The Gadget Show - Cernunnos
VR EXPERIENCE - imagination
Is it bad that we enjoyed seeing our product scaring innocent students?
THE Brief
If horror films don’t give you goosebumps and nightmares, a fully immersive and thrilling horror VR experience surely will. We designed and developed one based on Imagination’s concept and storyboard inspired by the horned Celtic god, Cernunnos. Using HTC Vive headsets we tormented film students from Regents University and tested the efficiency of VR horror by showing them the story in two different formats, VR and 2D - measuring their heart rates and galvanic skin responses.
Is it bad that we enjoyed seeing our product scaring innocent students?
Our Approach
A dark woodland, creepy trees and weird noises, a very Blair Witch Project environment.
The VR trailer was interactive, where a Vive controller manifested as a torch in the virtual world. It would shine light on the environment, revealing all of the scary elements we incorporated.
The results of the experiment - or torment session as you can see in the next video - were featured on Channel 5, on November 25, 2016. Check us out scaring Jason from the Gadget Show.
The full episode can be seen here.
How did we do it
The 3D environment and all of the props were created using Maya, the assets were then laid out into the Unity game engine, to be triggered at specific times which built up the tension throughout.
As everyone knows, sound effects tend to be the scariest part of horror films, so we added 3D sound effects to enhance the experience and add a certain element of uncertainty and, if you’re fond of horror, anticipation.
What's worse than hearing a branch crack under someone's shoe? - not knowing where it came from.
TEAM
Head of Interactive Lukasz Rynski
Head of 3D Ormond Taylor
Lead 3D artist Alex Piglowski
3D Artist Pov Prokapas
Sound Design Klash Boom Bang
