Sophie Vickers

My third-year project Buko’s World has been based in exploring the use of hand drawn illustration within immersive technologies. Buko’s World began with a drawing of an alien monkey baby which I decided I wanted to create a world for. I aimed to design a fully functioning world of organisms and habitats which an audience could experience tangibly. This led me to pursuing virtual reality as a medium. Through virtual reality I could actually build the world and have an audience actively experience it. Furthermore, I have been focusing on how I can keep my hand drawn illustrations integral to the work whilst using immersive technologies. I have spent the last year learning how to use computer software such as Maya and Unity to build and animate the world. All of the organisms, scenery and monkeys are hand drawn illustrations which I have taken into the 3d space. The overall end goal with the project is to create a fully functioning, animated experience in virtual reality. Although I no longer have access to the equipment, I am still working on creating 360° videos for online platforms.

In Buko’s World the monkeys spend the night foraging for food in the underground cave systems. During the daytime the monkey’s venture above ground to a harsh and barren landscape. Most of the organisms in Buko’s World cannot handle the harsh conditions above ground however the monkeys have a trick. They have formed a mutualistic relationship with a creature called the parasite. When the monkeys venture above ground they enter a dormant state and the parasite comes to life. My final animation will reveal this relationship and the daily life of the monkeys.

Moving forwards after graduation I hope to continue exploring animation within immersive and interactive technologies.

This is footage from inside a virtual reality scene I created prior to lockdown. I was experimenting with how my hand drawn illustrations would look inside virtual reality. In order to build this scene, I turned my illustrations into 2D planes in Maya and then brought these elements into Unity. Within Unity I then arranged my scenes and set up the teleportation and virtual reality functions. The end goal with the project is to create a fully functioning animated experience of Buko’s World in virtual reality.