For our Multimedia project at the University of Pretoria, my lecturer instructed us to build a virtual environment based on any theme we desired. From the images it should be obvious what theme I chose!
Sonic the Hedgehog!
A lot of care was taken to make the environment feel natural, for instance, every section of fence is rotated slightly so that it does not feel too perfect.
I tried to achieve a sense of scale here, by having a massive tube like structure in the background, with smaller trees below it and the avatar being the smallest. Yet again, take note of small details such as the rotation of the palm trees. each tree is exactly the same, but just by adjusting the scale, rotation and angling it a bit, the trees take on a life of their own.
A view from the top. Here I went for a more “structured approach”, making this small bit of environment seem like it was built properly, so the fences are straight, the elevator has straight parts and just a slight bit of foliage growing to show that it has been around for a while. By clicking on the balls in the tube, you could sit in the ball and roll all the way down.
Just another picture showing the detail from above, even showing flowers on top of the wall. The user might never ever look there, but that kind of detail shows a well planned and thought out environment
The mystic ruins altar that I built. The limitation of the second life engine is that if an object is just slightly higher than another, the avatar cannot walk over it. So the stairs were a challenge in the beginning. But just by building an invisible platform over the stairs, the user could feel like he was walking up the stairs. Just a bit of trickery to make a user feel comfortable 😉
I decided to shape the islands themed around the characters. Details people! 😀
Pollution due to the chemical plants and the Death egg have turned this island a slightly disturbing shade of poisoned pink and purple. To further emphasize that things are wrong, the fences are planted wrong and flowers grow triple their usual size! Even the trees glow with a fresh coat of pollution!
The Death Egg from a little bit closer. Glowing eyes sold seperately 😛
The inside of the Death Egg, complete with the Death Egg Robot! Click on his moustache to let a particle generator to set it on fire! The space background also slowly rotates around, giving a feeling of movement.
Sonic the hedgehog and any characters and ideas that are associated with this world is copyrighted to Sega and is used under fair use.
Feel free to ask me questions if you want to learn a bit about virtual environments!
Sean Brand's Blog 