3D Music World

3D Music World

Concept: A collection of interactive 3d experiences exploring new ways of musical expression using simple game like interaction design. I believe computers can be used so that anyone, regardless of previous ability or talent, can allow someone to have an enjoyable experience creating music.This piece experiements with several means to that end.

Interface design: The piece is divided into 5 "movements" which all present different experiences for the user.

Movement 1: The user can play with a 3d representation of the 12 tones of the western musical scale by dragging the mouse over the cubes to play back corresponding notes.

Movement 2: An extension of the first Movement, the user can explore a grid of musical cubes based off of 20th century 12 tone theory.

Movement 3: The user can explore a virtual 3d city using the arrow keys hearing different background sounds depending on location. When the sphere (a virtual playback head of sorts) collides with the structures within the world, musical sounds are triggered.

Movement 4: A more efficiently coded remake of the 3d Music Synthesizer experiment.

Movement 5: A 3D compositional tool that allows the user to build connecting pipes between platforms to allow a sphere to travel from platform to platform playing back corresponding musical loops using a simple Artificial Intelligence pathfinding algorithm.

Technical Design: The entire 3d world was created in 3d Studio Max. It was then imported into Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio for programming. Sound Design was done using several MIDI synthesizers and Digital Performer.

Click here to play with the project! (Shockwave Required)

All Materials Copyright © 2004 Edward Tang. All materials on this site including interactive programs, images, videos, and text are the property of Edward Tang and is protected by copyright and are not to be reproduced without permission. All Rights Reserved.