[Interaction 2] Visual & Design Development - Animation of Water Lilies

I started to prototype for interaction 2 in August by setting up the LIDAR and understanding how lidar works in Unity. At first, I am confused about whether to build the visuals in 2D or 3D. I have tried to model it on Blender by using the axis for the flowers to bloom.

Design Development

The animation of the flowers could not export to Unity as it uses the axis as the driver to animate the flower. Thus, I have tried to export the flowers and animate them in Unity. The animations of the flowers are only limited to scale and rotation, thus it does not portray the effort of using 3D flowers as the visual can be achieved in 2D form.



Unity Shader


I also start exploring on shader graph in unity as it is quite new to me. I also apply URP and global volume for the glowing effect. 

Reflection

The animation and visual still working in progress but looks ok. Of course, there is still room for improvements in the animation. I personally not satisfied with the animation with just rotating and scaling. I will try on rigging the petals for the next step to see the possible outcome of it.

Rigging on Blender


I have tried rigging on Blender by attaching armature on each of the petals. The animations seems so much better than the previous version as it looks more organic.

Experimentations on Shader Graph






I have experimented with shader graphs and learned some of the ways to achieve different effects using nodes. However, the visual seems a bit too flat. Therefore, the lighting, shaders, and animations have to make further improvements. 

Projected Visuals


At this stage, I'm still not satisfied with the visuals. Further exploration of the visuals will be carried out in the future.

Exploration on Rigging




I also explored on different numbers of petals and directions of the rotation. These animations allow me to create different water lilies for future use.

Bibliography

Brackeys (2018) Basics of Shader Graph - Unity Tutorial. Youtube. May 28. Available at: LINK 

Dorya Tutorial (2022) Water Lily Pond – Blender Tutorial with Commentary – Modeling Shading and Animation. Youtube. Aug 18. Available at: LINK

Gabriel Aguiar Prod. (2021) Unity Shader Graph - Glowing Crystals Tutorial. Youtube. Jun 29. Available at: LINK

Welcome to creativeworld (2020) Blender 2.92 - Lotus blossoming animation tutorial. Youtube. Dec 8. Available at: LINK

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