Wednesday 31 January 2018

Major Project | Glass Experimentation


After establishing a new workflow I plan on following for the initial steps of my project, I have begun experimenting with textures and results I can achieve early on. This first set of images are simply looking at the different texture aesthetics I can achieve...


This second set of images show the physical embodiment of the melting point of glass, as the value in degrees Celsius is plugged into a deformer it allows the primitive shape to show what that value looks like as a 3D model. The aim of this next set of images is to look at some potential camera angles for the future renders...


From these experiments it seems clear that the angle that the model is shot from will play a big part in the aesthetics of the early stages of this project. I feel as if the most successful material and angle are those depicted in these test renders...


The next steps this project is going to take are going to be towards a refined method of creating these deformations, potentially by using a shrink wrap deformer to leave a physical impression of the numerical value on a primitive shape.

This next model was created by applying a deformation to a primitive sphere with the same values as the boiling, melting and freezing point of glass and shrink wrapping it around another primitive sphere, allowing the second sphere to fill the areas inside the deformed sphere, creating an imprint..



The method used in the creations above is one I plan on exploring further with more properties of individual materials being applied to various shapes and materials.

Tuesday 30 January 2018

Major Project | Experimentation


In light of the current alterations to the methods surrounding my major project, I decided to conduct a short experiment to see how possible my material based workflow would be. Below are the results of taking the melting, boiling and freezing points of glass in degrees Celsius and plugging them into a bend deformer's curvature value, that model was then used as a shrink wrap for a new primitive sphere, allowing me to create impressions of these values on a 3D shape...


By doing this short experiment I was able to determine a number of things. Firstly, not every material will possess every property in an applicable form, as glass doesn't have a freezing point as such it doesn't make for a particularly interesting end result, something I'm not worried about as my project will deal with values and results rather than decoration.

Secondly, whereas most properties have numerical values that I can use to craft my deformations, values such as breaking points do not, making it difficult to find any data to plug into the Maya deformation.

This second factor has made me think about what properties I want to bring into Maya. As melting, boiling and freezing seem to be the most appropriate properties I am going to work with just those for the moment, creating a catalogue of shapes that display these properties in a physical state.  

Major Project | Idea Refinement


After having a conversation focusing on the development of my major project, it seems a slightly different movement than what was originally proposed would be more successful. Instead of selecting the most interesting pieces from my minor project and developing them to have specific uses, I'm going to work in a similar manner and establish a link between each primitive shape and a real world material. By connecting a model to a specific material I will be able to explore the properties of said material through controls in Maya.


By establishing a control in Maya as a specific property of a real world material I will be able to showcase said property through a 3D model. This method will rely on properties such as boiling, melting, freezing and breaking points, connecting each of these to an attribute of the 3D primitive will allow me to display these varied points through physical changes rather than numerical values.


Each primitive will be assigned a material which will then have its various properties displayed upon it, the materials will range from wood, glass, sand, concrete, steel, water and diamond, meaning that the visual results should create a varied selection of models.

Once the models have been formed and display the different properties of their assigned materials, they will undergo another process which see's them gain the physical aesthetic of the material, however this will be much later in the projects lifespan.

The next step I am going to take is to temporarily assign the sphere primitive each material and experiment with the kinds of results I can achieve in Maya with various controls and 3D materials.





Tuesday 16 January 2018

Major Project | Moving Forward


From the earliest points of my minor project the goal was always to create a body of work that my major project could be born from, riffing off of ideas and creative workflows that had already been established in my earlier work. After concluding my minor project this is very much still the case, in my interim crit I stated that I would create a series of mock up architectural pieces that would be explored in a 3D space as well as stemming from the experiments I had created when developing my minor project, something that is very much still the goal.

Something that was apparent and extremely prevalent in my minor project was the work's ethos, this idea that pieces could be created from the 'broken' moments of a software, taking specific functions from Maya and pushing them to their natural limits in order to form designs that are often overlooked when work such as this is created. This motive will also be the driving force for my major project, taking work that was created when Maya was allowed to create work that was within its natural limits and pushing it to prove that the purity of the software is something that shouldn't be hidden but rather put on display. 
I plan on taking some of my favourite moments from the final film, Salon Des Maya, created in my minor project and expanding upon them in order to create sculptures that could be built upon and produced as physical 3D pieces.

The process of refining these moments will work as such, each primitive will be given a set of guidelines that the end result must abide to, this could revolve around a function that the shape must perform or an area within a real geographical location that the shape must fill. For example I may establish that the moment taken from the sphere primitive must function as a piece of furniture that could be produced and used within a working home, or that the deformation taken from the helix shape must fill a 50 meter piece of space in an urban environment. The shape will then each have its own corresponding set of influences and design factors that allow me to follow a workflow that is individual to each shape and will take me to the best possible end result.
The end result will also slightly vary for each primitive shape, for example one shape may have a very particular end result, meaning that the presentation in its final form may be very different to the other shapes. What this may manifest itself as is still to be determined as the different shapes individual purposes are yet to be established, although I'm expecting the majority of the shapes to follow a workflow of purpose-design influence-physical design-production art-final film. The differentiation will almost definitely occur in the final film stage, some shapes may lend themselves more naturally to a film that shows them in their determined environment and some may lean more towards an angle that more closely mirrors the final film of my minor project.

With all that established its time to begin gathering potential moments from the first primitive, the sphere...
  
 


Saturday 13 January 2018

Minor Project | Reflective Statement


This project has been thoroughly enjoyable for me from start to finish, I feel as if after starting to explore the realm of visual effects I am interested in I am beginning to stretch my legs in the field and create a workflow and style that I fully intend in taking into my working graduate life. After diving further into software that will shape the aesthetics of my future work I have discovered areas that I fully intend on keeping in my creative database for future work, something that seems like the biggest benefit possible from working on this project. I've been pleased with my time management on this project, consistently keeping up to date with my render workflow and making sure that the projects final product was out on time to meet the deadline, partnered with lots of supporting experiments and creations. In conclusion, I feel as if this has been one of my most successful projects to date and look forward to working on the major project that will be born from Salon Des Maya.



Thursday 4 January 2018

Personal Work | BRIGHT


Netflix's Bright...

Minor Project | Creating The Final Film


After successfully completing the various renders taken from my primitive shape deformations, I have now begun putting the final product together, piecing together clips that display a range of deformations accompanied by corresponding musical notes...