OCCLUDED FOREST
An experimental VR experience built in Unity that explores how we perceive unseen space, inspired by The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception.
Journey through a serene, atmospheric forest. Here, you are guided by natural perception rather than an interface. Follow subtle environmental cues, encounter partially hidden forms, and question what exists beyond what you can see.
Date
February 2026
Duration
3 Weeks
Role
Creative Technologist
Team
L. Chon, K. Ellington, M. Brooks, K. Gregorich, C. Aguiar
Challenge
How can we design experiences that rely on how people naturally perceive the world, rather than on explicit interfaces?
In most digital experiences, interaction is guided by UI. But in XR, we have the opportunity to design interaction through space itself.
Context
How does Gibson define occlusion, and why does it matter when designing interactions in mixed reality?
According to Gibson, occlusion is not something we consciously reason about, it is something we directly perceive. When part of an object disappears behind another, we still understand it as whole and perceive a complete world from incomplete visual information. This "missing" information already exists in what Gibson calls the ambient optic array.
Informed by this principle, we outlined some goals:
Hide information, but imply its continuation
Let users discover, not be told explicitly
Use visibility and obstruction as interaction design tools
Capture the forests natural layered depth and occlusion
Hayden Kim Dernbach
Seattle, Washington
Contact Me
email | linkedin
World & Visual Tone
Stylized But Familiar
The forest was designed to evoke a serene, slightly surreal atmosphere. Soft, volumetric lighting filtering through trees. A stylized, minimal color palette emphasizes wintery blues and whites. Strong silhouettes to enhance the readability of occlusion.
Asset Creation: Mushrooms
Subtle, Glowing, Guidance
To achieve their soft, bioluminescent glow, I developed custom shaders for the mushrooms using Unity’s Shader Graph. This allowed for precise control over emission, color falloff, and timing, ensuring the mushrooms remained visible without breaking the atmosphere of the forest.
Asset Creation: Deer
Interactive Animation
The deer were modeled and rigged in Blender, with animations created to respond naturally to user proximity. Their behavior of emerging from behind trees or reacting to the user’s presence reinforces spatial awareness and anticipation.
In contrast, some deer were intentionally modeled from simplified, abstract forms (logs and branches), creating moments where perception shifts depending on distance and angle.
Asset Creation: Rocks
Procedural Integration With Environment
Rocks were designed to seamlessly integrate into the snowy environment using a custom shader. A procedural snow system allows snow to automatically accumulate on upward-facing surfaces. This reduced the need for manual asset variation, and helped ground each object naturally within the scene.
Asset Creation: Trees
Depth And Layering
The trees are the backbone of the environment, creating the dense layering necessary for continuous occlusion.
Each tree was modeled and textured in Blender. Transparency techniques in the foliage were used to let light pass through, enhancing depth and contributing to the soft, atmospheric lighting of the forest.
Reflection
Looking To The Future
The Occluded Forest represents my interest in designing for XR and emerging technologies. As a prototype, the project demonstrates how XR can leverage natural perceptual systems to create intuitive and immersive experiences.
On a personal note, I first discovered design through game design and have spent years tinkering in the Unity game engine. The opportunity to apply the skills I’ve learned to a design exploration like Occluded Forest was especially meaningful to me, and I am very grateful to my teammates and to our professor, Axel, for making this project a reality.
