Jon's IDM Blog

Pre-Thesis Week 1 reflection

This week, I thought about what I would make for my thesis quite a bit. I’ve been playing around with ideas in my head ever since I made my application video for IDM actually. I had some pretty insane ideas, maybe silly ones, or genius ones, I’m not sure. To me, it seemed like everyone is always trying to find deep artistic meaning in their works so that was the mindset I had.

Before I started any classes, had ideas of maybe someone would be hanging out in VR with some Arduino rigged 3D printed objects and would solve puzzles with a friend who watched and helped them out with an AR feed and I’d write up something about perceived reality. After my first semester, I made a VR tech demo where you got some haptic feedback with an Arduino-driven device that reads your movement while you were being motion captured in a mo-cap suit. I thought maybe I’d make something up about a case for the importance of impressiveness or something like that. I soon got a cool part-time gig on top of my normal job doing unreal engine work for NYU over at the R-Lab. The semester after that I learned and solved online VR multiplayer which was pretty hard to figure out on my end. I thought maybe it would be cool to do a VR multiplayer experience where two people could interact with each other somehow and write about the social aspect of a perceived real person or some nonsense. This last summer I was going to spend it really leveling up my programming skills but ended up getting recruited to teach an extended reality course through NYU during the break as well as work on a museum exhibit. This happened due to my achievements during my VR class but also because I made an awesome project during my AR class that stole the show.

It all actually kind of hit me when I was zoning out a bit during the slideshow last week but I’ve trying to find or give deep meaning to my work just because that’s what everyone else in the program was interested in while what my strengths are and what got me so far in my career as well as continuously being recognized for those additional opportunities was just doing what I was good at and into, making cool stuff for the sake of it. It might have been my AR class that exampled this the most but I pitched a couple of meaningful artsy projects like the rest of my classmates but my professor leaned me towards doing what I wanted and what would blow the audience away. So I made a big silly giant monster mecha battle and it did just that. Nothing important, nothing deep, just pure coolness and it worked. So with this mindset, I think I’ll find myself successful again as I have in the past, focusing on the project and just making what I want.

I’ve been doing 3D art for quite some time now but joining IDM I’ve been evolving my technical side in hopes of being able to do more game development or finding a new path as a technical artist. Being good at 3D art does mean that I’m pretty good with using most multimedia software but it doesn’t mean I can program super well. It’s been challenging but I’ve been able to meet those bumps in the road head-on so far with what I’ve been able to learn. I’ve had a couple of goals I had set out that are still in the works but Python/advanced Maya rigging and UE4 blueprints/advanced shaders are what I still plan to overcome. With what I’ve learned through my classes, I think VR and motion capture are some highlights that I think I want to implement into what I finish with, probably alongside my main skillsets of 3D art and game dev.

I found the exercise prompts during the session last week surprisingly effective in relaxing my rigid and focused thinking and opened me to a lot of things to consider and add to the ideas I had floating around and forming new ideas as well. The what if’s came pretty smoothly to me, I think I might have been subconsciously thinking “what if” a lot every time I think about the thesis. Organizing my what-ifs, I paired them up in a meaningful way to myself to help me think about them.

what if I focused on what I was good at
what if I explored something I were curious to learn about but not completely sure of

With these, I think I will play towards my strengths as a professional 3D artist but I still want to challenge myself and step out of my comfort zone to learn a bit too. For me, this means diving into a bit of tech and doing some Unreal Engine scripting, something I have experience with but still struggle with.

what if I make something I were proud of for myself without caring what people think
what if I made something meaningful and learned about myself
what if I make something memorable and groundbreaking

I think I’ll definitely make something I want to show off on my portfolio but I should consider how others feel. Personally, I found that I don’t really care about making some sort of social, political, or philosophical statement but who knows maybe something meaningful will come out of me and I’ll surprise myself. I would like to make something that people will remember but I don’t know if I’ll be discovering anything too new but it would be cool if I did!

what if I made something fun like a game that people and myself could enjoy
what if I made something I wouldn't get tired of working on, something I can keep adding to.
what if I had a lot of time or lost keep working on my project

If I could make something that people, myself included, generally want to experience and possibly in multiple sessions like a really fun game, I think that would mean a lot. If I did crack something that entertained me I think the motivation to keep working on it continuously and possibly sacrificing sleep or other priorities would be super ideal!

Reflecting on all these ideas while I write this I think what I really want to do is just make a super cool-looking and fun VR game. Graphics and gameplay aside, storytelling is the one pillar that I value in games that I might have to omit but I’ll see. But yeah, I don't think I'll be making something to change the world, invoke change or cause any kind of impact but I think that's okay.

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