Experiencing the Finitude of Virtual Space: “C’est la vie, SHOGYO-MUJO

Monday August 24th, 2020

Last year’s NEWVIEW 2019, under the theme “DESIGN YOUR ULTRA EXPERIENCE,” brought together a variety of experiential VR scenes from Japan and abroad.

In this interview, we asked SAKI TAKEGAWA, the creator of “C’est la vie, SHOGYO-MUJO”, which won the KMNZ PRIZE, about the secret of its creation and his vision for the future.

1 Profile
2 Questions about the “unseen end” of the VR space
3 Creating a scene with a story
4 From now on

Profile

Name：SAKI TAKEGAWA（https://www.sktkgw.com/）

3DCG Designer｜Japan

-Congratulations on winning the NEWVIEW AWARD 2019 KMNZ PRIZE! First of all, can you tell us about the production intentions behind your work “C’est la vie, SHOGYO-MUJO”?

Takegawa: I created C’est la vie, SHOGYO-MUJO because I wanted to create a VR work that was a bit fragile and had an end.

The theme of the game is based on the French phrase “this is life” and the Buddhist term “muko mujyo,” which means impermanence.
In the game world, you can play by destroying objects and words that have various meanings with a tin cane (a stick held by monks).

The reason why I chose this theme is because I thought it would be great to immerse myself in a virtual world where I would not age, buildings (or worlds) would not be destroyed by disasters, and I would be able to live comfortably forever.

Therefore, I used the words “Shogyo Mujo” (meaning “nothing in this world lasts forever”) and “C’est la vie” in the title, hoping that through the work, the viewer would be able to sense all kinds of changes and endings.

Creating a scene with a story

– How do you go about creating a scene with a storyline? I’d like to ask you about how you come up with your ideas.

Ms.Takegawa: I was conscious of creating a scene with a lot of changes, so I structured the flow of the scene in an easy-to-understand manner as follows.

First: A room in the real world (at night)
Cheng: Moving to the game world
Transition: Back to the real world (morning).
Conclusion: Move to the space like an end roll or a punchline.

From there, we will come up with ideas to create each spatial image.

Transition: Actual scene that corresponds to the real world room (morning)

1) First, decide what you want to use for the scene and collect reference images: a room, an arcade machine, neon tubes, wire-frame objects, etc.

Decide what you want to use in the scene and collect reference images.

2) Next, find a word or words that you like.
　The next step is to come up with words and phrases that you like, such as “C’est la vie,” which I used in the title, and “miscellaneous” to form the axis of the work.
　In the game world, I wanted to use various words (things that will eventually come to an end, lol) as a three-dimensional logo, so I came up with this idea. The visual direction was somewhat decided, and the rest was decided as I created it.

Actual Idea Memo

Actual scene

Next, when thinking about the structure and interaction, I referred to an article in STYLY Magazine.
It was easy for me to think about what I needed because I knew the beginning and end of the scene.

I decided to make it based on the following system.

・Moving through several spaces
・Let the VR controller hold a wand.
・Destroy objects with the wand

(It was difficult to learn PlayMaker, and as I made it, it became more and more applied. The technical support people at NEWVIEW SCHOOL helped me a lot. Thank you very much.)

When an object is destroyed, a firework particle is generated.

Particle generation

・Neon decorations in the game world (blinking, rotating)

Scenery of the decorated scene

・When you go back and forth in space, objects are shown/hidden.

When you return to the real world, light shines through the window and a memo appears.

and other little tricks I created as I thought of them.

From now on

– Was there anything that went wrong when you implemented the content in the scene?

Ms. Takegawa: I used post-processing to express the shadows (ambient occlusion) in the room scene, but the accuracy of the details is not very high.
So I created a separate texture with the shadows baked in using 3d software, and prepared a special shader to overlay the shadows on the regular texture.
Since STYLY cannot upload the shadow baking information by unity’s Lightmap, I used texture baking as a solution.

(* Currently (2020/08/25), Lightmap data can be uploaded.

Shader setting screen

With AO

Without AO

– Lastly, can you tell us about your future prospects?

Ms. Takegawa: In the past few years, I’ve come to feel that VR and AR are becoming more and more familiar.
It’s no longer considered unusual to create something in VR, and users have become more discerning, so I’m wondering what to do. (laughs)
(laughs) C’est la vie, SHOGYO-MUJO was created with the idea that it would appeal to a certain type of person, so I would like to challenge myself to create something more popular and accessible.

The “NEWVIEW AWARDS 2020,” now in its third year, has been announced and applications are now being accepted. From this year, not only VR but also AR scenes will be accepted, which is expected to greatly expand the genre of the works. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of works will emerge in the future.

To learn more about the production method of “C’est la vie, SHOGYO-MUJO”, click here.

Profile

Questions about the “unseen end” of the VR space

Creating a scene with a story

From now on