Week 1
- Alisha Gupta
- Nov 8, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 17, 2021
Project Brief
During our first week into the second unit we were briefed on the task for the next four weeks that conclude this term. This unit introduces us to both 2d and 3d learning since we begin to experiment with Blender to create the task at hand which is to redesign a gruesome bowl of eyeball soup as referenced below in ‘Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom’. The brief involves us redesigning as per our own themes and imaginations. Additionally to the 3d model of the bowl of soup on a table and two chairs we need to create a concept of the full cinematic environment to visualize the location this dish is served in.
The first research task we were given was to create a narrative for our soup. This involved diving into a few key questions that helped me strengthen my initial concept, in a way the surrounding space felt more solid, once I explored the details and the reasons for them in writing. Following this I created a rough mood board to match my answers and I received positive feedback from my group on the idea who felt it was exciting and unusual since it had never been done before. I think the reason I was drawn to it in the first place is because it was different and had the potential to catch the eye (pun intended).
After I presented my idea in detail with these points in place to my first mood board I was given feedback to search for more references that were live action. Since my theme is placed on another planet I come across a lot of artwork that belonged to other artists as reference material which is why I was given advice to instead look at stills from film and tv set in that particular genre such as Blade Runner.
These were my points I noted to the questions to get us thinking about the space-
Cybercity Fast Food Takeaway Joint
The kitchen is an open layout- live counter where food is chopped up, grilled, fried and packaged through the looking glass – gives an element of transparency to the grittiness.
The eyes belong to a common sea creature that is bought at cheap local markets, an unknown species.
The fridge stores a lot of frozen ingredients (legs, tentacles,eyeballs,scales,claws) of other unknown species that are served fried/grilled/cooked in different quick forms.
The soup pot it was cooked in was smoking with a blue flame over it (think dry ice) and the utensils and other equipment itself are quite rusty.
The people dining there are not human- they are a different species being on a different planet. Since this cheap takeaway joint is in a remote location, those who dine here work in transportation to the mainland.
Time period is set in the future- not specified because we’re not on Earth.
The person at the counter serving this is also the cook- because of their multiple arm like tentacles that can reach out and multitask.
The references I collected here for my mood boards include general photographs of dimly lit interiors and exteriors of locations such as nightclubs and street food photography from local establishments in Asia that bring in the culture and flavour of the dish being poured or steamed in an open layout kitchen.
I even explored the popular Japanese concept of conveyer belt sushi- which eliminates the server and minimises any interaction, keeping the dish the central focus. I even referenced a few images from The Mandalorian (Lucasfilm 2019) because of the otherworldly urban-deserted setting.
Additionally I looked at references of futuristic furniture that include metal seating since my takeaway joint isn’t about comfort, its about speed. The people who frequent it aren’t there to spend a lot of time since they are on the go, which is why the hard edges and sharp silhouettes are a part of my research.
Room Redesign
The next task we were given for the week was to redesign an image of a children’s bedroom by turning it into one of a spiteful 90 year old (man or woman). We had to maintain the main elements in the room which included the single bed, the book case, the window, clock, television and bottom shelf. We could replace the pin board with anything and had to identify the horizon line and perspective. Before I began this task I wanted to research and write down everything that went into my idea. This is an element in my process that had been lacking because I would often get carried away and neglect identifying the reasons for certain design decisions, which is what I wanted to establish before I physically drew anything.
I went into the task from the point of view of my character. I decided she would be female but her personality should reflect in the objects around her. In order to create this I went ahead and made points considering what was given to us which included- the shape language, age of the items and their use, what she values based on what is on display and how her attitude impacts her living space.
My Narrative:
Décor is very 1960s (when she was 30 years old)
Has darker dim elements because she has Haphephobia- an anxiety disorder of being touched so minimal to no human contact.
She was never married so no photographs of children or a spouse.
She does have a strange obsession with her cats who passed away and are preserved in the form of taxidermy displays.
She has house plants that have dried because of little to no sunlight and water.
She has her prescription pills she takes piled up in a corner of her room.
Her dentures are beside her bed table.
Room colors have elements of dark green (avocado green that was popular in the 1960s) with a vintage aesthetic- to show she hates the modern day and is very rigid to change and prefers living in her version of the past.
Furniture of that time period I researched to place in the room that signifies her age-
I used the objects linked above as my reference material for the interior and placed them within the sketch of my room in two point perspective, maintaining the same horizon line that is quite low since the original image is in Childs Eye View, in a way we get a larger view of the height and less of the floor space.
I drew my design in procreate and wanted to combine light and colour, for which I rendered the painting slowly, layering it from light to darker tones since the composition was to convey her isolation and bitterness. Which is why the only sign of life in the room- is a houseplant that is withering. I used Photoshop to combine elements of photo bashing into the render of the window, cat, clock, bed and night lights to give it more realism.
Blender Tutorial
We started our first introduction to Blender on Thursday with Technician Molly Babington and she guided us on understanding how to navigate the interface since we had to design a 3D version of the eyeball soup. I made note of the important keys we had to use in frequency that had shortcuts to them. The three keys were G for grab, S for scaling and R for rotating. At first I found the Viewport quite complex but with a bit of practice on moving around the X and Y axis I understood how to switch to front view which was what we were primarily working on. Lastly I memorized the key to undo immediately which was Control Z that I needed quite a bit.
We started modelling the cornea of the eyeball that was fairly simple since a UV sphere was readily available and we had to add the modifier- subdivision surface to reduce the number of faces on the object since we didn’t need it to be really high quality because that would slow us down. Following that it was about smoothening it in Object mode and then matching the sphere to the image we imported of the cornea in Edit mode. I found the instructions fairly clear to follow till we had to enable proportional editing and my device lost the sound output and I ended up pulling the vertices individually resulting in a sharp distorted mesh.
Once my audio came back on I found my cornea not looking like a cornea at all but more along the likes of a fireball. Which is when I realized I would have to start over and follow her recording the next day.
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