Final Presentation By Team Conceptual Vitaminz

Team CV The Vitaminz

Angela Tsui Graphic Designer
Bonny Cheng Project Manager Corey Lee Web Designer Daniel Song Artist Eric Ho - Programmer

The Vita-Mentors
Michael Filimowicz
Jim Bizzocchi Philippe Pasquier

Project Concept Summary (Refined)

Concept #1 Refinement: Use numerous speeches from children who lived in Surrey instead of solely smiles Combine CGI bubbles with embedded real footages of children + other clear CGI bubbles Get away from narrative genre and move more towards to looping with no beginning and end Aim for the goal of producing artificial bubbles with best realistic look-and-feel

Project Vision
To provide audio-video contents in order to create a space for contemplating the variety and importance of the worlds languages
A celebration of the International Mother Language Day Connect Surrey citizens together with the theme of common language and help to shape for a better community

Why does this Project Matter?

Cultural context:
The title of the work is a pun on the idea of a lingua franca or

common language, and is intended to provoke thoughts on the diversity and commonalities of language across cultures. Connect people from different nations together

Social context:
Community engagement in the City of Surrey

Why does this Project Matter?

Technology:
Spoken language is back-grounded by the sound of flowing water,

and the video imagery of native speakers is modulated by the subtle optics of a rippling reflective pool and rain curtains An integration of different media and natural elements to produce one public artwork for everyone

User experience:
interactive element as visitors to Lingua Aqua will be able to make

their own disturbances in the reflective pool to alter the imagery.

User Interaction:

Target Audience
Citizens in the City of Surrey
Visitors to the Bear Creek Park Everyone from all nations are welcomed All age

Personas
A Canadian 5-year-old male kid:
He is born and grew up in a middle-class

family and live near the Bear Creek Park; currently attending in an elementary school in Surrey. He is active, enthusiastic, talkative, and shown curiosity to new things. He always likes to touch anything with his hands but removes them once he feels its hot.

Personas
A Chinese housewife:
She immigrated to Canada since 1999 from

Shanghai, China. She has been lived in Burnaby from 1999 to 2003, and then moved to Surrey with her three sons. Her family has a lower than average annual income, since her oldest son is still in Grade 7 and her husband is working as a cook in a Chinese restaurant. Her highest level of education is completion of high school in China. She puts quite a lot of time for chores and parenting her sons; sometimes she likes to walk to the park and gossip with other Chinese mothers. She finds herself more comfortable to talk with others in Chinese.

Personas
An Indian elderly:

He immigrated to Surrey, Canada since 1964 from India. He is now 67 years old and living with his sons family. His wife died 10 years ago due to a car accident on the 91 Highway and he has been depressed for a long time. He spends most of his time walking in the park daily, usually starting in the morning at 7 am.

Concept #1: The Bubble

Original Pitch: Smile is the universal common

language for everyone around the world

Refined Pitch: Global Connection by one

common language

Use bubbles to symbolize nations

Pictures of children with different nationalities

Storyboard (Revised)

User Study
Summary on user results: Concerns on technical difficulties realistic presentation of bubbles Relevancy of our concepts with common language and City of Surrey Concerns on the level of user interaction & encouragement from user audience Overall, constructive feedbacks were given & the team entered the concept refinement stage to corporate feedbacks

Feedback Analysis
Concept Design: Refined age group of the interviewed subjects from children teenagers (~age 6 16) to children only (~age 4 11), to be more suitable for this concept Feedbacks support to continue using bubbles as the main element to convey the message of happiness, peace, and multiculturalism

Feedback Analysis
Narrative/Interaction: Refine the video so that it does not follow a narrative storyline with flow:

visitors in the Bear Creek Park (user-audience) who come and look at the installation are not expected to stay for a long time to watch the whole video. Therefore, each video clip should be short, succinct, and straightforward in terms of the message being conveyed

Feedback Analysis
Narrative/Interaction: Feedbacks suggest some kind of conversations would be good rather than just smile or laughter Conversations would be more interesting to listen to, and more suitable with the multicultural theme.

Feedback Analysis
User Experience: Mentors concerns: visual outcome when the video displays on the monitor and being viewed under water Consider to use different methods for testing for user experience

ie. Glass tank with monitor underneath to imitate the actual installation

Feedback Analysis
Functionality: Be aware of:

the visibility of the bubbles: dark background behind bubbles suitable area for filming position of the video recorder: aware of the bubbles hitting the camera lens weather condition: natural lighting

Feedback Analysis
Technical Design: Suggested to use real bubbles and CGI bubbles mixing with each other in natural environment The faces of children will only be shown in the CGI bubbles to reduce technical difficulties and time required to spend in the post-production stage

Feedback Analysis
Technical Design (cont.): Consider the speed of the real bubbles floating in the air Real bubbles with wind move fast naturally, and some adjustments need to be made in the post-production stage to slow the movement down and complement them with the artificial movement of the CGI bubbles

Feedback Analysis
Technical Design (cont.): Consider the deformation of the faces of kids that will be embedded inside the CGI bubbles Mentors gave constructive comments about the programs and software that can perform good bubblelike, circular effects

Refinement Stage after Feedbacks

Various size of bubbles coming out from one single

point on screen Bubbles appear at inconsistent time intervals throughout the video CGI bubbles to be created at post-production stage by Adobe After Effects Background: blue sky or natural environment to be more suitable for bubbles Embedded videos : children saying things like How are you? in their mother language, serve as nice greetings to visitors

Refinement Development from Feedbacks:

Concept #1 Development Process

Week 8: Contacted certain schools (principal) to invite participants Prepare Design Brief Document for User-Feedback Session Mentors Meeting #3 feedbacks include:

Mixing actual live shooting of bubbles with CGI bubbles Suggested to slow down the speed of bubbles Suggested to begin testing phase for technical designs: See the bubbles effect under actual water Visibility & Realistic

Week 8 Documentation

Concept #1 Development Process

Week 9: User-Feedback Session Preparation Initial testing CGI bubbles in Adobe After Effects Bubble video testing #1 (VIDEO)

Week 9 Documentation
(Bubble Testing Video #1)

Concept #1 Development Process

Week 10: Refinement Phase for better realistic look-and-feel on bubbles Organize and document results from User-Feedback Session Mentors Meeting #4, feedbacks include:

Eliminate extra background on the childrens videos (closeups on faces) Add deformation on bubbles to enhance the look of bubbles in nature

Week 10 Documentation

Week 10 Documentation

Concept #1 Development Process

Week 11: Recruit children subjects from shopping mall to participate for video shooting Capture video footages from camcorder & cut out individual videos for embedding Prepare Low-Fidelity Prototype Plan for Bubble Concept Bubble video testing #2 (VIDEO)

Week 11 Documentation

Week 11 Documentation
(Bubble Testing Video #2)

Concept #1 Development Process

Week 12: Further Refinement Phase for better realistic look-andfeel on bubbles Bubble video testing #3 (VIDEO) Mentors Meeting #5, feedbacks include:

For more realistic bubbles, the followings are suggested: Surface area & single lighting source Glare variation on bubbles surface Deformation of bubbles while moving Better transparency

Week 12 Documentation
(Bubble Testing Video #3)

Concept #1 Development Process

Week 13: Shoot videos of the natural environment to use for background as contrast to foregrounds bubbles Technical testing with water tank & display monitor under certain depth of water Further Refinement Phase for bubbles visual appearance

Week 13 Documentation

Concept #1 Development Process

Week 14: Further Refinement Phase for bubbles visual appearance Continue in technical testing with water tank & display monitor under certain depth of water for different videos Explore different effects available in After Effects for CGI bubbles Rendering Stage Final Presentation Preparation

Week 14 Documentation

Concept #1 Development (User Experience)

Mood: Children in Surrey with feelings of happiness & peace Convey a strong message of one connection around the globe
Visual Experience: Video content shown under water , with ripple effects produced by rain curtains (viewable from top/bottom) The depth of water adds on the video content to create additional interesting texture/pattern

Concept #1 Development (User Experience)

Audio Experience: Sound of speeches utter from 4 columns, with different amount of volume (depending on the location of bubbles) Echo effects on sounds to produce the feeling of sounds coming from under water Allow users to make their decisions to choose one voice over the others by standing close to one column
User Interaction: Able to create own disturbance on the water surface

Concept #1 Development (Technical Components)

Hardware Devices Used:
Tripod for outdoor video shooting & filming

participated subjects (children) Video camera (Canon XH A1) for HD video quality

Concept #1 Development (Technical Components)

Hardware Devices Used (cont.):
Minidisk recorder (Zoom H2 Portable Recorder)

for outdoor sound recording Cardioid shotgun microphone (Audio Technica Microphone ATR55) Reflector

Concept #1 Development (Technical Components)

Software Devices Used:
Adobe After Effects for producing CGI bubbles

& relevant visual effects

Effects used include bubble FX effect plugin, foam, color keying, etc

Low-Fidelity Prototype Plan (for March 2009 Showcase)

Presentation of the Bubble Concept video in video &

audio format Video & audio content to be displayed on 15 Monitor, which placed under a glass tank Individual speakers for different channels of sounds Provide user interaction that allows visitors to create water disturbance

Low-Fidelity Prototype Plan (for March 2009 Showcase)

Content Description: Bubbles generated from the bottom of pool, which is layered with stones. The sky during sunset becomes the reflection on the surface of the bubbles.

Low-Fidelity Prototype Plan - Rationale

The main purpose of our video is to provoke the

commonalities of language across cultures based on childrens talks. In addition, the video creates an
immersive environment, which enhances the depth of pool in Lingua Aqua. Visitors to Bear Creek Park can then experience massive 3D bubbles with childrens talks, generated from the bottom of the pool which is layered with stones.

Low-Fidelity Prototype Plan - Rationale

The form of this prototype can effectively represents

the visual & audio experience of the actual LinguaAqua installation

Low-Fidelity Prototype Plan - Descriptions

Form: audio-visual display under water in a glass tank, the visual & audio experience will be similar to the actual look-and-feel of the Lingua-Aqua installation
Functionality: prototype will be functional as in allowing users to view the video and play with water to produce ripple effects, the video will be about 40 secs in length with looping

Low-Fidelity Prototype Plan - Descriptions

Interaction: users can interact with the video making producing ripple effects on the water Technical Design: HD display monitor for video content Personal computer to attach to monitor for video playing Extension cord Video adapter & cords for proper video display Speakers suitable for the audio content Glass tank filled with sufficient amount of water

Next Phase: Final Refinement on Concept #1

Further final refinement on the bubble concept, base on feedbacks from instructors and mentors on final presentation

Next Phase: Concept #2 & Other Short Video Clips

Continue in 2009 spring
Concept #2: The Speed Concept: Pitch: Different feels of perception in one perspective Detailed Plan for this concept development will be discussed at the beginning of next term Other short video clips: Make use of more simple, straightforward filming techniques to express multicultural theme

Low-Fidelity Prototype (The Bubble Video)

Demonstration