Polyphonic – Immersive Art Portfolio

POLYPHONIC is our take on a city gone cyberpunk – told via virtual concert.

Though colorful and enticing at first glance, this high-tech world has its citizens in a chokehold. Our prompt was “speculative futures” — so we explored the threat of data collection & mass surveillance in a world where technology advances faster than it can be regulated. While partying on a rooftop to progressive house music, players will hopefully realize they’re being watched.

Up to 10 players could load into the multiplayer EDM experience and dance the night away, take turns being the DJ, or hack into a drone & explore the city. Various parts of the environment are programmed to pulse and shapeshift to the music.

Made with: Unity, FMOD, Mirror Networking

Role: Wore many hats

Creative director. Led the overall vision of the project. Analyzed the user experience of in-person concerts vs. music videos to devise the best crossover of the two. Drafted list of potential actions & interactions.
Network programmer. Reworked Unity scene & prefabs to support multiplayer! (We ran out of time 1 step away from online play: hosting the server)
Technical artist? Set up animations & optimized game performance.
Web & UI designer.

Photobashing for virtual concert. Inspiration for environment, avatars, special effects, and focal point.

Art direction!

I set the tone, mood & artistic style of the concert by compiling reference images for the team.

We needed an environment that felt alive no matter which way the player was facing, a "focal point" that would primarily hold their attention (like the performer in a real-life concert), a visual representation of each player, and a variety of animated effects to keep fans entertained throughout.

Choosing one of 3 cyberpunk-themed characters for the Polyphonic virtual concert

Character select.

A preview screen I made where players could choose from 3 Readyplayer.me characters before joining the concert.

Flying by a drone during the Polyphonic virtual concert

Moshing on a rooftop during Polyphonic cyberpunk virtual concert

Audio reactivity.

The DJ and backdrop pulse to the beat of the song currently playing :)

Website design.

We needed an official site to pitch and showcase our concert. I put together a layout that could hold our description, feature list, media, player controls, and the link to enter.

Post-it wall :)

I had notes stuck on every surface imaginable for this project – here are some I kept of our initial brainstorm, daily progress, and goals for the midterm & final:

Choosing animations.

Some fun playing with sliders in Mixamo 😛

Special thanks to my team:

Sound Designer

Bryan Santiago

Environment Artist

Julian Frost

Software Developer

Arash Izadi

Unity / Web Developer

Shanice Smith