Context:Project for Immersive Media, a class at the University of Michigan


Role:Environment designer,sound designer


Concept:
Very large synthesizer


Tools:
UnityVR, Wwise

For this project, I was part of a group that was interested in creating an impossible interface for musical expression that could immerse the user while affording them some control. Based on the classical concept of “music of the spheres” from Holst’s Planets Suite and other pieces of classical media, we created a massive virtual solar system that also functioned as a drone generator.

How it works

There are a series of invisible colliders on each planet’s orbit, positioned in a few different locations. When the planet hits the collider, a sound is played. the pitch and volume of the sound is dependent on the angle and speed of the planet’s orbit as well as the planet’s size, which is adjustable as part of the UI. 

Each individual component of the drone can be edited to some degree by the user using a small handheld array of planets to control the physical behavior and size of the large corresponding planet. Slider functions were left ambiguous to encourage creative exploration in the project, but correspond to planet size, x/y/z axis rotation, and orbit speed. Although not functional in this video demo, the sliders were touch-sensitive.

My role in this project was environment design, UI design, and sound design. I designed the virtual environment and a majority of the sounds using Wwise with Unity, and was responsible for implementing the touch menu with the handheld planets. 


Creating a VR synthesizer was a very interesting experience, and one that I’d love to recreate sometime soon. It was a ton of fun to develop!