Project: Valkyrie
An Interactive Guitar Stand
Project: Valkyrie started off as a joke. I was trying to think what would be the most over-the-top thing I can do for the thesis show next year to show off my project. Something that would be most likely at the same booth in E3 that would be showing off my project. My first thought, obviously, was to have a booth babe dressed to look like a rock-inspired valkyrie or some other Norse-type. After thinking more about it and speaking with Diana, I remembered that, within the game, the player receives his magical axe at the feet of the statue of a valkyrie. I thought it would be funny to actually make that statue. It would be a guitar stand with a statue of a valkyrie. When approached, a spotlight would shine down upon the statue and the person approaching with a rock-inspired heavenly choir playing, getting brighter and louder as they got closer.
When Perry then asked about what we wanted to do for our final projects, saying that it was preferably if it had something to do with our thesis, the idea of the stand came back to me and I mentioned it. I said that I could use what I had learned in the semester towards it, as well as needing to learn how to manipulate an outside light. When he said it was possible, I realized that it had to be done.
So I went about talking with Perry and trying to figure out what I needed to get it done. I had to learn how to use a distance sensor (slightly different than the other sensors I had used earlier), a servo (something I've never touched before) and have it turn a belt to manipulate an external dimmer.
As you can see by the above picture, I was able to mount everything to some wood I found in my parents' garage. This is only a prototype of the final FINAL project that I plan to have at the thesis show. As such, I won't be using an actual valkyrie statue (but maybe a printout of one will make an appearance) and the part of the heavenly choir will be played by Moonsorrow's Pakanajuhla. The components are mounted in such a way that they can be removed later, just in case I need to put them into something more visually appealing.
So, how does it work? The distance sensor registers the distance to the nearest object in front of it, and sends that information to the arduino. The arduino calculates the position the servo should have and sends that to the servo, which turns to the appropriate spot. As it turns, it moves the belt which turns the dimmer for the light. In addition, the position is printed out and caught by a Max/MSP patch to change the volume of a piece of music.
In operation (all distances approx.):
From about 6 feet away.
From about 4.5 feet away.
From about 3 feet away.
From about 1.5 feet away.
From about 0.5 a foot away.
The part of the statue will be played by a picture of the character Valkyrie from Marvel Comics.
Hopefully I'll be able to find someone that can craft a statue of some sort for the final show.
The purpose of Project: Valkyrie is to bring the player into the magic circle before they even begin playing the actual game. Their first interaction with the world within RagnaRokk will be to interact with a live action version of something actually within the game. Picking up the magical ax/guitar from the statue will be their first step into the game in order to help promote their suspension of disbelief.
