The Trapped Soul
Updated: Feb 22, 2020
The inspiration behind the story
10/18/2019
Coincidentally, these days I have just finished the Avengers Destruction Chapter. Of course, as a big fan of Marvel, I will never miss any details. In the entire film, the most attractive item of the movie is the infinity gauntlet, so the main inspiration of story comes from one of the infinite gems in Marvel comics. (Soul stone).
The Soul Gem :
Allows the user to steal, control, manipulate, and alter living and dead souls. The Soul Gem is also the gateway to an idyllic pocket universe. At full potential, the Soul Gem grants the user control over all life in the universe.
Why choose a type of story is adventure?
The reason why I select adventure rather than other styles such as romantic, horror, suspense story is that a consideration of time and users' emotion, because the whole experience of time is about one and a half minutes, it needs to create a compact storyline meanwhile the content of the story should avoid too horrible to experience to make sure users have a positive experience. Therefore, adventure story is the best choice, it typically has fast-paced, action-packed plot lines
A Script - The Trapped Soul
10/23/2019
Story Structure
This week, I finished the whole structure of the story. It is a first-person perspective short VR adventure story. The user is asked by an escaped soul to save its friends whose souls are trapped in the soul stone. There are two scenes and three events. In each events, I add some interactions which are very crucial elements to drive the develpoment of the story, which could build a strong connection between the user and story.
Scene 1: A Dim loft and An Old Photo
In the dim loft, you were sitting front the desk. The faint candlelight illuminated a piece of stone and an old photo (an antiquities discovered during an expedition). Suddenly, an escaped soul jumped out to ask you for help.
Scene2: Underground Galaxy
There was a bridge connect to the center of platform in the cave. There was hot lava under the bridge. When you looked up at the top of the cave, you were shocked by the supernatural phenomenon. Countless trapped souls flashed a kind of faint blue light at the top of the cave around the stalactites that had experienced annual erosion for millennia, which looked like an endless galaxy. Suddenly, an escaped soul flew to you and guided you to the depths of the cave.
Scene 3: Broke the Soul Stone
When you reached to the center of the cave, there was an artificially carved stone pillar. A fist-sized stone suspended on the platform. The escaped soul seemed to be very restless. It started to try to hit the stone, again and again, to break the stone with its body and asked you for help it to break the stone together.
Scene 4: The Angry Guard
Suddenly, the Soul Stone crushed and smashed. Light waves spread out again and again from the center of the stone pillar with strong shock wave. You were popped up far by the power. A huge 4-head monster came out from the under the bridge suddenly. Unfortunately, you couldn’t escape and had to defeat it with your strength.
Scene 5: Light of Hope
The Stone of Soul was completely destroyed and countless souls slowly rise from the bottom of the valley. Eventually, you saved these creatures and escaped from the underground cave.
Scenes Design - An Old Loft & An Underground Cave
10/30/2019
The Old, Messy Loft
According to my script, I draw some sketches to my ideas. At the beginning of the story, in order to create a mysterious atmosphere to keep interesting of users to follow the story, I created an old, messy loft and added an important item 'a piece of the soul stone' to drive the development of the story.
An Underground Galaxy
In order to create a fantastic atmosphere, I find a lot of pictures as references. One of the most magical and beautiful scenes from New Zealand’s Glowworm caves. So I create an underground cave.
The Exacped Soul (Circul NPC)
The escaped soul is the crucial clue to link the entire story. It will communicate with the user to make a strong connection between users and the story.
Characters Design - The Escaped Soul & A Four - Heads Monster
11/08/2019
The Exacped Soul (A Circul NPC)
This week I finished two characters design. The escaped soul is the crucial clue to link the entire story. It will communicate with the user to make a strong connection between users and the story.
The Four-Head Monster
Another important role is a horrible monster who guards the soul stone and at the end of the story, the user will have a fierce battle with this monster. This part is the climax of the story. The main visual concept of the monster comes from a combination of Venetian monster with a dragon.
Interactive Elements Design
11/16/2019
Break the soul stone
This is a very crucial interaction which starts the climax of the story, The escaped soul will guide users to break the soul stone to increase the presence of users in the story. In order to increase a sense of realism, the user will be popped up for by the power and there is an intensive earthquake, which indicates that a danger event will come in.
An Interesting VR Creative Tool - Tilt Brush
11/23/2019
An interesting process of creating a scene
This week, according to my sketches, I created a 3d sketch by using tilt-brush. It is very quick and convenient for me to create a basic concept environment, such as the main space structure of the environment, the main visual colour style and the right proportion of virtual items.
Hot Lava & Beautiful blue starry sky
It is very amazing to use dynamic tilt-brush to create hot lava and a beautiful sky to create a thrilling and fantastic atmosphere.
3D Elements Design - Scene & Monster
11/30/2019
Huge work - Loft & Underground Cave
It is a really huge work. I research a lot of reference images about the old loft and natural landscape to create a thrilling and fantastic underground cave.
The horrible four-heads Monster
This is the final 3d visual concept of the four-heads monster and thanks to the blender, it is convenient and efficient for me to create an animation for this monster.
Final Project - The Trapped Soul
12/04/2019
The trapped soul & a problem
This video is about the entire process of the story, but I found a problem at the end of the interaction part, it is difficult for people to find stones to pick up stones to attack the monster in this part, which has a negative experience for them. So, I will add visual function in the future to increase the light of items' surface when users find stones to attack the monster.
I will continue to add some details to promote the experience in the future. If you want to experience it please contact me!
Comments