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During the implementation of models in the Unity scene, I also experimented with the use of shaders to empathise the watercolour effect of the game. This process involved plenty of trial and error, but I was able to experiment with free-to-use repositories I found through GitHub.
As I have little experience with creating my own shader, I decided to find pre-existing assets that I could quickly change between in my project. I landed on KinoWater, a shader by the designer Kino, which creates a fuzzy, painted look when applied to the camera.
This shader was ideal as it not only allowed the ability to change the intensity, overlay and colour of the effect, but it also would be perfect for later in the narrative when the atmosphere begins to change as well. We can use the dials to symbolise loss of vision in a creative manner and illustrate our story rather than just simply writing it in dialogue.
One of the issues that arises with this shader is that the overlay does not wrap around the models, but instead sit on the UI layer. This means that the effect follows the camera in a jarring manner that players may find uncomfortable. It also may make users feel motion sick as the camera moves if the effect is tuned too high, which we need to consider.
Ideally, the shader we feel would work best is if we can resemble a wash of paint-strokes that moves across the models as the player turns, similarly to how watercolour paints flow on a page.
Child of Light.
Similarly to the concept art for Child Of Light, the watercolours are obvious but not distracting. The colours create a unique gradient that feels straight out of a book. The difficult aspect is making this type of shader work with 3D models, as it is a 2D medium. We may have to test out different effects and see what our audience enjoys, or whether we should not use them at all.