Other Spring - U.N.O.
U.N.O.
/wu.no/
Universal - Network Observer
OTHER SPRING is a research essay, a virtual world, and a short film. The project is inspired by an ancient Chinese fable THE TALE OF THE PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING about a fisherman accidentally venturing into a mysterious peach blossom spring that is surrounded by a thick fog.
OS critically investigates the societal implications of computational mediation, automation, and AI. Drawing from ZZYW's research paper Computational Haze, the project comprises a virtual world and a short film exploring the potential of ‘heretical computing’ (based on a lecture by Alexander R. Galloway, 2020) to challenge the monolithic idea of efficiency and precision that characterizes our contemporary information society.
Full film at the VH Award Archive: https://artlab.hyundai.com/editorial/watch/the-5th-vh-award-zzyw-other-spring
CREDITS
Created by: ZZYW(Yang Wang & Zhenzhen Qi)
Creative Producer: Matthew J.X. Doyle
UE5 Technical Environment Artist: Cecil Boey
Worldmaking Architect: Mehrdad Ranjbar
Research Architect: Junling Zhuang
Film Editor/Graphic Designer: Qinru Zhang
Music Composer: Maxwell Sterling
80Lv Article Interview: https://80.lv/articles/how-to-create-a-detailed-and-visually-rich-sci-fi-scene-in-ue5/
I created different sets of tillable textures in Substance 3D Designer. This is mainly due to the amount of 3D models for the 2 worlds being unmanageable for painted textures.
For optimization, I combined the texture maps into appropriate color channels.
I made a procedural tool from Houdini that exports 2 clusters of cables from random points on the specific cube structures for additional meshes to manifest a strong sense of interconnections in the world of UNO.
I exposed a few parameters for fast iterations, achieving the effects of customizing the scatter points and cable XYZ curve strengths.
Cable gentle swing playback in UE5.
Cable animated shader:
1. Early version using digital textures from Substance Designer and scan effect.
2. Optic fiber visuals using transparency with light pulsing effects.
For the Data Center spheres, I created a custom digital banding effect that can be fully customized. The core components of the shader include: Creating the bands in X/Y/Z directions, randomized UV grid noise, and swappable textures.
A rundown on using exposed parameters to adjust to the effects according to artistic needs.
For the transparent Observation Center spheres, I designed the shader to manifest a warp effect by creating 2 core components: distorting the IOR from UV radial noise applied to custom Textures, and masking the effects with Fresnel.
A rundown on using exposed parameters to adjust to the effects according to artistic needs.