Virtual Reef
Virtual Reef is an abstract Google Cardboard experience developed to address the current state of the world’s largest living structure: the Great Barrier Reef. The process for creating this application involved modeling various types of coral and rocks using Zbrush and Maya, creating custom textures in Photoshop, mixing original and found audio in Ableton Live, writing c# script, and composing each scene in Unity for a totally graphic-centric immersive experience. Currently, this project functions as an Android app and is in the process of becoming compatible with iOS. The video below is the 360 cinematic version.
Unity, Blender, Z brush, Illustrator, After Effects, Audition
Due to an extended period of unusually high ocean temperatures, the organisms that make up the reef are dying off at an alarming rate. This event is called bleaching, as the loss of these inhabitants causes the reef to lose its color. Though cases of this process have been observed, the Great Barrier Reef is currently experiencing the worst bleaching event in recorded history. It is no coincidence that the reef's health has deteriorated as we humans have continued to be the primary cause of climate change. Virtual Reef aims to expose this information and call attention to our effect on a natural wonder.
This is documentation video of a meditative virtual reality project I developed for the Oculus platform using their first dev kit in partnership with BodySoundTM Chair, and even though this is one of my oldest VR pieces I continually referred to it while I was making Virtual Reef. While I would do so many things over if I were to remake Tunnel the sense of discovery and playfulness I remember having while working on it was something I enjoyed reminding myself of during the crunch of Virtual Reef.
