Letters From Afar is a VR interactive storytelling piece that consists of four letters I wrote to my mom when studying away in Abu Dhabi. It uses visuals to convey my emotional ups and downs during that period of time, and enables interactions with VR controllers to enrich audience engagement and in-experience immersiveness.
Concepts
In the conceptual development phase, I focused on the term “virtual presence.” Traditionally, in VR storytelling films, audiences are put in a god’s perspective in which they watch the storyline, but not necessarily engaged. In this project, I tried to strengthen virtual presence by manipulating camera position, for example, in a scene simulating my skydiving experience, and user interactions, for instance, the audience action of rotating the texts simulates me browsing through news on social media, and the audience action of dragging the vocabulary simulates me reciting them.
Storyboard
I made seven scenes to visualize the four letters.
Scripts
I wrote the four letters, recorded my voice of reading them and added it to the scenes as a voiceover.
- The First Letter
Hey Mom,
It’s been three months in Abu Dhabi. Hot and sunny every day. I like relaxing on a nearby beach. Recently I went on a solo trip to the World Cup. I met cool people there and felt the vibe.
Oh, and I even tried skydiving over the Palm Dubai. From 4000 meters up. It’s crazy, right?
But, Mom, I miss you all the time. Feels far, especially when I need a VPN just to video chat with you.
- The Second Letter
Hi Mom,
Things are a bit rough here with the world acting up. Shanghai is going through a lot, and I’m getting snippets of it on social media. It’s unsettling not knowing what’s happening, what you are experiencing, and not being there with you. I can only get limited news online. I’m concerned. Take care of yourself.
- The Third Letter
Hi Mom,
New Year’s was like a dream! Picture this: fireworks lighting up the Dubai sky, together with the amazing fountain performance. And there was no freezing cold—I just needed a light coat!
I’m hoping good things come our way, for you in Shanghai too. This winter was a mix of hard work and fun. GRE prep felt like a nightmare, especially the vocabulary, but it’s done now. (more) Such a nice break!
- The Fourth Letter
Hey Mom,
It’s the night before I head back. Feeling a mix of things—missing the rhythm of Abu Dhabi, a bit lonely, but also excited to be back in familiar surroundings. Tomorrow’s a new chapter, and I’ll carry these stardust moments with me. Can’t wait to share it all with you soon.
Development
In the first scene, I used beachball to represent “I like relaxing on a nearby beach” and football to indicate that “I went on a trip to the World Cup.” They can be random generated by triggering controllers.
In both the covid news scene and the GRE vocabulary scene, I used text geometries surrounding the audiences, but the color tone was different. In the former, I wanted to express concerns and homesick, while in the latter, the feelings of enriching and fulfilling were conveyed. In terms of the interaction, audiences can rotate whole text group in the former scene, it was inspired by the linear movement of scroll the news and blogs. Differently, in the latter scene, audiences can drag individual vocabulary and mess up the scene. After a certain text is released, it becomes green, which is like one memorizes a vocabulary after reciting.
The firework scene was initially inplemented using sphere geometries, but later modified with point geometries, which improved the performance. Further improvements can be made to make the fireworks appear in more randomized positions. I applied some randomness to the fireworks. But during the IMA showcase, I found many people struggling to find the fireworks, and one audience even took of the voggles, assuming that it was a blank scene that signaled the end of the story. So careful refinements should be made, taking into account user experience.
By building this scene with a mosque and a series of animated seagulls, I wanted to convey loneliness and homesick, while at the same time also missing Abu Dhabi – the place I lived for almost a year. This kind of mixed feeling happens during sunset, so the scene background was also carefully chosen to represent sunset moments. I also added a user interaction, as an experiment with controller directions. With a controller (of index 1), audiences are able to rotate the mosque when they move their arms left and right.
Experience the project with this link! https://cocoyuy.github.io/lfa/
