I decided that the website that I wanted to recreate was Google's home page. There is a simple, yet clean look to Google.com, and it is one of those rare places on the internet where you don't see any ads. Besides a simple search function, the webpage is mostly devoid of clutter, with only a few key functions hidden around. I wanted to expand upon the simplicity of the webpage's design, focusing on the "Google Search" features along with additional website content like "Need Help?", "I'm Feeling Lucky", and "You've Got Mail".
I came up with the idea of having the magnifying glass follow along with the mouse cursor. This UI decision allows the user to easily interpret that whatever they are hovering over is what the main feature will be. I had originally planned on having the magnifying glass give a 3D magnifying effect, but unfortunately, Verge3D's render engines did not support this feature. I looked into using "Post-processing" puzzle pieces to enable "Screen Space Reflections", but had no luck. My computer ended up being very laggy as it was under a lot of stress from trying to render reflections in the Chrome browser. I ended up leaving the magnifying glass empty, and instead focused on creating the additional icons surrounding the Google logo. These icons represent the core additional features of the webpage, like the 4-leaf clover representing the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. My final Verge3D page can be accessed using the link below.
