Multidisciplinary Project II - Assignment 2

 

My Assignment 2 focuses mainly on execution and refinement of the concept developed in Assignment 1. Entering this stage, I began to scrutinise my concept idea more carefully. Since I already had a clear concept foundation from Assignment 1, this preparation allowed me to start the execution phase earlier while continuously refining my idea at the same time. Rather than treating execution as a separate phase, I approached Assignment 2 as an iterative process of building, testing, and improving my design.

For the augmented reality component, I started by designing high-fidelity wireframes in Figma, with all prototypes linked together to simulate the user flow. As the AR application involves coded logic such as AR detection, motif discovery, porcelain collection, and a redemption page that appears after all porcelains are discovered, some features could not be fully simulated in Figma. Therefore, I treated Figma primarily as a platform to test and refine the UI design and user experience, while the actual functional development was carried out in Unity.

While developing the AR app in Unity, I focused on building the logic and functionality using low-fidelity placeholders, as long as the code worked and the interactions were functional. At the same time, I continued refining the UI design in Figma. Since the design and logic development do not directly affect each other, this parallel workflow allowed me to efficiently improve both aspects. Once the UI design was finalised, I could directly import it into Unity and replace the placeholders. Overall, the progress of the AR app was smooth, with only minor bugs occurring occasionally. One limitation I encountered was that deploying the app publicly requires a paid Unity licence. As a result, the app is currently only available on my personal phone, but it is still fully usable, interactive, and visually polished.

For the projection mapping component, the main requirements were the porcelain projection canvas, a projector, and animated illustrations. Before creating animations in After Effects, I first modelled a chupu porcelain in 3D and prepared it for 3D printing. The model was printed using PLA material, ensuring that the surface would not be reflective when projection light is cast onto it. In parallel, I began creating illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. I started with motif patterns for the chupu, kamcheng, and tiffin, as these motifs were also required for the AR application. After completing these, I gradually created additional illustrations that would be used in the spatial design before moving into storyboarding and animation.

In terms of spatial design, I began experimenting with the rattan structure in Blender. As the structure was difficult to visualise or sketch accurately in 2D, working directly in 3D helped me better translate my ideas into a tangible form. I then created a basic structure for both the interior and exterior spatial design and applied simple materials to visualise the overall form. Based on feedback from my lecturer, I made further improvements to the exterior design to ensure it was not just a simple dome shape, but more visually engaging.

Using the illustrations created in Adobe Illustrator, I also learned how to map the motifs accurately onto the porcelain models. This process required UV mapping, which was relatively new to me, but through experimentation and adjustments, I was able to achieve a satisfactory result. These mapped porcelain models were then used consistently across the spatial design visualisation and the AR application, ensuring visual coherence throughout the project.

Overall, Assignment 2 was a process of execution and refinement happening simultaneously. Rather than simply executing the ideas developed in Assignment 1, I continuously improved and adjusted the design to enhance its visual quality and user experience. This iterative approach allowed the project to evolve over time, and I plan to continue refining the work further to achieve the best possible outcome.