Project Name:
Project Description:
what is the project, what is the overall concept and theme, and what kind of experience you were striving to create. Fly 2 D2 offers a glimpse into the daily life of a fly, exploring its experiences in a familiar yet often overlooked environment - D2. Through immersive soundscapes and visual storytelling, the project explores the intriguing world of a fly's perspective. The project originated from a curiosity about ambient sounds evolved into a deeper exploration of the fly's perspective. A question comes into mind during brainstorm: why are there so many flies in D2? What do they perceive in this space? How do they navigate their surroundings? Divided into three distinct sections - D2 wide shot, grill, and dining table - the website guides users through the fly's encounters. From the bustling atmosphere of the wide shot to the enticing aroma of the grill, each section immerses the audience in the fly's sensory experiences. As the story unfolds, the fly's journey is shaped by the irresistible allure of fried food, driving it from one location to another. However, a fly, as a fragile and small creature, is hard to escape the fate of being crashed by a human being. This absurd, but expected ending gives a taste of dark humor.
Process:
Flies, known for their shortsightedness, serve as the core of our website's narrative. Despite the perspective being that of a fly, the soundscape immerses users in the environment from a human perspective. Small yet significant, the Favicon symbolizes the fly's presence. The central concept revolves around the gradual clarity of imagery and amplification of sound as users scroll. Progression occurs as the fly reacts to the enticing aroma of fried food, ultimately being driven away by its allure.
- Visuals:
For the images accompanying the audio in the website, we decided to take our own pictures of D2. We thought it would be especially effective to have the photos correspond with the audio—for example, the second image, a picture of fried food from the grill, is accompanied by an audio clip focusing on sounds from the grill. As users engage with the website from the perspective of a fly, we also thought that it would make sense for us to try and emulate what the world might look like through a fly’s compound eyes. We achieved this effect by editing the images using Adobe Photoshop—most critical to this process was making a pattern of repeating hexagons and overlaying it as a filter on top of the images. Using the edited images, we decided to add one more touch of interactivity by making the image become less blurry as the user scrolls down the page. This adds an air of curiosity by allowing for the user to spend more time listening to the audio and guessing what the image (and the origin of the audio) might be.
- Audio:
Every sound is triggered by clicking the sound button on the top left corner. If it’s not triggered, the icon shows a cross next to the button. The main modification we did to the sound is layering.
- D2 wide shot: We recorded the D2 ambience for this section. We cut multiple takes, piecing together the ones that have the sound of people moving the chair, talking, and cutleries touching, with a fade-in fade out & denoise effect.
- Grill: We recorded the sound of the grill for this section but only used the beginning part of it beause the sizzlig is not clear enough. We have three stock sizzling sounds for the grill that are introduced one by one to show some depth. All are added with an equalizer so that they blend in with the ambience better.
- Dining table: This part is composed of the ambience of D1 (becuase it has less noise), the recorded sound of people eating, the chewing & swalloing sound that is added after the sound of knife and fork touching. Apart from these, we also added the sound of a piece of dialogue, integrating with the sound of the fly.
Reflection/Evaluation:
We plan to keep the website simple but engaging. It was hard to decide how many indications we should add to direct the users while not taking them away from our concepts. Making the transitions smooth and accurate was the hardest part. Blurriness is an approach we take: which implies that the fly approaches the scene. Initially, the webpage is only composed of the image, and the sound button, but by diving deeper into the story, we decide to add text to enrich the character ‘fly’ by showing its personality, which is seeking for food. This personalized touch also made the ending more impactful.