A Virtual Interactive Environment for Arts and Design Students

Art students frequently need to draw statues as part of their assignments. Perspective, lighting, and proportion are key issues in developing students' skills, but they can be challenging to control in real life. The work reported in this paper aims to provide better support for arts and design students in the early stages of learning by demonstrating a 3D interactive virtual environment that allows students to control all angles of the statues to acquire the required perspective. It also allows them to manipulate the lighting position to apply shading techniques. Students can choose hard lighting, which means the light would be intense and originates from a specific point, or a more natural light, where the light and shadows are softer and do not contrast as much. Instructors can likewise place further objects in the environment surrounding the statue to teach the students the concept of proportion. The 3D environment has been developed using Unity Engine and deployed for Desktop and Android devices. It accommodates both pre-existing models and models imported from a database. The utility of the 3D virtual environment has been assessed by conducting a number of studies with students and lecturers of an Arts and Design Faculty.