11 (Content Progress):
- Looks good so far.
Week 12 (Finalise Content):
-
Week 13 (First Production Showcase):
- It's good but the visual graphics shouldn't loop 3 times without any additional visuals.
- The audio feels too heavy, try to go for something more soft.
- Add more visuals when you loop, that's when you introduce sound effects and ambient sound to the background music.
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