Garden of Changes

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Research Project (School of Art, Design & Media / MOE grant)

UE4 / Maya / Houdini / Metashape / Substance

DIRECTOR: ELKE REINHUBER
PRODUCER: BENJAMIN SEIDE
SOUND DESIGN: ROSS WILLIAMS
LEAD UE4 ARTIST: ZAID SALIHIN
UE4 ARTIST: CHO WEI LI JUSTIN / CHAN GUANHUA

DESCRIPTION: The VR room-scale experience GARDEN OF CHANGES alters the common playbook for Virtual Reality experiences, the audience is invited to stroll through the recreated landscape of a digitally preserved Chinese Garden while pondering about themselves. To help with the introspective practice, the users have to follow a set of rules, inspired by the ancient iChing. Devising a question and looking for answers while roaming, the park recalibrates the medium from the format of sensation and spectacle to the domain of dreams and inspiration.

WORKED ON: Digital recreation of Nanyang Technological University’s Yunnan Garden (pre-2019) in Virtual Reality. Land topology and foliage locations based on available land surveys. Structures modelled based on photogrammetry captures. Rock sculptures based on photogrammetry captures. Paths and drains procedurally modelled in Houdini. UE4 scripting.