Selfies

I’ve been exploring the use of selfies and instagram stories as a way to break the fourth wall within the virtual worlds of Joint Simulation. Further alluding to the idea that these are real people existing within this space; whilst digital in their appearance, they are tethered to someone.

Using framing which is common with the convention of IG / Snapchat stories, this mini-series are more hand-held and give the impression of a real person living their life within this world. These moments are more fleeting, less staged, and give a personable insight into a specific individual within this domain.

The process for creating such clips starts off with a conventional Instagram video, shot in the real world. This is then motion-tracked maintaining all the nuanced motion of the human filmmaker. A 3D scene can be drawn on top of the real-world location, either directly referencing it or completely abstracted. This is a similar concept to that of blending between real-people / virtual-avatars that can be seen in Collaborative World.