Physical Project Development Studio: Thesis 2024—Storytime

What is Storytime?

Storytime is a miniature interactive experience that uses toylike miniatures to create a surreal dream-like environment that the user can control and play around with to help craft a story and watch it unfold via physical and digital animations. 

What does it do?

• Storytime unfolds on a tabletop with a blank canvas aesthetic

• Users shape the narrative by using physical interactions 

• Projection mapping empowers users to control different aspects of the set

• Characters trigger custom 2D animated sequences in storybook-style illustrations inspired by diverse film styles

Physical Form Inspiration

Physical Project Development Studio

Week 1 Assignment:

Sketch out the setting/storyboard of the story/idea

Fabrication

House:

Laser cutting the house front—first trial was burnt because the wood from Home Depot is apparently not meant for laser cutting.

Second try was much better using wood from Blick, I modified the design a bit from the concept art to fit the vertical monitor exactly and changed the shapes of some windows for variety and a more natural architecture.

Projection Fabric Background:

One of my friends from IDM suggested I use 'scrim' projection fabric for the background instead of a glass-like material. It's much cheaper and more flexible to work with and easy to install and take apart. He also lent me his leftover fabric, so now I need to make a support stand to hold it in place. I talked to Yeseul about the structure and she had an idea to laser cut frames and glue the fabric to them like a paper lantern and then hang it up to the ceiling so it can collapse when not in use.

Planned structure: