To reflect further from my prototypes and to critically look over all of this blog experiences I found there are so many immersive softwares out there that I have yet to try and those I have I would definitely need to continue to practise within so that I could gain more skills within these softwares. Along with this the more I familiarise myself with each of these immersive technologies and programs I could form even more options for types of projects I could create, including transmedia where I use multiple immersive platforms.
Looking back overall within this progression of using different softwares and technologies I have found that there are certain softwares, although they are powerful and could produce interesting projects, I would personally not want to explore further than I have already. There were also some softwares that I would need to look into getting new technology for if I wanted to further experiment or explore with the software such as Unreal.
The main technologies that I would want to continue with would be Unity, Madmapper, Blender and most likely most of the art softwares. This is due to the fact that I believe I can work the most efficiently within these softwares compared to others and could possibly combine elements to formulate a final major project within at least one of these that could fully engage an audience. Along with this I throughout experimenting with a large range of immersive technologies and softwares found these to be the most suitable for my skillset to take forward to create something further, especially if I would want to continue creating something within the fantastical or whimsical aesthetic.
As previously stated in the previous reflections, blogs and experiments, even though I have experimented with each of these softwares and have decided which ones I think works for me, I would have to decide what software I would use for a final project and this decision would spring from story ideas. This will allow me to use my reflections on each software to understand which software would be most suitable for whatever story concept I finally decide on.
During this experimental period I managed to test out a range of immersive technologies as well as research into these technologies and what they are capable of. Through doing this I learnt how to use each software to an effective degree and was even able to create efficiently within most of the software as well.
After exploring a range of technologies and researching them, there are also some of the technologies that I have not (yet) talked about. Despite this I have managed to gain an understanding of how these other technologies and tools could and have been used to create immersive spaces. These other technologies, such as AR/Hoverlay, Touchdesigner, 360 degree camera and audio, I will research and explore further on my own in order to both explore more immersive softwares and to branch out to explore different technologies and therefore learn new immersive techniques.
Despite this, reflecting on all the experimentation and prototype I am aware of some of the major issues that I faced. The issues I ran into during this entire process was that often software did not work within my technology, or I had a lack of technology and other areas I lacked in confidence using the softwares to utilise the entity of the platforms. Some of these issues I ran into could be fixed through renting new technology, sticking with software that runs on my technology and practising more within each software.
Due to experiencing some of these issues I would not be moving forwards as of right now with some of the softwares, the main reason being that due to not having technology that smoothly functions with the software it would make using the tools incredibly difficult so therefore even though I am not going to be using software such as Unreal 5 within the close future I would still keep expanding my knowledge on the engine until it is possible for me to use the software within the future. The main software that I would not continue with from the ones I have explored and talked about thus far would have to be Unreal and Isadora, this is mainly due to these being massive softwares that require large amounts of time to use, understand and gain proper efficiency within the softwares.
During this process I struggled with learning aspects of some of the technologies but a lot of these struggles I looked into and started to learn ways to get around them. An example of this would be when I first entered Blender I did not know how to properly navigate the the layout and the way that I solved this was learning the best ways to navigate and learning the different shortcuts to making the navigation of the interface easier, the more I practised doing this the easier navigating Blender became. I found that a lot of my struggles came from inexperience within using the different softwares and the main way that I solved my struggles with the different softwares was to just constantly practise within the software and learn different ways to use the software.
Despite this there were positives that I found using each and every one of the softwares that I used so far, such as within Unreal you can get a range of different textures that allows for realistic environments or within Blender you can create a range of 3D models that can be transferred into other softwares or rendered in Blender itself.
Through this process I learnt about how to use each softwares and throughout my experiments I was able to find new ways of using different aspects of the programs to make scenes and art as small prototype projects. After experimenting with each software I plan to continue building my knowledge and skills within each software that I want to do a project in and then eventually learn to gain more confidence, especially within the bigger engines such as Unity.
In conclusion, so far I have worked within: Unity, Unreal, Blender, Nomad, Madmapper and Isadora alongside the more artistic softwares such as Procreate, Procreate Dreams, Endlesspaper, Adobe and Gravity Sketch. By experimenting with so much softwares I can see which tools I need to learn more of, what each one is capable of producing and also see what I can collaborate with several of these softwares to create striking or engaging immersive narratives. Even though there are areas that I need to improve upon to gain more skills I still was able to develop a range of skills within each software to be able to form a project and therefore I would be able to fully work within these softwares to create stories that audiences could interact with and have narrative structures that are engaging, that give a sense of power to the audience such as branching narrative structures. These ideas can be moved forward either through using one particular software or even using multiple platforms to form different aspects of the story.
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