For those curious about the purpose of this experience, here’s a brief introduction: I’ve created a VR fashion gallery designed to offer the fashion industry a more innovative way to market and advertise their brands. This experience also aims to provide a more immersive shopping experience, featuring art pieces, sculptures, and clothing.
1. Conceptualization and Idea generation:
The idea behind this VR exhibition project was to rethink the traditional limitations of experiencing fashion and art. My main goal was to design an atmosphere that was not limited by the physical space, providing an immersive, adaptable and environmentally friendly way for audiences of all physical abilities to interact with art and fashion. Therefore, I came up with the idea of making a Virtual Fashion Gallery. The concept was born from an understanding of the limitations of traditional galleries and fashion shows, I envisioned a platform that was built with inclusivity as its foundation, not just an add-on. This inspired me to create a virtual space where art, fashion, and commerce merge seamlessly.
2. Idea Development & Practical Benefits:
By looking for some references for art gallery pictures, I built some sample scenes based on some assets I found online. from my past experience of shopping and often going to art galleries, I choose minimalism and futuristic design movements, For the interior, I prioritise less is more. On the business side, this VR experience aims to reduce the number of returns by allowing customers to “try before they buy” in a virtual environment. Without the physical constraints of size and fit, they can see how the garment fits, try on different looks, and make informed decisions, reducing the inefficiencies and environmental impact of returns. and could be used as an innovative marketing tool for companies and artists. Businesses can showcase their products allowing for interactive customer experiences, and potentially transforming conventional shopping habits. Artists can use VR galleries to display their works, from paintings to sculptures, without the constraints of physical spaces.
Here is what we did to identify and acquire the necessary resources, tools, and assets.
For testing, I wanted to create this experience for fashion brands and consumers. Though I based it off of previous experiences I found online, as I showed it to people unfamiliar with VR, I began to see how complicated they found it. This lead me to rethink the experience and focus solely on the VR aspect and making it simple for all users.
With this idea in mind, I tested in class with tutors, the first being Herman, and second being David. I also tested with group members and different friends who gave me viewpoints from VR enthusiasts and non-VR users.
Upon testing, David commented that I should put female characters in the game as way to make it non-biased. Then when I tested it with Herman, his feedback involved player mechanics and environment design. It was mentioned that the player should start in a position that makes the environment easy to understand and navigate. Each of the items spread around the environment should be grabbable because it’s an immersive experience. It’s important for users to be able to use VR and it’s many mechanics when going through the experience because if not, the experience would be better on a PC.
I also received feedback on how large the environment is. Though it’s very beautiful, the size could cause users to become lost and confused. Because of this, Herman suggested that I add a minimap which allowed users to understand where they were going, and where key areas were located in the world. I found the minimap to complex to integrate in a short amount of time, so as a happy medium, I found that creating signs on the ceiling would help the user navigate the experience. These showed the different areas and what the purpose of each one was. In the future, I will add the minimap to make navigating even simpler.
Credit Page: Final Work Distribution
Scene
Layout & Coding
Sound
– Main menu
Jason, Carlos, Natalia
Jason, Jenny
– Fashion Gallery
Jason, Carlos
Jason, Jenny
-Metahuman Tailoring
Jason, Carlos, Sunni
Jason, Jeny
– Art Gallery
Jason
Jason
– Sculpture Gallery
Jason
Jason, Jenny
– Credit scene
Jason, Carlos
Jason
Feedback from Natalia and Conclusion
This project provided a large amount of flexibility turning my idea into reality. As a person who loves fashion and prioritizes the shopping experience, it’s very difficult for me to get the same feeling shopping online that I get from an in-person experience. The process of pressing a button and getting something shipped does not compare to interacting with the staff and being able to see and touch the clothing. In addition, there is a lot of gorgeous design inside of these stores that can only be experienced by going to them in person.
By using Unreal Engine to make a virtual experience, I felt I would be able to replicate this experience and add a new element to shopping. Recreating this in Unreal was difficult and unprecedented, as I had to learn Unreal by myself and create an entire experience from scratch. Initially, the task was somewhat scary, but having Natalia and my friends help me made the situation much easier. I’m extremely thankful for all of the assistance, help from the tutors was instrumental in creating the experience as well. They helped me not make my project to complex, and keep it simple for myself as a developer, as well as the users.
Additionally, I want to note that I made some updates based on feedback from my tutor. These include adjusting the player’s starting position, the camera angle, adding more grabbable clothing items to the shelves, and repositioning the note along with the length of the ray cast. Although I haven’t had the chance to update the showcase video, I encourage you to try the game for a greatly improved experience!!
Inspiring Videos
I made this smoke and fur effect from Blender last year, collaborating with some dancers from the London Contemporary Dance School, I thought would be cool to put it inside the gallery dancing with the beat.
Or maybe even include some robot dance in the scene.
