Frida’s Room is an interactive Unity experience that lets players explore Kahlo’s bedroom, interact with personal objects, and uncover diary pages to reflect on her life and art.
How to blend the museum/galery experience…
With VR for a more immersive and deep impression?
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Immerse in an educational VR journey
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Discover the stories behind her famous artworks
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Explore the world freely - at your own pace
Now that you’ve had a peek, let’s go behind the scenes.
Lacked Depth
Impressive visuals grabbed attention but offered little context or meaning.
Limited Connection to Objects
VR felt detached from the physical pieces on display.
Short-Lived Impact
The experience was exciting in the moment but left little lasting understanding.
Frida Kahlo
Blended Mexican culture, mythology, and personal pain into symbolic, surreal paintings.
Harue Koga
Japanese surrealist whose dreamlike works reflect rapid Western influence.
Toshiko Okanoue
Created postwar photo collages, mixing fashion imagery with themes of trauma.
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Time consuming
Building a complete world in 2 weeks was almost impossible.
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Plastic-y look
As I was quite new to both Blender and Unity, it was difficult to model something that match my vision.
Basic Layout
I started by first mapping out my room. I also edited the bed model to make it more similar to the reference photo.
Adding Furniture
Populating the scene and designing it was probably the most fun part of the process.
Adding Light
Lighting quickly changed/added a certain “mood” to the scene. I tried adding different types of lamps to create a more lived in/natural look.
Audio Not Always Playing
When the audio cut out, it broke immersion and pulled players out of the experience.
Player Getting Stuck
Some areas of the world caused players to get stuck, showing the need for cleaner modeling and collision fixes.
Abrupt Scene Switching
Transitions between scenes felt jarring; adding smoother animations would make the flow more natural.
Prioritization is key
I learned how to evaluate my time and skills realistically, and when to pivot my focus to what mattered most in the experience.
Blending digital with reality
Finding the right mix of digital interactions with real-world cues helped the world feel both fun and convincing.
In traditional museum/gallery experience, users aren’t able to touch the art. With VR, it would be neat if users can “pick up” the art and examine it up close.
When players look out the window, they can see a glimpse of what's happening outside of Frida's Room. This would help users gain more cultural and historical context, leading to better understanding of her world.
When player picks up the paper --> animation of an opening diary --> the diary pages are displayed --> translation is layered on top.
