Wisp World · Apple Vision Pro
via Liquid City → “Wisp World is a beautifully crafted ornament for your desk, and the home of a tiny forest spirit. Feed your new friend, and engage in thought-provoking and entertaining conversations together to help the plants grow.
Specially designed to take advantage of visionOS’ unique capabilities, Wisp sits alongside your other apps for you to nurture and bond with over time. It pairs satisfying and magical interactions with relaxing sounds, a visually stunning miniature world, and the rich lore from our mobile AR game Overbeast.”
I was responsible for translating 2D concepts into 3D through modelling and animation of plant assets in Cinema 4D, Maya and ZBrush. I reconfigured existing assets as well as modelled elements from scratch, ensuring the miniature environment possessed a depth and otherworldly flair.
The Knoll · Plant Growth
Collaborating closely with a small team and using the existing visual language of Liquid City’s AR game Overbeast, I worked closely with Art Directors and Technical Artists to define a beautiful, ornamental composition that was visually interesting from all angles at each stage of the growth process.
The Knoll · Plant Growth Details
The Knoll · Full Plant Growth Cycle
During the experience, the Knoll grows as the user engages in deeper conversations with Wisp, the AI agent which calls this mini world home.
Leaves sprout from the dormant tree trunk in the centre of the composition; moss grows, obscures and breaks away from the rock; a whole host of intricate, bulbous, and lush plants spring from its surface.
This ensured a streamlined pipeline between myself, Technical Artists and Programmers, where modular assets could be balanced and fine tuned on the fly.
The Knoll · Plant Animation System
It was crucial to set up an animation system for each of the plants, where ambient wind animations could be layered over both static and growth animations.
I responded to art direction and experimented with sculpting in ZBrush to filter through our different options. It was important to consider how the Knoll’s form would impact interactivity — if it sat upon the desk or floated above it, or if it was made of one rocky form or a whole archipelago of individual islands.
The Knoll · Look Development
There were many design questions to be answered at the start of the project. What would the overall form of the Knoll be, and what kind of surface would it have? Could it be crystalline and organic like the bed of a coral reef; smooth and bulbous like a cloud of moss growth; or comprised of hard volcanic lines and rocky strata?
The Knoll · Ground Cover
To further set Wisp apart as a beautiful ornamental object, we considered how detailed the Knoll itself would be. Lush surface texture was achieved through ground cover present throughout all growth stages.
It was important for these to be as undemanding as possible on resources. I modelled a variety of basic shapes which were then covered in a variety of transparent textures.
UI · Animation
Elsewhere, I assisted UI Designers by bringing their work to life. From 2D paths, I modelled and bended interfaces to the shape of the Knoll, considering how it would be experienced in three dimensions by the user.
An opening animation for the interface was also required, to which I applied a swift, fluid motion with various details.