Category: Foundation 3D 1 – G6 (2017)

Stegosaurus, Pterodactyl, Tyrannosaurus Rex
Scelidosaurus, Apatosaurus, Triceratops is next
Alice, Bob, and Brenda
Portia and Terry, what a sight!
It’s Fendi and His Pail Full of Dinosaurs.

I may or may not be binge-watching Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs after that day of class. But I’m just saying – that I am starting to hallucinate these dinosaurs are going to bring me on a trippy journey to dinosaur-foam world. That may just be the lack of sleep and coffee talking. 

From the feedback session last wednesday, I’ve been trying to think of materials to construct my new friends. Interestingly, it was mentioned to use materials as a form of characterization to give personality than practically.

So what are we waiting for? One… Two… Three… JUMP! I’M ON MY WAY TO DINOWOOOOORLD.

This is Terry the Tyranosaurus Rex, he likes to gym, and his favorite quote is “sweat is fats crying”. Who said it, he’s not very sure.

You’d think I’m proficient with a penknife, but I’m actually not.

From the previous design, I decided to make the subordinate much smaller, thinner whilst still retaining the idea of wedging. It reminds me of Charissa’s vase where the little bumps are the subordinates. It still retains it’s position in the upper third of the dominant, and the subdominant retains it’s original position of being a third wedged in the top of the dominant. I consider it a very very different version of Bob the dinosaur.

The steel head, body and arms are to represent Terry’s obsession with his looks. Of course, he, like many guys still finds that his facial appearance is his most valuable thing, hence it is gold compared to his silver body. He’s still a little self-conscious of his little arms, so it’s bronze. “Hey, I’m working on it, okay!” he screams.

Placing the head on the right side emphasizes the idea of asymmetry against the otherwise symmetrical dominant and sub dominant.

Terry says he has been an inspiration for many designs around the world, one such design (according to him), is being a wealthy man’s shower.

The other, being a ship, when lying on his back that is.

Well a dinosaur can dream

This is Portia II the Pterodactyl, she’s a little shy and has a fragile self esteem.

This was a brainstormed concept that was well-liked for her ability to ‘fly’. I found it a challenge to make the dominant very dominant if it was a plane. I realized the most obvious way to make a plane a dominant is to make the subdominant and subordinate significantly shorter or smaller.  I wedged her underbelly/body on the leftmost third of the plane and the head on the leftmost third as well. To emphasize the asymmetry on the body. This actually my second attempts because attempt one was where I found out …

That clay is very fragile.

After crying a lot and curling into a ball of defeat, I made Terry in case Portia II decides to … not be in one piece.

I chose the fragile material of acrylic and clay to show her fragile personality and her low self esteem. Her reflective head shows her self-consciousness and her constant concern about how people perceive her. Juxtaposed against Terry the T-rex, she is a much more fragile, self-conscious, low self esteem dino.

But don’t worry, Portia has big dreams. Firstly is to be a lap table.

and secondly to be a big pier

Reflection on Pandora’s Box Assignment

Overall, this was an interesting experience.

I’ve learnt about how Dominant, Subdominants and subordinates play a part in making a model interesting, sometimes some sculptures have many subdominants and subordinates, and these are the building blocks of making a model.

I’ve also learn about purposeful design that everything is placed with an intention in mind – there is an element of balance, symmetry (or asymmetry) or rules of thirds when placing, wedging, piercing or cradling parts together.

I’ve learnt that wood, acrylic, stones, iron and even wires can be materials when working with model and not to solely focus on one material and think about how each material contradict, compliment or emphasize the form of one another.

I was challenged to think of ways to incorporate materials apart from foam and the biggest challenge was finding ways or alternatives to slicing wedging slots and accurate holes to fit parts in and around. Because… I’m quite unfamiliar with the workshop and tools.

I was also challenged to think of ways that a D, SD and SO can be placed together and have a clear D, SD and SO in 4 out of 6 angles. I learnt to constantly rotate my model to ensure that it doesn’t get wonked up from one angle to another.

I think I can improve on my craftmanship (cause honestly, quite new to this as well) when working with materials – perhaps I can learn from some of my classmates (who honestly have amazing workmanship in their models) in my future assignments.

I also think that I have a lot to improve on when looking at rectilinear dimensions as my professor constantly pointed out that one height matched another length. I think I could be more observant when noticing these errors.

Always a learning experience here! 

Okay, bye

 

Bob the dinosaur has been very lonely lately.

He complains that whilst I was busy with other projects, I’ve conveniently neglected the fact that he is the only dinosaur in ADM. So I consulted dino-tinder to find him a new match.

I started by out by sketching some ideas. Having foam allows me a liberty to play with a variation of block sizes and thickness, and also I took inspiration from dinosaurs, cause they’re cool.

There were some criteria I kept in mind when making… uh picking his new company.

• Feature D, SD and SO clearly.
• Be decisive at where I put the blocks – whether it’s top third, lower third, or middle.
• The D, SD and SO should be visible from majority, if not at least four out of six, perspectives.
• Incorporate ideas of wedging, cradling or piercing.
• Also theme of asymmetry should be present.

Here are those he has matched.

This is Alice the T-rex. She just ate her previous boyfriend because she was hungry.  I played around with wedging for this sculpture. Firstly, I ensured the blocks are wedged decisively – in this case, lower third. The SO is placed in the middle, emphasizing the asymmetry of the piece.

I learnt that wedging a block creates an “invisible/hidden” piece at where it’s wedged (as seen from the top view), and despite ensuring the blocks are not the same dimensions, this made the D and SD jumble up a little from the top view, but otherwise it’s quite clear which is the D and SD from other angles, also it tends to hide the SO when viewed from the bottom.

 

This is Brenda the Stegosaurus. She doesn’t like hot drinks because it gets cold when it reaches her tummy. This time I experimented with cradling – which kind of felt like a deeper wedging. I ensured the cradling is done on the left-most third of the sculpture, and the SO is placed on the leftmost third again.

Taking my learning points from the previous attempt, I realized being more cautious, meticulous and decisive made the sculpture more thoughtful. I also started to consider little details like the ‘direction’ the block seems to face – in these two sculptures, I played with the idea of an X, Y and Z axis – so the blocks will point forward and back, left and right, up and down.

Reflection

Bob is very happy with his two new friends, and they have taught me the joys and wonders of cradling, piercing and wedging.

Firstly, wedging creates an ‘invisible’ block between the areas that is wedged, allowing the block to look larger or longer as there is a comparison. Same for piercing as it adds length in the space. Cradling, however – is a little more complicated, it adds thickness to both blocks and somehow makes the wedged piece look  a little oddly squeezed in … or visually interesting as they say.

Secondly, being decisive and being meticulous about where you put blocks creates a purposeful design, it negates a ‘sorta yes, maybe no’ aspect to the design and makes the design more wholesome.

Lastly, there are more ways to play with blocks that placing it here and there – using foam allows me to have more control on the shapes of the blocks, such as ensuring the shape of the blocks aren’t similar, creating gaps to wedge and cradle other blocks and allows me to venture into thinner blocks to play with.

Overall, Bob the dinosaur is happy and so am I. 

okay bye.

Hello World!

3D INTERESTING OBJECT

This is Toby the Bus, he keeps all my one dollar coins I’ve hoarded – I mean… collected… because in hall, one dollar is life – it gets you coffee from vending machines to last through class, it is your emergency money supply for late night suppers, and it allows you to use washing machines and dryers to wash accidental paint stains you’re too lazy to wipe.

Personal usage aside, I found it three dimensionally interesting because it’s simple but has lots of details on it. I was tasked to look at it from a 3D artist perspective and note the details that gone into making this a design. This is my findings:

Dominant (D): The opaque red shell.
Subdominant (SD): A contrasting transparent windows.
Subordinate (SO): The details in the wheels, the bumps along the shell and the white line that cuts across the bus.
Features: A convex shaped shell, eye-catching red (which shows presence), Void at the side (visible in front) – approximately 5 percent void, 95 percent mass , symmetry along principle axis, Textured bumps on the side of the bus, proportionate and made of similar volumes.

PANDORA’S BOX

I was assigned the theme of Asymmetry.

Asymmetry
adjective
with two halves, sides, or parts that are not exactly the same in shape and size

Contrary to what people think – I’m actually struggling,
that smile is just cause I’m trying to remain optimistic.

I played around with putting blocks off center, and ensured the 3 elements of D, SD and SO is visible from all 3 viewpoints whilst still being asymmetrical from all sides.

These are my three new friends I’ve made!

This is Amy the tank. She likes long walks on the beach and destruction. This is was the first ‘sculpture’ I designed – with it comes some learning points.

Firstly, I put the concept of D, SD and SO into practice. I learnt that the difference in dimension/length of the three objects should be significant from all three perspective (meaning the length, width and height should all be significantly bigger or smaller). From this I noticed the difference is visible from the top, but from the side and front the SD and D gets jumbled up.

I also learnt that the placement of the SD, D and SO should be visible from all sides, I did various trials and errors flipping the box around and settled on this placement.

This is Bob the dinosaur, he doesn’t like meteors. This sculpture took learning points from previous figure and made improvements.

Firstly, I explored with depth, I placed objects in front of the other, jutting out slightly from the edges and this created an interesting composition, it made squares and rectangles have little indents and added depth.

I learnt to be more decisive with where I put the blocks as design is about specificity. For example, if a block is meant to be on the lower third, it should be on the lower third and not tether between the third and half. I learnt from analyzing real life objects such as wristbands and lipsticks that where you put SDs and SOs either adds symmetry or adds visual intrigue.

This is Calvin the hat, people think he’s shady because he’s always on top of things. With this sculpture I experimented with making something different from the previous two, whilst still remembering my previous learning points.

I played around with the placement of the D, SD and SO. In previous sculptures, the SD was put on D and the SO was put on SD. This sculpture, SD and SO rests on the D. I noticed that this added less intrigue and instead made it look the D much bigger than it looks.

Remembering my learning point from figure 1, I made the difference much more significant between the 3 blocks, the result is a clear D, SD and SO in all three views. I also remembered to be decisive and placed the SD on the top third and SO on the lower third.

Reflection

My three new friends have taught me
1. The difference between D, SD and SO, how they should be three dimensionally different and how SD and SO add detail an depth to the D.
2. To be observant to where I put the SD and SO, there are many ways to place these details – but it should be on purpose and decisive. Cutting the D into parts such as halves, thirds or even quarters allows structure and a purposeful design.
3. And most importantly, to explore design – a design can be interesting the first time, but upon closer analysis there are a million ways to put things around, and this makes 3D art endless – and this is just boxes to begin with!

Okay bye.