Retro Device

Week one – Developing my initial ideas

Creating designs

How did I move forward?

I used the cylinder looking design as a starting point before continuing onwards by researching the materials available in the time. For example researching what kind of Ink was available at the time (Iron gall ink) that I could include into the model itself.

What did I do this week?

I started blocking, smoothing and bevelling each part of this model, though very plain was a good starting point. I had no issues with modelling the base of my device since I designed it to be a quite simple build. I did this so later on I would have a better time with texturing and tweaking any changes required in later stages when more polygons were involved, it wouldn’t be too tricky to go back and fix any lingering errors.

Other than that I had discussions with my tutors who gave support when needed, mainly in the use of some Maya commands as creating the model required using the tool Boolean. With help this tool is no longer an issue to use for me. I discussed this model with a third party person where they let me know there were some parts that needed to change.

Changes in the story/model

Original story

“A retired sailor decides to create a presentation mechanism for his daughter that is fascinated by the sea’s after hearing her fathers journey’s among the ocean.”

The original way the canvas was kept in place was by nailing it on the wood before removing it using the back of a hammer, same with putting other images onto the canvas too. A third party opinion let me know that the daughter (Coming from a rich family) would be learning how to sew and that using a hammer would not be very ladylike in that time period (Since gender normalities were still in play). Another issue with the hammer method is that by taking the canvas off the extra images stuck on with the nails would not hold the images to the canvas anymore. So a way to fix both of these issues instead of a hammer and nails a sewing needle and thread would be a better substitute. Not only would the sewing be more suitable for a young girl it would also make the images semi-permanent and still easy to remove as the thread could just be cut making the extra images easy to remove as well.

Overall critique on my workflow/work output this week

In this week I am currently ahead as I have finished blocking out my model, have 3 pages of research plus a mood-board. There were also huge developments in my models function and design. I have created a cohesive story and idea using one of the brainstormed ideas from the start of the week. I should keep up this pace to be able to finish the creation of my Powerpoint retro-device by the end of this projects time.

First Sketch

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Second Sketch

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Sketch of design

Sketch of design

Developed design

Developed design

Annotated design

annotated design

Modelling images

Making3
Making1
Making2

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Week Five Notes

Summary

I fell ill at this time and was unable to attend the two teaching classes, I do hope to recover just before the end of the week so I can catch up on what I have missed.

Parenting in Maya

Parenting in maya

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Week four notes

Notes

Summary

I learnt to:

  • Adding visual texture in Adobe substance painter
  • Preparing models from Maya to substance painter
  • Baking models
  • Exporting Textures out of substance painter

How did I find it?

Bringing in the model from Z-brush to Maya was simple, creating a Low Poly and a High Poly model in Z-brush to export into Maya. The reason for creating two different models is to have the Low Poly model as the base model in Substance Painter then the High Poly model be put on top of the Low poly model to make it appear high quality. This is just to create a good looking model while reducing the amount of time needed to render the model. If it is meant to be functional this method will not work out.

Baking is turning mesh into texture, this ensures the textures will show up on the model. The only semi-difficult part was remembering all the settings for Baking and among other functions. Overall these past four weeks were only simple due to my note taking as it helped a lot when applying them to my own Retro-Device project.

Substance Painter Notes

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Week Three Notes

Summary

I learnt to:

  • Finishing UV mapping on Lego-Man
  • Clean up shapes for exporting
  • Exporting from Maya to Z-brush
  • Learning Z-brush basics

How did I find it?

Doing the UV mapping for a complex shape such as the legs of the Lego-Man was difficult not impossible to say the least. In the end it was an long but doable endeavour that ended in a clean layout of the entire UV Unwrapped version of the whole Lego-Man which meant it was ready to be transferred to Z-brush.

Z-brush is a program that you can add 3D texture to the 3D model to add a more realistic look to the end product. Before using this program on our Lego-man a new addition was to be added to use Z-brush to its largest capabilities. So hair was chosen since general hair on Lego characters have deep 3D textures on them. This program has the same ideas I mentioned in Week two being that 3D has multiple ways to get to the end product. There are many brushes that could help achieve the 3D texture for hair as well as alpha that are pre-made patterns that could also help in creating hair texture.

Z-brush notes

Zbrush notes
Zbrush notes
Zbrush to maya

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Week Two Notes

Notes

Summary

I learnt to:

  • UV Mapping
  • UV editor
  • Clean-up
  • Pivots
  • Delete History

How did I find it?

UV Mapping took more than one lesson to learn, however as I progress with this project it was used more often, this helped to remember the steps to unwrap and layout the model in UV editor. Through this process it revealed an essential 3D mindset which is the idea that everything has multiple ways to solve an problem. An example is when UV mapping to start you can choose in the create menu which one to choose to create the best looking net out of your object. This really depends on the situation as all can work but there are ones better suited for the job.

For the rest of the tools they are simple button presses. Deleting history helps for Maya to not crash a lot due to the large amounts of history saved in the objects, this also keeps your history updated to the most recent edits to your objects readily available and not lost in the sea of small edits prior to these changes.

UV Wrapping notes

UV wrapping notes
UV wrapping notes

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Week one notes

Notes

Summary

I learnt to:

  • create a Lego-Man
  • create new projects/ setting them
  • Importing references
  • Brainstorm for ideas
  • How to use specific tools (Extrude, Booleans, Multi cut tool)
  • Bevelling objects
  • Smoothing

How did I find it?

To brainstorm we separated the components to think of different devices and time periods. This way we could pair them together to get unique combinations that could be developed into an idea. Personally suggested multiple devices including apps that would be an interesting device to take back since technology was not a prevalent device in the older time periods.

The Lego-Man is a standard practice model that can help teach major parts of the 3D process. Following this process is the creation process. Most notably the newest function I learnt was ‘Smoothing’. Previously had created a Low Poly model however for this Lego-Man a more refined look is required for this hence using the tool ‘Smoothing’. Other than this function the other tools were familiar enough that all that was required was a recap.

Lego Man screenshot

Screenshot 2023-05-23 160733
Screenshot 2023-05-23 160733

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Making a Lego Man

What was this for?

To re-learn how to use Maya and learn new skills that would be helpful when trying to create my idea in a 3D environment. A Lego man is simple/blocky but has smooth edges as well as a semi spherical head so it is simple yet complicated. 

How was my experience so far?

So far I have created the head, torso and lower body parts. I have enjoyed this process and learned bountiful information when making this model. An example is the head. This was a tricky part of the model as it needed to be positioned properly as well as smoothed out but not too much as an Lego man head still has a blocky shape.

I initially struggled however with some guidance and repeating the steps myself I was able to persevere and make a product I was satisfied with. 

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Understanding the brief and brainstorming ideas

Intro lesson

I learnt about the brief and understood what was expected from me by the end of this project. Premise of this project are as follows, research and create a modern device in a time it didn’t exist yet with the materials that are available in that time as well.

Firstly with the class we looked up different time periods that were important to human civilisation to use as a starting point. Then thinking of different types of devices (I came up with Kettle, Uber, Power-point and glasses). This was a good exercise and allowed me to broaden my thoughts on what a retro device could be. It also got me to start thinking of ideas of what retro device I was planning to create.

Brainstorming

In the same lesson I created an quick idea by putting together one time period and one device to create a retro device. My idea was taking ‘The Age of Discovery’ A time where Europeans countries travelled the sea drafting key maps to be able to navigate the ocean well. The device I chose to this era was Power-point. I chose this device because of their usage of maps. In our modern society power-point is used to show an aesthetically pleasing presentation. Key features of power-point is the ability to move around images as you please, add animations to create dynamic slides as well as add text in different font/colours. More features include adding coloured backgrounds and slide transitions. All to make presentations more appealing to those you show them to.

Developing the idea

I came up with the idea to create a spinning mechanism (resembling a globe however globes did not exist yet in Europe). The other design I came up with was a pulled up map that resembled the mechanism of the ships that were used at that time.

Developing a story

I thought of making this story about a European leader that used this contraption as a quick and effective way to document the land in map form with a some flair of course to mimic power-point.

However after listening to some feedback on needing to be more specific on the region/place where this contraption would be based, I did some research and settles on Italy, mainly on Christopher Columbus as he was a famous drive towards The Age of Discovery.

My Teachers mentioned something about maps that intrigued me which is the idea of adventure maps, ones with drawings of sea creatures and in a more artisan style rather than just an cartography map of the world. This gave me an idea of a story about an father who had a daughter that heard of the stories of The Age of Discovery and decided to invent his own map making device (Also known as Power-point) to help his daughter create her own maps and decorate them, to make her feel like she was adventuring much like Christopher Columbus himself.

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