3D Chair Project

Re-designed the chair and made a foot stool, some cushions and a mug.

Some parts of the training so far have not sunk in yet, but when I finally got to play around on Maya I did really enjoy the programme. It is fantastic to see something from all perspectives as a real model would allow you to do. I think I would be able to learn this 3D stuff quite well but for all the other stuff that has to be learnt at the same time. I tend to like to spend time learning one thing at a time, so I will have to work out what is important to me long term.

Had a few problems getting to grips with the lighting and needed to refer to Jame's notes, and the camera angles need some time spent getting use to them.

But overall, fascinating stuff!

In answer to your questions Andy, I designed the chair around the original because I just wanted to use the same template, bit cowardly I hear you thinking! but I always design within the time parameters I have available to me, and making the footstool to match along with the other bits gave me some more experience. How this process differs from what I am use to is strange because I know I am not going to make this product and have to perfect it in real space and materials, I also don't have to cost it. But the main difference is that you do not use hand to eye co-ordination in the same way and you do not handle the various materials I am used to experiencing, and of course no tools.

Visual Research Project

I know we don't have to write about this subject but I thought I would just comment briefly as it took so much time to do and so much emotional energy.

Although it was a lot of hard work and it took all my courage to stand in front of people and deliver a presentation, I did actually enjoy most of the project. That is, the work side of it and putting the document together. I made work for myself in editing the video but in the end I learnt a lot.

It did take energy and time to do but I am proud of myself for getting through the presentation, it has always been a fear for me and still is, but I did survive! I didn't get everything said that I wanted to say, but it went better than I had hoped.

I really enjoyed the topic and I am now a confirmed Halas and Batchelor fan.

Modelling 3rd Session

The 3rd session was hard work for me, but more so from mental and emotional tiredness from the Monday's presentation than the work on Maya.

I couldn't give my full concerntration to the day and it was getting more complex, my head hurt by the end of the day. We managed to get the chair finished and rendered, but it was a long drawn out process. Unfortunately if you go wrong somewhere it takes ages to get it back to what it should be. I did seem to make a lot of mistakes, but hopefully with more practice it will start to stay in my head.

The rendering process is very difficult to get my head round, I don't think we have spent enough time looking at this area. It seems like it could be a learning session on it's own.
I am looking forward to changing the chair and creating a new design, but I may regret saying that when I get stuck!

I can think in 3D and hope that I can get hang of this programme, if I can't it will be because there is too much I want to do elsewhere on the course and without the time to concerntrate on a programme like this you can't get very far. I am going to work on my chair design over the next two weeks.

3D Modelling 2nd Session

The second session was interesting to try to progress from the first, but I think the enormity of the size of the programme is beginning to sink in. After the initial excitement of the first lesson the more there is to learn the more there seems to be to learn. It is always difficult to learn something so complex on only one day a week and to not have the continuity of the following day to progress. So my mind was trying to remember last weeks actions before moving on to next. But that can't be helped and everyone is in the same situation.

Building the chair I think was supposed to be done in one day, but it was clear half way through that it was going to take longer than one day before we got to start to change the chair into our own design. This is because it is sometimes difficult to follow what James has said if you are looking at your own screen and having to turn round or if you are sitting far away from the screen.

One wrong move at some point, which you haven't noticed and you don't find out till much later when it matters, and sudddenly it is all wrong! I kept duplicating more sections than I needed and then later found that sections wouldn't knit together. James teaches using alot of keyboard instructions for actions and because I haven't been using a computer more than two years and am not used to these I find it confusing. I tend to use the menu bar icons and drop down lists instead and will probably stick to these where I can.

The rendering section seems a huge section to understand and I am not sure I get this bit yet. The lighting is very complex, and I know that I have never quite understood lighting in rooms anyway. Ambient, natural, low, light bulbs, ..... there is an enormous amount to learn about in creating the atmosphere of your scene.
I do hope it starts to sink in soon! But it is fun.