How Young Students can Create Virtual Reality Content

You ask the questions, we ask the community for answers.

7 min readJul 19, 2017

Originally published at www.vudream.com on July 19, 2017.

1. Jennifer Nilsson, AR/VR enthusiast

The popularity of VR is consistently increasing and pushes the boundaries. Thus the question how to create VR content becomes one among the foremost commonly asked. Virtual reality still has not made its grand breakthrough as a result of the reliance on several technical factors and the progress done by other disciplines.But we can state that the process is accelerating as the VR technology finds its way to hearts of the mass consumer which also makes marketers and manufacturers more interested in it.

How to create content for a virtual reality app

There are two ways of creating content for your virtual reality app:

1. Taking a 360-degree immersive videos.

2. Making a 3D animation or construction.

Of the two possibilities for creating VR content, taking a 360-degree video is the cheaper solution since your only expenses are the camera and possible editing costs. 360-degree videos are useful if you want to capture a video footage of an event from the real world. This could be a concert or the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. Just like any other ordinary video, your footage must be entertaining in the first place. Otherwise, no one is going to watch it even with VR technology attached. This is why shouldn’t be afraid to experiment, use multiple entry points, and bold angles. Also, bear in mind that you’re creating content for viewers that have different levels of familiarity with VR. It is important to get everyone satisfied, so you must think of multiples ways to interact with the content. Also don’t forget about clear instructions, choices, and hints to remind users about VR options.

When filming, it is important to maintain the camera in a still position. If the camera moves around, it must maintain even movements, since otherwise it will cause motion sickness for the user.

3D animation is the way to go when you want to achieve better immersion and give your app a more real feel. Users are free to move wherever they want, take a closer look at objects around, and interact with them as they would in real life.

One of the easiest ways to create a virtual environment is to use Structure Sensor that will work as a 3D scanner while being attached to a tablet. Everything that catches this scanner in the real world becomes a virtual 3D model. It includes rooms, furniture, and even people! Structure Sensor is compatible with Android tablets and Apple’s iPad.

If you want to go big, then you can try using game engines like Unity or Unreal. These are game development tools in the first place, but nothing prevents you from using them to create 3D models, constructions, and interior designs. With the help of detailed tutorials and dedicated team of professionals, you can deliver a solid 3D VR experience on both engines. For developers familiar with Adobe After Effects we would also recommend checking Mettle’s Skybox Studio.

2. Emily Pascual, Won the 2016 MIT VR/AR Hackathon

Think about VR as its own medium

Context is an important part of this question. What is the setting, duration, and goal for the student and you? Will this be in a classroom environment, at home, club project with many students or 1–1? What is the budget for camera equipment and software, operating devices, and VR headset? Out of all the VR headsets available today, the Google Cardboard or headsets with Cardboard-level immersion is recommended for young students.

If you are planning to integrate VR into a lesson what overall goal and purpose does it serve? What makes VR the ideal creation tool to use? Ask yourself what the, “why.” This will help you and the students understand the scope and enjoy the process. VR allows your students to put their imagination into a brand new medium, and immerse themselves in the final creation. The best way to decide what kind of content you want to make is to sample some from YouTube 360/180, Cardboard games on the app stores, and educational focused content from EdTech companies.

Ideation and brainstorming with young students

When creating in VR you can introduce young students to design thinking. It may be best to make the students play a bigger part of the ideation and design process before getting them working in Unity, C# code, or 3D modeling — especially elementary aged students and younger. From my experience making eBooks with young students, using traditional non-technical creation tools has been the most effective way to start.

Have students begin with hand drawing, painting, free-writing, getting inspiration online and concepting before diving into 3D modeling or scripting. Likewise go through planning a video, with blocking and script writing, if desired, before firing off a 360 camera project. These planning and production steps will help the project gain a vision and makes the VR creation a clearer and more simplified process. Remember to set time limits on each stage. This will keep the project progressing, as a colleague of mine says, “Art is never finished, it is only abandoned.”

Using Unity

Download the latest version of Unity
Have a topic ready for them or begin brainstorming ideas and objects for their VR creation
Make a final list of objects, or assets, that will be created for the VR project (either done by the instructor or with the student)
Use the a free 3D modeling and rendering software,
Google made this process a lot more novice friendly with Blocks, check it out for simple 3D modeling (Note: it only works with Vive or Rift, systems recommended for adult and teenage use)
Blender or a student version of Maya you can get that for free.
These two require learning the basics of 3D modeling, I would stick with primitives like creating a snowman to begin.

Using 360 Video

Buy a durable 360° camera that is known to be easy to use and won’t break if a child is operating it
Try this under $100 camera that is an add-on to your smartphone
Decide if you want to learn to stitch the footage or buy a camera that does that for you (prices vary)
Plan where and when to shoot, keep in mind that the camera will capture the entire view when planning
Try one of these 360 sketching app

The most popular uses for VR content involve narratives, storytelling, and games. Show and teach students elements of storytelling prior to getting started. Students can create all new worlds or recreate something they already have experience or have learned about. A group VR project can be a great way to combine skill sets in children, quicken the production process, and practice social learning! Treating VR as a form of Project Based Learning (PBL) would be a great combination of pedagogy and blended learning.

3. Paolo Sylos Labini, works at University of Bari

If you want to create VR content, you can try a game engine such as Unity, which is free and has a big community.

Unity is quite simple to learn, as there is a lot of material online and the community is very helpful.

If you don’t know programming, you may need to learn some first. You can probably do that while learning the basis of Unity, but for advanced apps you will need a stronger foundation.

When you have grasped the foundamental concepts (let’s say you built your first simple 3D game) you can start experimenting with VR. It’s quite easy to implement VR in unity (at least at an amateur level); there is a free SteamVR asset that lets you import VR in your virtual world with a few clicks. Be sure you have a VR headset for testing.

If you want to produce quality content that’s a long way to go (months, if you start from zero programming knowledge) but you could create your first VR application in a week or so.

Plus, if you are a student, programming is a skill that will soon become important to you.

Conclusion

Check back on this page frequently for updates and additions.

We’ve seen a tremendous amount of disruptive change coming from the Virtual Reality Industry. It is surely certain that this kind of content will accelerate based on trends in the future.

You most likely have some other VR ideas that can change the world! Share them with us on social media!