I worked with the folks at PDA to bring to life a simulated date night with a feline companion. This project was created after the public release of chatGPT, inspired by the obvious pun and by the idea of having a Valentine’s Day date night with your cat.
This was an experiment in AI and the melding of different technologies, which turned out to be the cat’s meow. Try it out at chatwithacat.ai
What I did: I created a WebGL application in Unity to handle the 3D visuals and integrate with the JavaScript frontend. I set up the camera, backdrop, and scene to set the mood, and I imported 3D models, animations, and sounds to ensure a variety of interactions for the user that play based on emotion detection of the cat’s response and its personality. I added mouth animations to enhance the feeling of a conversation, and I optimized performance to ensure the project can run on a large number of devices. I also created videos of the project for use in promotional materials.
How it worked: Users begin the experience with a random cat comprised of 1 of 6 fur patterns and 1 of 4 personalities. Users can change this to a specific type of cat along with assigning a name for their cat and themselves. Using these parameters, the cat responds to text inputs and can recall parts of the conversation as it continues. When a chat is submitted, the cat responds with an appropriate animation loop and sound based on the emotions of its response. If left idle, the cat will eventually take a cat nap until the user types another message.
Roles: Software development, 3D design, UX design, Animation design, Sound design