Author: Ruiz

Prototype #3 – Elaine Ruiz

For my third prototype, I spent most of my time reworking my story and figuring out what ideas can stay or what must change now that I’ve been researching a new program to use. I will be sticking to Quill to create the paintings and animations I need to tell the story; Unity may be optional if I have time to program any extra features that Quill may be limited in. I know there’s a way to export the paintings I create in Quill, so it can be an option. I know what I want the environment to feel like and the kinds of moods I wish to depict based on different turning points in the script, so I’m hoping once I get into the Oculus (Rift/ Rift S/Quest, depending on what I can get hold of), it won’t take me long to start mapping out what I’m doing. I’ve been working on editing the script to be as short as it can to allow users the option to get the point of the story in about 10 minutes, and maybe others can search around the environment more to get more details of the story if they wish. I know with the way I can configure the audio in Quill, I can probably make extra storylines play if the user decides to walk off the typical path to hear more about each stage. I have a breakdown of an outline of what points need to be made within the storyline to represent the “typical” cycle of abuse. I’m reworking the story to make sure it focuses on that gray area people seem more concerned about where the user may not realize the events are considered abusive, just like the main character during the relationship. I’ve also looked at poems and even slam poetry to see how people tell stories like this in a short amount of time. I’m leaning towards letting the user explore as much as they want to find out more, like if someone wanted to explore more examples of subtle gaslighting, while also having a way to hear most of the important details and main points of the story in a short time. It would all depend on how interested the person is in the story and learning more about what it is like.

Elevator Pitch:

“I am creating a Virtual Reality experience to show what being intimate partner violence can be like and how it can affect a person long-term. I want to bring awareness to the situation, how serious it is, and the effects it has on a person, even in a short amount of time. Any kind of intimate partner violence can affect a person for years, mentally, financially, academically, and in their careers. In the VR experience, the user will be exploring a forest environment that will change as they progress in the story and hear more about the main character’s life and what she went through. It is based on true events, so there are real stories behind this idea to show what going through intimate partner violence can be like.”

Industry Event – Elaine Ruiz

This past week I went to CTNX (Creative Talent Network Expo) in Burbank, California. It was filled with artists and animators and other professionals in the animation industry. I learned so much and visited as many panels as I could throughout the week and ended up with roughly 20-25 pages of notes on everything, along with a new possible career focus. There was a panel on VR Storytelling by Goro Fujita, the best way to tell stories in VR, and a program that is best for animators to use to tell stories. I learned so much there and it even made me rethink using Unity since it involves so much programming, as opposed to Quill, which will let me focus more on the art and story especially since I am not used to coding. Afterward, I got to talk to Goro to learn more about storytelling in VR and how Quill could be useful for me. He told everyone his own “recipe” for the best way to tell stories in VR and how to guide the user through the experience. He also reminded me that it will never be perfect since sometimes when you think a visual or audio cue will guide a person, they will do the opposite of what you want. That is why voice-overs are so important to help them navigate in the story.

I spoke with another professional in the industry and got some advice about my thesis where if coding isn’t my thing, I can always have the camera be controlled by the player and have the environment change as the story moves on rather than force the player to walk around and interact with things. This could also avoid any issues with it taking too long if the user gets lost from everything going on at the showcase. It would also help with saving time to focus on the story rather than spend most of my time struggling with the coding. She noticed the project was pretty ambitious for the time we have and told me to do as much as I could to get the idea across and create it to its full potential later on. She also provided me the name of someone else she knows who specializes in VR who I can reach out to for some advice and resources. Overall, many seem interested in my general idea to tell a story in VR, someone said it is a future in animation and storytelling since it is a new media and new way to do so and all there is left to do at this point is to perfect it and keep practicing with it. I plan to research Quill more to see if I can either use it instead of Unity or even just use it to create the scenes to later add in Unity. I tried the program at CTNX, and it came so naturally to me that I really would like to incorporate it somehow. It was perfect for me to create environments. I’ll have to get other opinions. I’ve met so many wonderful people and professionals who helped me a lot with advice about my personal career goals and with my thesis.

Elaine Ruiz – Prototype #2 Notes

For this 2nd week, I decided to show off some of my script and ask questions about my project. I asked everyone about narrating with voice overs along with subtitles, a recommended time limit, how much of each “stage of abuse” in the cycle should appear to be most effective, and any thoughts on it being interactive. Everyone seemed to agree that there should be voice overs to speed up the process and really help put the user in the story. Of course, this led to a discussion about the kinds of sounds I can include in the story, and I already knew the sound would be a major part of the experience aside from visuals. The general consensus for a time limit was about 10 minutes on average and about 15 minutes absolute max so it isn’t too long to lose interest at the showcase. There wasn’t much agreement on how much should be included from each stage or much of a ratio, but it seems like everyone is very interested in the “gray area” of subtle abuse that people may not realize is bad. I’m going to be working out how I can show that off since sometimes it can be such subtle abuse or gaslighting that even the main character doesn’t process the gaslighting until many many months later or even a year later. That gray area will be important as well to show how easily someone can get trapped into an abusive cycle and not even realize it until they are well out of the relationship and on the road to healing. Something that may help with that is spending more time on the character reflecting on the abuse and all the discoveries of the gaslighting that went on to make the character feel crazy or as if they’re overreacting. Otherwise, there may be an issue of the user not catching on to the abuse at the moment as well if it is so subtle and I spend too much time on it. There won’t be an interactive story in the sense of it containing choices and multiple endings, but I hope to make an interactive environment where maybe if the player looks around enough, they can discover more details behind the story if they’re interested. I could make the whole game short when you simply walk through but have opportunities to uncover more stories and specific details along the way if the player was invested in the story enough. Then at that point, the minimum could be around 5-10 minutes of gameplay that could expand into 15 minutes, or possibly more if the player wishes to spend the time learning more.

Prototype #1 Notes – Elaine Ruiz

So far with starting out in Unity, I realized how much research I’ll have to do to really teach myself Unity. A good portion of it has been trying to figure out how to set up Unity to get the VR aspect of it running before even worrying about gameplay features or how it would look. I think I’ll be sticking to the Oculus Quest, even for testing, because otherwise I will constantly be switching back and forth in settings and there’s too much room for error that way. I’ll have to talk to Josh and/or Dr. Nakra about how often I can access the Oculus Quest when we get it or if I can have one in the meantime until I’m done. I’ve learned it will take me a lot of time to understand Unity and how to code the features I want to include. I’m definitely planning to start out with the basics.

At this point, I may switch between working on the story and programming, especially since I can get more done with the story and worry less about falling behind with coding when it will take more research for me to see much progress. I finally read more of the draft I have going of my script. Most of the story is worked out from after the relationship, but I really need to work on the beginning stages of it. I find it a bit difficult getting it to appeal to nearly everyone that it seems like such a happy relationship at first, depending on how much detail gets added, especially when it is based on a true story. I’m almost reconsidering the story being interactive at this point as well, but I’ll have to see how that will work as I develop the script further from its current draft. I’m planning to go back and find points where I can have the player make choices if I wish to go through with it fully.

Elaine Ruiz – Research Update 2

I’ve been researching the Unity manual to figure out how I can get Virtual Reality working for my prototype. It’s mostly trying to figure out how I can get it working with Windows Mixed Reality for my own testing purposes, and with the Oculus Quest, for final use in the showcase. It would, of course, be ideal to have it work with different types of headsets. It seems like getting it to work with Windows Mixed Reality will be more difficult, and it may be hard to switch back and forth between Windows Mixed Reality and Oculus Quest in between testing. The default seems to be Oculus, which is good since I’d want to use that in the end anyway. I don’t know many people with experience in Unity, but I do know a few friends who are good at coding. I’m definitely going to need their help throughout this process. As for working in Maya, I’m still fairly new to that as well, and thankfully I have many friends with a lot of experience in Maya and can help me with nearly anything when I get to that portion of the project.

I’ve researched much more about the exact effects of domestic violence (DV), or also known as intimate partner violence (IPV), based on scientific research. It seems that emotional or psychological abuse can be more damaging to a person’s mental health and cause more emotional distress than other forms of abuse. It’s hard to tell for sure, but it seems to influence long-term depression. They were 2.06 times as likely to experience minor depression, and others were 1.75 times as likely to experience severe depression compared to women who experience no abuse. It seems like over time, after about 5 years, is when there seems to be less severe depression over those who recently left an abusive relationship. So emotional abuse can really have long-term negative effects on someone and their mental health. It affects so much externally as well, such as credit issues (78%), more money problems (74%), and even some struggle with employment. There was a broad range of 25-50% of women experiencing issues with finding housing. Emotional abuse can really turn someone’s life upside down since it can be such a traumatic event for someone.

Elaine Ruiz – Prototype Plan

  1. November 11th – The goal here is to start the project in Unity and get it working with VR
    • I want to learn the basics as much as I can and learn more about Unity since I’ve never tried creating something in VR before and coding isn’t my thing
  2. November 18th – Start implementing some features and test some things to see if it will work out for the final project
    • There will be a lot of trial and error here given how much research I’ll have to do about Unity
  3. November 25th – Work out the remaining features to finalize what works and what doesn’t
    • Here I hope to know for sure what can work or what may take more work to get to or must be cut out

Overall, it will be a lot of focus on coding and research surrounding Unity since that’s my biggest concern for the project.

Research Update #1 – Elaine

All semester, and most of the past year, I’ve been focusing on what abusive relationships are like and how they can affect victims. I spoke with friends who had their own experiences with abusive relationships. I learned about how it affected them along with the kinds of events that went down for them to realize it was an abusive relationship. One person even said they didn’t realize it was an abusive relationship until months after distancing themselves from the situation because it consisted of a lot of calculated manipulation. It showed me how it can be subtle enough where the victim may not realize what is being done to them, situations like gaslighting, where the abuser attempts to make them feel crazy and eventually make them constantly question themselves and reality.

Aside from personal experiences I’ve witnessed, I also have been visiting AVI every week to discuss abusive relationships and the variety of experiences people can have. People either get out of it easily and fairly soon or feel stuck due to their self-esteem being lowered so often or even financial reasons. We went over the little things that could point to abuse, ranging from physical to emotional and mental abuse. As a result of the abuse, some people have experienced PTSD afterward, as they lose a sense of safety or control of their own life, or even lose trust in general with most people in their life.

Virtual Reality started showing up from as early as the 1950s before it became what we know today. Virtual Reality would be a good option to educate since it is already used for educational purposes for nearly all ages and ranging from social simulators or medical and anatomy education. I personally have seen it used to navigate the human body and learn about the anatomy or even to learn to perform surgeries. It even has been used in prisons to help prisoners learn how to navigate throughout life after they are released from prison. Along with helping prisoners, there is a simulation of what solitary confinement is like to share that experience with the general public to get them to understand what it is like in there. It’s a great example of using VR to make people understand certain unique experiences that not everyone may experience. It has worked well enough so far to make others feel like they understand what it is like. This is why I believe using Virtual Reality is the best option to educate and show people what an abusive relationship can be like and experience it as well as they can without having to go through it.

Finalized Concept – Elaine Ruiz

For this project, I will be creating a Virtual Reality experience on emotionally abusive relationships. It is based on a true story, which is my biggest inspiration behind this project. I originally was going to create this on my own time as an installation based on another project I did for a drawing class, but I decided to combine it with my knowledge from IMM. This project shows off my interest in social issues and the desire to bring more awareness to something, like emotionally abusive relationships and the signs people may not notice. It combines this well with my interest in Virtual Reality and trying to find the best reasons to use VR. I’ve always been interested in art, especially any that comments on issues in society, so this project makes sense for me to create. Others would be interested in this project because it will be displaying emotionally abusive relationships in a unique way. While using VR to display any issues in society isn’t new, I don’t think I have seen something like this done in VR before to display such an issue. I’ve primarily seen it used to show experiences such as what prison may be like, or how to do everyday things in society for prisoners to understand. It will be different from those situations because it won’t be like a literal simulation of a specific situation. It will have different visuals based on metaphors going along with the text of the story. Even though movies may exist to educate on the topic, the VR experience places the person in the situation and will prompt them to make decisions based on the knowledge they will have at the moment. It will push the idea that you can only do so much with what you know at the moment, and it is never as simple as just leaving when things become too difficult because sometimes the victim or even bystanders won’t see it coming. The goal is to put the player in the moment of what is going on and allow them to try and make the decisions a victim may make and do their best to navigate out safely, which isn’t always the easiest to do as the abuser will find ways to turn your choices around to work in their favor. I will start by working primarily in Unity to create a base to make sure all the features function properly before I refine all the 3D modeling for it and make it look the best it can. The script is almost complete, and I have been refining it for the past year now. I will use Twine to create an outline for how the decisions will play out concerning my script before putting the entire thing together.

Research Plan – Elaine Ruiz

I plan to research how to create Virtual Reality in Unity. I will be researching emotionally abusive relationships more than I have so far and how it affects those in the relationship. I will be looking up information about coding in Unity and more about creating the necessary pieces I’ll need in Maya.

People:

  • AVI counselors
  • Josh Fishburn
  • John Kuiphoff

Resources:

  • Playing various games that highlight social issues
  • Playing any VR experiences/games
  • Online Tutorials for VR +more
  • TCNJ Databases and Library
  • Articles, journals, books on abusive relationships, primarily emotionally abusive ones
  • Various talks or workshops on campus about violence in relationships, most likely during October by AVI
  • Books such as Unity virtual reality projects : explore the world of virtual reality by building immersive and fun VR projects using Unity 3D

Revised Concept – Elaine Ruiz

For my thesis, I want to create a Virtual Reality experience through Unity to show what being in an emotionally abusive relationship is like. I’ve been working on the script for roughly a year now, getting the facts I know together since it will be somewhat based on a true story. It will be an interactive story as well, with decisions for the user to do their best to get out of the relationship once it takes its turn. I have been researching abusive relationships to figure out the important details and points to keep in the storyline. I want to be thorough in my story, but I’m working on making sure it isn’t too long to get the point across before people may want to move on from the experience to other projects in the showcase. I will need to work on my coding skills for Unity and figure out the best way to create a forest for the environment, whether it be by using assets or 3D modeling and texturing it all myself if it isn’t too much work for one person until May. I’m even considering using a 360 camera to record a forest environment, but not sure how feasible it is for this purpose. Along with the text that will appear on-screen to tell the story, I may use my mic to record lines to read the story. At the very end, I will put more info on abusive relationships, such as facts and any hotline numbers to help anyone going through a similar situation or know someone who is.

Based on my research so far, using Virtual Reality to highlight social issues isn’t new, there is a Virtual Reality experience based on solitary confinement in prison. I’ve seen it be used to help prisoners understand social situations and what life would be like after life in prison when they transition back into society. I believe mine will be similar in that it will be educational and informative, but it would tell a story along with the visuals being more of a metaphor rather than showing what happened in the story. Someone described their experience with VR as a way to really be able to see life in someone else’s shoes and really understand.

Source on VR experiences: https://narratively.com/can-virtual-reality-change-minds-social-issues/