This next project we are working on requires us to create realistic objects and place them into a simple scene. This is a classic exercise in 3d modeling and is typical done by creating a tea set, chess set, still life, or some other small group of unique objects to occupy a ‘plate’, or ‘board’. For my project I decided to go with the chess set, since I like the style of the game and its pieces. Also I used to goof-off in my high school ceramics class by creating chess pieces instead of making a bowl or whatever dish-ware we were assigned to make.
My initial inspiration for my pieces actually comes from the previous exercise, “The Nine Square Grid” exercise. I decided I wanted my pieces all to be created from a similar vocabulary of 9 pillars arranged in a 3×3 grid, where the length and width of each column remains constant through each piece, but each of the pillars will be arranged in differing heights in order to convey their unique identities as chess pieces. Below are the initial sketchs.
You can see that I included a top-down orthographic view of each piece where in each square I label the expected height for each piece that I will create initially. From this point I will do some fine tuning to ensure that each piece feels wholly unique in its design. As of now I expect changes to be made to the pawn, knight, and rook in order to give them more personality.
Cromar, William. “Elementslookingglass.” NewMediaWiki [Licensed for Non-Commercial Use Only] / ElementsLookingGlass, 2021, http://newmediawiki.pbworks.com/w/page/127118741/elementsLookingGlass.
