Designing For VR: How 2D And 3D Design Differ

Ever wondered how art elements are designed for virtual reality (VR) experiences? At first glance, it may seem impressively difficult, but the process is quite straightforward.

When designing for VR, the trick is to create components believable within the context of that specific experience and operable within the constraints of the system they run on. As experiences become more robust and diverse, the need for different kinds of art assets is essential for setting up an immersive experience. On a very general level, we will talk about the basic types of art assets: two-dimensional and three-dimensional assets.

PROCESS

On a personal note, I have worked in a wide range of mediums. My training began in fine art but eventually shifted to graphic design, 3D design, motion graphics, and finally VR. Each medium has a unique set of standards for output. Understanding the elements and principles of design is a great starting foundation because these themes apply to all mediums. They can be used to your advantage or broken to compliment the composition. That is design’s greatest ideology; there’s no one formula for success.

From my experience, every successful creative process begins by understanding the outcome. I narrowed down three questions to start the process:

1. On which platform will the product live?
2. What is its purpose?
3. Who comprises the audience that will consume it?

Since we are focusing on VR, I will focus on this medium specifically. Once these parameters are defined, the virtual world’s creation or elements can begin to come to fruition naturally and efficiently.

Usually, users view VR from a headset that completely obscures their physical surroundings, so it is quite exciting to have full reign over what the viewer is seeing.

2D/3D

The process of designing art elements to fit within an immersive experience varies. Since we are focusing on the fundamentals of a virtual art setup, this depends on whether they are 2D or 3D art assets. They contain similarities and differences in workflow and output. Let’s talk about the differences between designing in 2D and 3D for VR.

2D and 3D are just plane different!

2D objects exist on a flat plane; they live within a coordinate system’s X and Y axes. 3D objects, on the other hand, exist in three-dimensional space or within a three-coordinate plane system: X, Y, and Z. Most VR assets are likely to exist in a 6DoF environment, meaning there are 6 degrees of freedom they could potentially live in. Take the three-dimensional coordinate system, and then move it forward, backward, up, and down.

Testing art assets is essential. Viewing 2D or 3D assets on a computer is not accurate as to what they will look like in the headset; since VR is more often in DoF, seeing them in the VR setup is very beneficial.

Making assets efficient for the system that can handle them is vital. A scene with a large number of items will take a very long time to load. Briefly, here are some optimization points you can use when developing art assets:

• Grouping items into a singular mesh.
• Lowering polycount.
• Relying on textures for some details.
• Knowing when a model or texture is necessary.
• Utilizing programmatic effects will all help you create a more effective library of content.

It’s worth looking into these optimization points if they sound beneficial, but because this blog focuses on 2D and 3D elements specifically, let’s break down some do’s and don’ts to generate faster and more effective workflow outputs to VR.

DESIGNING IN 2D FOR VR

Legibility is essential for design composition. Being in VR can somewhat be disorientating, so registering a 2D design takes a little more brainpower. As a designer, it is my goal to keep the design as simple and legible as possible. These are some points I have learned in the process of inputting 2D elements into a VR space.

LESSONS LEARNED:

The larger the font, the easier it is for more people to read.
Everyone has a different eyesight capacity, but it is best to design with the criteria that most users will have trouble seeing text in the headset. This means exaggerating the size of the text in a composition. Although it may appear text on a 2D plane will be close to a 150% zoom, in VR, it will appear a quarter of that.

Go bold or go home.
A bolder font doesn’t necessarily mean make all the font-weight black. It means the thicker the line weight, the more legible and less aliasing in VR. Thin-weighted font can appear to alias if not directly in the viewer’s point of view.

Understand the headsets DPI.
Some headsets have a higher pixel count than others, enabling more detail to be perceived. The human eye can only discern a certain amount, so anything higher in resolution will just be a waste of space.

The simpler it is, the easier it will be to digest.
Of course, the design’s complexity varies depending on the context, but less text, in general, is always a user-friendly option. Reading in VR could get dizzying. Probably better to leave complex material out of the headset.

Testing is your new middle name.
Testing is an essential step in delivering VR-ready 2D assets. The elements will look fundamentally different on your 2D screen than they look in VR.

Keep these guidelines in mind as you create 2D assets for a VR experience. They aren’t meant to be roadblocks but rather the tools you use to make the design translate as intended from your 2D plane to a 6DoF world.

DESIGNING IN 3D FOR VR

This medium is characterized by total immersion. The viewer is immersed in an alternate reality, which can sometimes tie into the physical natural world. Therefore, industrial design is a significant part of developing 3D assets for VR. These are some points I have learned in the process of inputting 3D elements into a VR space.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Understanding the physical will inform the virtual.
In some cases, 3D design for VR is closer to industrial design than typical 3D art. Of course, it all depends on the intention and level of interactivity between the player and the 3D object. If an object interacts heavily, it is essential to design with physics at the forefront of your mind. For example, if you understand how a doorknob works in real life, you can use that perception from your experience to make a usable 3D doorknob for VR. Some 3D assets are not interactable, so their appearance will sometimes drive their design more than their usability. This may include a background/scene setup, which is mainly there to stage an environment.

Look at it from all angles.
Yes, look at it from all angles. ALL of them! This object could exist in 6 degrees of freedom so, if it exists in the natural world, it is crucial to look at the 3D object from every angle.

Just because it needs to look 3D doesn’t mean it has to be 3D.
This may be the case for other mediums, but it is also the case for VR. Easier to take advantage of the eye with 3D. You can register objects from far away as dimensional objects in the right setup that were 2D objects. In VR, you may or may not see 3D assets at all angles, especially objects farther away. This can be an optimization opportunity.

Scale it accordingly.
It may seem like a simple parameter, but it is essential. You can always rely on the 3D software’s scale setup, but sometimes there is a grey area of whether something feels sized “right” in VR.

Testing must be brought up twice.
Just like with 2D assets, viewing your creations in VR is the only way to understand how they will fully translate.

3D design is a great tool to use to set up an environment for an immersive experience and, again, should enhance your composition, not roadblock it.

IMPORTANCE OF DESIGN WITHIN VR

The art and physics of an immersive experience go hand in hand. Design assets that follow real-world conventions should be designed to follow real-world physics. Masterfully designed interactable objects can enable real-world physics programmed within VR to feel believable.

Although having parameters is important when establishing a creative direction, I have learned they should never be used as barriers. VR is an evolving tool, so there are always new workarounds or solutions. Sometimes your tests will not always match your initial intention; it’s ok to be fluid with your design approach and direction if it fulfills the experience’s outcome. 2D/3D art design is an essential part of the VR development process because it is the experience’s art that will make the illusion feel real.