When we initially worked with Playmaker in class I thought to myself, “This is pretty easy.” So, I when I went to start assignment three, I figured I’d spend maybe 30-45 minutes creating a somewhat complex animation in a somewhat complex environment. I was very wrong. It took me three plus attempts, and almost two hours to finally figure out how to get a treasure box to open and close and a whale to dive into the ground upon command. It was a frustrating process to say the least.

My breakthrough came when I found the tutorial that was posted on our class page. Including the time it took to make the tutorial, it took me only 20 minutes to make my scene. The lesson here is to look at the tutorials first, not last.

My problems aside, this is an awesome feature to have learned. It opens up so many more possibilities within our scenes and it adds an interactive element that is absolutely critical to improving user experience. What fun is VR if nothing moves? The whole point is to simulate real life, where things are in constant motion, so this is an exciting skill to learn.

It also gives the creator the power to make little games within the scene. You can send your user activate something, which then will activate something else, and so on and so forth.

Honestly, just having an increased control over what you want your scene to become is pretty exhilarating. It’s almost like you’re god, and you’ve found a new power that allows you to alter the earth a little more. I’m very excited to take this newly acquired skill set and take it to heights much higher than the simple animations I put on the whale and treasure box.