Project Title: 3D Animated Virtual Campus Tour
Client: Staff Development, Aston University
Brief
As part of the Induction DVD project for Staff Development, we were commissioned to make an animated 3-Dimensional
rendering of the entire geography of the university campus. This was
primarily to be used as a Virtual Tour for the Staff Development
project, taking the new staff member on a journey around the campus
grounds and past the important buildings onsite, to get them acquainted
with their environment. However, now that the design and programming
have been done, the established graphics can subsequently be used for
other projects, either as a two dimensional ‘flat map’ design or a 3-D
‘virtual world’ for any university department which requires it.
Media:
After writing our script, taking the viewer on
a walking tour around the campus, we created an eye level walking tour
around the campus, so that the buildings would all be seen from the
same perspective as the pedestrian. This meant that the onscreen image
would match as closely as possible the real-life view. We then
concentrated most of our time and resources on to the creation of a
perfect, photo-realistic depiction of the Main Building, as this is the
acknowledged ‘hub’ of the university geographical layout, recreating
every window, doorway and aspect of that building in highly accurate,
3-D detail and then siting it within a 2-D map of the campus. Into this
presentation were added video clips of various departments within the
Main Building and still images of buildings which popped up when the
fly-through passed by each location.
The strong yet simple design and styling of the mapping means that
the virtual tour and campus blueprint can be updated and amended as the
university’s building projects change the real-world geography of the
campus.
Comment:
“This is a great example of the way that
the Aston Media production crew can approach a brief and create a body
of work that has value greater than for the project itself. The end
result is an impressive and sturdy piece of animated video that has
plenty of uses and a very long shelf life for the university.”
Nick Birch
Producer/Director
Aston Media.
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