1.1 Reference Reflections

As a kick off for our first project in 3D design we were assigned to read and watch a few pieces of information.

Firstly we read through a wiki title called Parallel Universes which basically gives the history of design as a concept, not even 3D. At its core, design is essentially the transfer of visual ideas and data between one person to another, or one person to an audience. This begins with the Neolithic period and cave sculptures and how early mankind conveyed the visual ideas of their surroundings to others through painting on the cave walls. With these drawings it highlights that early man found their surrounding flora and fauna so important that they wanted to immortalize and discuss their thoughts on these things through visual means. Not only did they draw their surroundings, but they also made attempts at mapping their skies, particularly the night sky with constellations. Not only were they just emulating their surroundings, but the video talks further about how the pictures are created in a way that they simulate movement based on the source of the light hitting the wall at differing angles, which surprised me the most. The animals and other figures seem to mirror or emulate the common constellations we recognize today. As this is a 2 dimensional map of a semi-2 dimensional sky, there is no data lost in the translation. When thinking about 3D design, we need to incorporate design of 3 dimension which is a lot more in depth and detailed than 2 dimension. Especially when the only real way for most of history was to convey objects in 2 dimensions. The Renaissance artists did not have 3D software to create and present their modeling ideas to their colleagues so they had to warp their drawings and designs to incorporate perspective and create the illusion of 3 dimensions. Today this is very commonplace to have 3d objects presented on a 2d plane, but nearly 400 years ago the visual language for these designs had to be generated using only pen and paper. Our overall challenge for this project and the semester as a whole is to understand what was learned in the last 400 years and apply the tools and tricks to our production process.

Secondly we were tasked with watching and emulating a list of tutorial videos provided by Linkedin, and taught by George Maestri. In these videos we learned the in’s and outs of all the fundamental components of Maya, a 3D modelling software produced by AutoDesk. Maya will be the primary tool of our modeling in this class, so it was important to understand how to use the tool, especially since no one in the class had used it previously. From these videos we were able to learn how to control the camera, as well as add more to our projects to provide different angles to our scenes. Along with that, George covered the basics of how to move, reshape and size different objects and primitives, along with modifying smaller components of an object. As I have previously done some minor work using Solidworks in the past (4-ish years ago), I was not completely unfamiliar with all that was being introduced in these videos. I was excited to see that pivot points were also able to be moved in this program, which I had not seen before. Once I saw this function of the modelling software, I got a spark in my mind that would indicate the direction I want to take for finished project. After seeing the tutorials and doing the Ball Drop exercise, I was inspired to take a ‘clockwork’ approach to my project which I will detail later in another post dedicated to that production. Regardless, the tutorials also introduced the animation components of this software, which I was used to from last semester, but had never seen inside of a modelling software. By this point I was starting to understand that this was more than just a shape-making tool, I would be using this to create small films and animations. Now I was a little more interested because this would give me insight to some of the films I loved watching when I was younger like Shrek, The Incredibles, and Monster’s Inc.

The third piece of information we were asked to look at has to deal with the artist that is inspiring our project; Piet Mondrian. The reading goes into detail about Mondrian’s paintings and style development and how he takes simple shapes, namely rectangles and lines, and creates a narrative, or a sense of movement in his paintings, despite them appearing to be still and plain on surface level. Mondrian’s choice of color and position with his components are what gives the pictures a multidimensional sensation. Our goal is to use this idea of making motion from the motionless and replicating one of Mondrian’s pieces inside of Maya, and having it move in such a way to produce the final, finished piece that looks nearly identical to a classic Mondrian.

Citations:

Cromar, William. “Paralleluniverses.” ParallelUniverses [Licensed for Non-Commercial Use Only] / ParallelUniverses, 2020, newmediaabington.pbworks.com/w/page/67264981/parallelUniverses.

Cromar, William. “Essentialsnonobjectiveobject.” NewMediaWiki [Licensed for Non-Commercial Use Only] / EssentialsNonObjectiveObject, 2020, newmediawiki.pbworks.com/w/page/126853943/essentialsNonObjectiveObject.