Once Go Back
May 2017, New York
VR, Storytelling, Scent Experience
Individual Thesis Project
Once Go Back is a VR storytelling project using VR technology and scent installation to reproduce the impressive family memories that I had when I was young.
Site Title
Storyboard
When I was a child, my dad always enjoyed cooking for me. The most exciting thing for me was entering the kitchen and hear the sound of food singing in the oil. My father used to sing and tell stories to me, and I sat in front of him, listening to the story and enjoying the good smell of food. In summer day, the sunshine was coming through the clear window, painting my Dad’s face with a warm golden glow. At that time I felt full of happiness and joy.
Research
Since the memory is so vivid I chose to use VR technology to design my project. I tried to learn how to make immersive experience in VR, and I made some researches in Pearl, Dear Angelica and Giant as references. I found besides the impressive stories, they all had their own features to enhance the feelings during experience, such as the beautiful hand-drawing style, the physical vibration installation and so on.
Since my story takes place in kitchen and has tight connections with food and smells, I got the idea that using scent to enhance the feeling during my VR experience.
And I also interviewed some people about their memories of food and scent when they were young.
Model and Scene Building
Character & Animation
Scent Installation & User Testing
As the previous research mentioned, food or scent is a good key to open people's memory and release their emotions. So I designed the interaction that user can walk freely and grab food during the experience. And they can experience the scent accordingly.