What To Expect When Working On A VR Project With Sliced Bread

Over the years, Virtual Reality (VR) has moved far beyond the realm of gaming. In fact, it is now transforming healthcare, manufacturing, and training industries. From creating lifelike simulations for training to visualising complex medical procedures, VR is driving innovation and making processes more engaging, efficient, and effective.

At Sliced Bread Animation, we specialise in crafting immersive VR experiences tailored to your unique needs. Whether you’re looking to educate, innovate, or captivate, we can help you achieve your goals. Have you ever wondered what it takes to bring your VR idea to life?

In this guide, we’ll take you behind the scenes of VR development, shedding light on how an idea evolves into an immersive experience.

Idea and Brief

Every successful VR project starts with one thing: your idea. We begin by listening closely to your vision and understanding the purpose behind the experience you want to create. This helps us define the scope, objectives, and key deliverables, and get us on the same page from the start.

Once we have all the details, we will provide you with a tailored quote. To create it, we use the information you have provided to identify the required resources and estimate how long each task will take. We then apply our day rate to calculate the total cost.

Along with the quote, we will share a project brief that includes examples of similar work we have done and insights into potential styles and functionalities that could work in your project.

Schedule

A well-structured schedule is crucial to keeping the project on track and ensuring we meet the agreed deadlines. It’s the roadmap that aligns everyone – us, you, and any other involved parties – on key dates and milestones. In the schedule, we break down every step of the project’s production, so you can clearly see when each stage is due.

We’ll also outline the responsible party for each task, along with when your review, feedback, or testing is needed. Timely feedback is essential because any delays in one stage can affect the overall project timeline. We rely on your periodic input to ensure the work aligns with your vision and stays on course. While we will never make major decisions or move to the next stage without your approval, we will keep progressing in areas where we are confident and can make forward momentum.

Storyboard

The storyboard is a critical step in the VR development process. It serves as a detailed visual representation of your idea, laid out in thumbnail-sized panels. The storyboard acts as a blueprint for the entire VR experience, helping to visualise and structure every aspect of the project. It also allows us to explore and refine ideas on a small scale before full development.

In the storyboard, we will include all the details identified from our conversation with you. It will capture the flow of the experience, illustrating key moments, user interactions, and the visual elements that will shape the immersive world. At this stage, we will also begin designing User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) elements, to make sure the experience feels natural and easy to navigate.

In some cases, the client might provide a storyboard. If so, we will follow it closely, raising any questions that we may have. Once we have your approval on the storyboard, we can move forward with confidence, knowing we’re on the same page.

Script and Voice-Over

For projects requiring a voice-over, we can either work with a script you provide or create one for you to review and refine. Once the script is finalised, we can arrange for a professional voice-over recording. If you choose to let us handle the voice-over process, we will have to discuss this with you at the start of the project to include it in the quote.

We will also discuss your preferences – such as accent, age, gender, and tone – and provide samples of professional voice artists who match the brief for your selection. You can participate in the recording session to provide feedback in real-time. Alternatively, we will share the recordings with you for approval.

Wireframing

After finalising the storyboard, we move to wireframing – the stage where your VR project starts to take shape. Using the storyboard as our guide and simple placeholder assets, we begin building the project in Unity, our preferred software for interactive VR experiences. Unity is ideal for interactive projects where users need to move, interact with objects, or follow story paths. It also offers powerful tools for performance optimisation and scalability.

Wireframing helps us map out the user experience and flow. This includes defining movement, navigation, interaction points, and scene transitions. Users also need ways to access information, navigate menus, or control the environment. This is where the UI design comes in. Wireframing helps us define how the UI will appear and function within the experience, including designing menus, navigation buttons, and interactive feedback systems.

Wireframing serves as the first prototype of the experience. As a result, we can test functionalities early on. In addition, feedback from your team or potential users at this stage helps us refine the experience before moving to full-scale development.

Asset Preparation and Animation

While we are working on wireframing, we will also begin preparing the assets for your VR experience. First, we create a detailed asset list, outlining all the characters, environments, objects, and UI elements needed. Next, we will begin modelling the elements, and then proceed with animating them. This could include interactive object animations or 360-degree medical animations, depending on the project.

Throughout this process, we’ll keep you updated on our progress with both modelling and animation, to make sure we stay aligned with your vision. Please note, the early updates might not fully reflect the final look, as the models and animations may lack final textures and lighting. These early versions are essentially rough renders from our 3D animation software and may appear grey or basic. However, this is a natural part of the development process and helps us ensure the models are in a good place before finalising the details.

Immersive Experience Development

This is where everything comes to life: building the actual VR experience. In this stage, we take all the elements – assets, interaction designs, and user interfaces – and combine them into a fully functional VR world. This includes:

• Coding Interactivity – defining how users will engage with the environment, such as grabbing objects, solving puzzles, or navigating through virtual spaces.
• Implementing the UI – creating intuitive controls and prompts that users will interact with, ensuring everything is clear and easy to use.
• Optimising User Comfort – refining movement and navigation to avoid motion sickness and ensure a smooth, enjoyable experience.

At this stage, we have a functional VR experience, ready for testing and further refinement.

User Testing and Refinement

Testing is a crucial part of the development process – without it, we can’t ensure that the experience will be fully functional, user-friendly, and engaging.
After the initial implementation, we begin rigorous testing to identify and address any issues. First, we conduct a thorough check, intentionally creating bugs to find potential problems. We log any issues in our ticketing system (Jira or similar), which helps us efficiently track them. Our developer resolves the issues before performing another round of checks. If everything works as expected, we supply the build to you for your review. During this stage, small issues often arise, and we will continue to log and address them.

For some projects, particularly complex or educational experiences, we conduct user testing with your target audience or beta users. They will test the application and provide feedback on any aspects that are confusing or challenging. This feedback helps us adjust the experience to better meet the needs of specific users.

Deployment

Your VR experience is now ready for launch, and we will be with you every step of the way. Rather than just handing over the files, we ensure you are fully supported throughout the deployment process. Specifically, this includes providing guides for setting up the experience on your chosen hardware, offering troubleshooting assistance, and even creating user onboarding materials to help with boundary setup, controller use, and navigation in VR. Our goal is to make sure you get the most out of the experience, and we’ll be there to support you with any questions. You can see an example of the onboarding we have done in the past here.

Post-Launch Support

The launch of your VR experience is just the beginning. VR projects have the potential to evolve, and ongoing monitoring is key. After launch, we offer continued support to troubleshoot any issues, gather data for further refinement, and update the experience with new features if necessary. We set up a ticketing system and make sure to respond to queries within 4 hours, with any issues fixed within 48 hours.

And that’s a wrap. You now have a complete guide to what working with us on a VR project looks like. So, are you ready to turn your ideas into an immersive VR experience? In that case, contact us today to explore the possibilities! You can also drop us an email at info@sbanimation.com or give us a call on +44 (0)207 148 0526. 

Want to see more? Check out our previous projects here or visit our LinkedIn business page to stay connected.