I've just made a collage of ideas for my box project. The objects and symbols surrounding me are in no way definitive, some of them I'm not too sure about, some I think may be too subtle and I'm positive there are some things lodged way in the back of my mind that I'll want to put in there! Some of the things I think are musts though, include the little Ozzy from the Vol.4 cover, the tent (for the love of camping!), and the philosophical chimp. I tried to include the Id, Ego and Super Ego from the avatar project too. The background is a photo of an in-production sphynx (originally a cow, but creativity took it's course!) we made out of sticks and leaves when on a camping trip in a nearby forest, which is a happy memory for me. After I'd finished it, I had the idea of using Stonehenge as the background, which has the added bonus of not only holding happy memories but also being a very recognisable image. Maybe too recognisable however, which could dilute it's meaning a little... I'm not sure, I'll try it out and then, once again, post it up here!
I tweaked my 3D avatar a little earlier today to make it look a little better. Not much has changed, but the Ego's face is now mildly pointier (although his eyes look even more retarded, I'm not sure what went wrong there...) and I tried to put some fiery bits on top of his head, but you can't see them too well from this angle, the Super Ego's beard is fuller and not as lengthy, and he now has a mouth! I made it by inverting parts of his beard, so it looks a little crusty, but I kinda like it like that. His head is a little more withered too, and in general he looks a little more old and weary, which is cool! The Soul looks a lot better as well, as this time his mouth actually resembles part of his face rather than just several bigs holes in a row...
I started thinking about my Box project today, although I haven't given too much thought as to what objects I'm going to place in there. Here's a laughably poor rough version with just my terrified head basking in emptiness - I think I'll try making one of these mood board thingies to get some kind of idea of what I'll put in the box, and how I'll space it all out. I'll post it up on here once I've finished it off!
Today I made out rough versions of the Ego, the Vessel and the Soul for my avatar project. As I now have rough versions of all the various characters, I had a go at putting them all together to get an idea of the finished project. I sketched the Ego a few times, and tried moving his eyes further apart, making his main peeper massive, etc. In terms of colour, I'd imagined the top of his head to resemble flames. In his current stage I haven't actually done this, but I can always change it in the final version. The Ego's 3D, erm, alter ego doesn't look quite as graceful as his sketchbook counterpart. I'd envisioned it to have the elegance of a swan, and instead it's taken on the chubby charms of a slightly ill goose. Once again, for amusement's sake, I made him buckle under the weight of superior knowledge -
The Vessel and the Soul are also a mixed bag in terms of the end result. The Vessel looks reasonable, slightly different to the sketches but kinda cool looking nonetheless. It's almost like a zombie frog. The Soul, at present, looks too much like a puppet from Play Days to me, I need to work on making it look more hopeful and optimistic, and less gormless...!
So, once they're all combined, they start to look like this - I'm reasonably pleased with this, however I'd like to find out a way to smoothly blur the colours of the different heads with the the colour of vessel's neck, just to make it look a little more fluid. Various different bits of the faces and head shapes need shifting around, I think, and Super Ego's beard is probably a little too mighty at the moment (I must have just been carried away by the true beauty of a good beard...)! Here's a fairly crude attempt at making them move -
I'll need to think a little more about how I want them to move, as if they're all just wiggling about, it'll look a bit lame. I'll spare it a thought and then wack it on here if I get a brainwave!
Man, what a hectic day! Lots of epic missions around town, coffee, packed trams and accidentally leaving several boxes of Weetos I'd just purchased in Tescos, then having to trek back and get them... Cities are mental, haha! Amongst all this mayhem however, I managed to design another one of the heads for my avatar, the Id this time. I think I'm definitely starting to improve on 3D Studio Max, and I'm finding out all kinds of new ways to make objects, and make them do things, that are easier and give a smoother final result than the way I was doing things!
Once again, I sketched him out a few times before I started, and then after I'd created the 3D model, I made him freak out a little too, and wiggle his gaping jaws about.
I really like the way he moves, but I didn't actually attach his teeth to him, so when he shakes his head there are a few moments where his teeth poke out of the bottom of his head. The other problem with his teeth is that I made them all in the view you're looking at him now with, and when you tilt him about his molars are actually all over the shop. However, both these things are problems I'm sure I can fix without too much hassle.
After making the Id, I went back to our old friend the SuperEgo to see if I could sharpen up his beard. And, lo and behold, after actually constructing one and playing around with the shape rather than trying to draw it with lines and then lofting it with a circle, I made a not too shabby beard! Before -
After -
As for the 3D Studio seminars, last week we made our own little versions of the BBC3 worm. Mine ended up looking a tad more evil than the actual worm, due to his rather charming green hue and the horns that Andy showed me how to put on him. I had a bit of trouble with animating the worm using the Morphing technique, and unfortunately lost his eyes in the process...! Still, he manages to give off quite a mighty bellow -
Today we made little walking pairs of legs. I managed to construct the legs without any major difficulty, but when I made them take a little stroll, after the first step one of the legs went a bit weird and he looked like he was ice skating! Unfortunately 3D Studio crashed as I was working on the legs, and even though it managed to store a back-up copy of it, it kept telling me that the file was corrupt and I couldn't do much with it. Uploading it to YouTube failed miserably, and it wouldn't seem to let me render a still image. Alas, a valuable learning experience but one I now have nothing to show for.... Brutal!
And, last but not least, I managed to grab a shot of my Second Life character - He still needs a bit of work, as I got quite carried away with distorting his face into all kinds of crazy shapes and couldn't really return it to it's normal state too well after. He looks a bit rough around the edges too, but I'm not sure whether that's my fault or just what Second Life looks like! I haven't managed to venture to much into Second Life that much yet, but I recently installed it on the laptop I'm typing this on right now, so I'll be able to wander about on it when I'm bored, waiting for a pizza or just generally sitting about. What a plan!
Today I finally signed up for Second Life, and created my own personal avatar. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the snapshot feature to get a decent photo of it, but I'll try and get one soon! I tried to make it look more or less like myself, and it sort of almost does, heh! After getting to grips with the controls, figuring out where you had to wander to to change your appearance, etc., I started walking around the initial area talking to people. The first person I spoke to didn't speak any English at all, and the second approached me totally naked and said they were new, and wanted to know where they could get some clothes to conceal their virtual modesty, so I directed them to the place I got mine. The final person I interacted with was an unfortunate fellow who I accidentally smacked with a car, pushing him into the ocean. I apologised, but he remained silent. Funnily enough, hit-and-run in the virtual realm comes with none of the feelings of guilt I imagine it'd be accompanied by in reality... Still, I'd probably better not make a habit of it, just for etiquette's sake. After this, I started flying about for a bit and was then kicked out of the room as a lesson was about to start there. Second Life seems quite entertaining in a slightly surreal way, I'll venture into the actual main hub next time!
I started work on my other 3D avatar today, and made a (very!) rough model of the Super Ego's head. I don't know why I started with the Super Ego (or SE from now on), maybe I was subconsciously drawn to it's sense of discipline as I sat down, readying myself for some serious work, and maybe I was just attracted by it's delightful beard. Who knows? I sketched SE out from a few more different perspectives, just to get an idea of how it would look in the third dimension, and then constructed him out of a few basic shapes. I had a little trouble making the nose, and a lot of trouble making the aforementioned delightful beard. I tried quite a few different shapes, and eventually settled on this one for the time being, even though I'm still not happy with it. I couldn't figure out how to fill in the centre of it, as I'd originally hoped to have a nice, satisfyingly full beard and then draw the mouth over the top, but every time there was a big gaping hole in the middle. With the beard I eventually went for, it does kind of look like the hole in it is actually his mouth, but it's not perfect. I think SE also needs smoothing over, as there are some parts of him where I joined two shapes together and they haven't quite stuck together as smoothly as I would have hoped, but it's totally cool to see SE starting to take shape in 3D. Just for my own personal glee, I made SE get himself flustered over some deep moral dilemma -
I've just started to doodle some ideas for this Identities project, and I accidentally spewed this out -
I'm not sure if this is quite what the brief has in mind, but running with the notion of symbols and images feeding in to humanoid figures, I thought I'd extract all the parts of a person, give them a face that kinda fits with what they're all about (so, for instance, the Id, the primal desires, urges and instinct of a person is strained, wide eyed and feral, the Super Ego, the person's sense of morality, our conscience, is lofty, contemplative and superior, while the Ego, the person's mediator, their way of keeping the balance between the Id and Super Ego, must maintain a careful balance, stay alert, and never allow itself to cast too much of an imposing presence over a person). Back to the multimedia side of this though, I do like the idea of a big floating head as an avatar, hovering just above ground level. As for the kind of environment I'd place this creature in, I hadn't quite thought that far, but vague embryonic ideas include a big black and purple cavern type thing, like the inside of a brain, or maybe something more ordinary, maybe a tranquil field or something. I'm not sure, I'll give it some thought.
I think I'm beginning to grasp 3D Studio Max a little more now. I can make up little characters now without having to constantly refer to worksheets or tutorials, and don't feel quite as intimidated when faced with some of menu screens. However, I'm still struggling a little with the actual animation itself, as quite often the characters don't quite do what I want them to and I find myself unable to rectify it. It's definitely getting there though, here's the latest creation -
I wanted to try and give the elephant a little bit more of a personality than the previous attempts, so I made this little rat run past him. The rat looks a little shoddy, one of his legs looks like it's going into spasm, and I wasn't quite feeling adventurous enough to flesh out the elephant with a body, but I still kinda like it!
After talking to Roma about the Identities module today, I feel a little clearer as to what I have to do. Not having a copy of 3D Studio Max at home is definitely a hinderance, but I'm still gonna be able to draw some sketches or whatever so I can squeeze some ideas out of my head and onto a nice solid slice of paper. I'm still unsure as to what I could put in my 3D box, but there are a few vague ideas floating about right at the back of the ol' grey matter. Hopefully spending some quality time with a pencil will help sort things out!
