oculus rift motion design
oculus rift logo

I created a motion language for Rift that included major transitions and UI elements. This was a very interesting project because the previous system had no transitions at all, panels would simply swap in and out. Since VR is already a bit disorienting, animated transitions are crucial to communicating the path users take through the system.

 

A document for engineering was also created to maintain consistency and included explanations, code examples, curve data, GIFS, and links to full resolution renders.

oculus motion audit

Motion Audit

 

When I first joined Oculus I completed a motion audit of the Rift and Go systems. This identified areas lacking informative transitions and logic inconsistencies. It also explored where motion would be most beneficial and suggested fixes to the above problems.

Panel Movement

 

The panel animations were created to anchor windows to the belt and suggest an organ point. The animations had to be simple enough to fit within the tight limitations of the current coding environment, while also being quick and informative.

UI Elements

 

Many core UI elements were created to fit into the overall motion language. Animations like the rollover effects were created to work across many different cases. Previously, there were six different rollover effects, this system simplified it using only scale and brighter backgrounds.

Startup & Shutdown

 

Previously, Oculus devices had a hard cut when powering on and off. I created seamless startup and shutdown animations to refine these transitions and provide a more pleasant experience.

Docs for Engineering

 

Previously, a lot of design specs would get interpreted differently or altered by different engineering teams. For example, various panel windows would have different corner radiuses, or none at all. I wanted to prevent this for my project and create a sharable document outlining motion specs. Because the document was so detailed there was little room for interpretation from the multiple engineering teams.

 

This document included easily sharable GIFS and links to full resolution videos. Code examples and curve data was provided by me as a starting point for engineering. In the end, implementation of the animations went very smoothly and the document will be available as a guide for future motion specs.