Snösätra Graffiti Haven in VR
As a part of my class’s festival Berghs Virtual Exhibition, my group decided to work together with Snösätra legal graffiti area. BVE’s goal was to give a virtual stage to creators who have lost their. Since part of Snösätra has been demolished, we wanted to make sure they had a forever room to evolve in.
My main responsibilities: 3D modeling and painting, soundscape design, photography
Why Snösätra?
Starting this project, we knew we wanted to work with art. Art as in painting or maybe sculptures. We discussed what kind of art and how to showcase it before we finally landed in the idea about Snösätra. Snösätra inspires us since it is a place where pros and beginners meet. It’s one of a few places where graffiti is legal, where it also is valued and celebrated as an artform.
Since some of Snösätra had to be demolished in favor of a natural reserve, we wanted to make sure that they would have a place that will last. A place they can expand or shrink however they want.
Our core pillars
There were a few pillars we wanted to build Snösätra VR world on:
Interaction: we wanted the visitors to be able to interact with the world.
A representation, not a replica: we wanted to build based on feeling, not on replication.
Wishes of Snösätra crew: core materials, objects, pieces and uniqueness.
Nature meets concrete: We wanted to make sure that nature and concrete are both represented, since this mix of environments is special for Snösätra.
The art: We wanted the art to stand out and be the hero of the world.
Exploration: We wanted the world to be filled with new discoveries everywhere you looked. This should be a world where you hang out for a while.
Worldbuilding
Setting
Snösätra Graffiti H(e)aven has the perfect mix of surrealism and realism. We have managed to incorporate trademark materials and textures like concrete, rust and corrugated sheets. We built the world around the crane which the Snösätra crew thought an important part of Snösätra. We built the Snösätra wall of fame in an open world, built upon platforms on an island in the sky.
This gave Snösätra the feeling of h(e)aven that is has in person. Greenery, trees and birds were added along with containers and old junk. Immediately the place felt more representative of its real world location in Rågsved, Stockholm. We ended up happier with this perfect, imperfect world which had a more realistic touch to it. Bonus was that our realistic texturing made this world stand out from the other participantes at BVE.
Interaction
Since Snösätra is a place for inspiration and creativity, it was a given that you had do be able to spray paint yourself. After all, this is what Snösätra is all about. With the limited possibilities Mozilla Hubs (our world building engine) had, we were happy that this was something you could do. The painting a visitor makes remains 10 minutes or until that visitor leaves the room.
Hubs allowed for painting on other objects, so we created empty walls for people to paint on. Some got creative and started painting on floors and containers as well.
Objects & Textures
Containers, painted concrete walls, corrugated sheets, fences, old wood, metal, trash barrels, and tires — this is what we built the world on. Mixed with trees and plants made out of 2D-plains to get that early 2000’s feeling. All the objects which I made or painted are listed below. They are modelled and painted by me, except for the pallet which I only painted.
Everything is old and rusted of course, they have been in Snösätra forever. Our main textures were metallic, rusty, old wood, mold and scratches.
Sound & Music
Since Snösätra is surrounded by nature, this is something you should hear and not just see. I created a soundscape with wind and common Swedish birds to set the tone. Graffiti itself has its own sounds - spraying and shaking of the bottle. While nature can be heard everywhere, the graffiti sound is added as an audio queue by empty walls - nudging you to paint yourself and understanding where you’re meant to.
On top of the hanging platforms, music is streaming from heavy speakers. The graffiti community comes with its own sense of music style, so we chose a track that went good with this. I will not add it to my portfolio since I didn’t make it myself, but if you visit the world at the bottom of the page you can listen in.
Tools
Cinema 4D
All the 3D models are made with C4D, as well as simple painting and texturing of small objects such as the chain and the 2D-plain greenery.
Substance Painter
More complicated models are painted and textured in Substance Painter, since you can do so much more with this program than with C4D.
Mozilla Hubs / Spoke
The world itself is built in C4D as one object and than imported into Spoke, since building in C4D allows for a better flow. In Spoke we added misc. like greenery and spray bottles, as well a a surprise for the exploring visitor. Sound and music are added here. Mozilla Hubs is where the world is located and where you can visit it.
How we collaborated
We all collaborated in the ideation process, deciding what we wanted to do and how. We planned together and then divided the work amongst ourselves based on who wanted to do what as well as what they felt comfortable in doing/or wanted to learn.
Each member in our team is a part of my class at Berghs.
Main responsibilities
Me: modeling, painting, sound mix, photography of paintings
Christoffer Näll: modeling, painting, combination of world
Felix Eurén: modeling, photography clean up, texture creation
Rebecca Helland: photography clean up, modeling