Below are the images of the Final Collection.
- Main motif: mix of 4 different types of human microscopic anatomy/structure formed into 1.
2. Main virus: separated mixed composition to form 4 different viruses
3. Still images of pattern
Lately, I started on the motifs for the Virus that will cause the Mutation in the city. The motifs were created and/or designed the same way I did for the previous motifs: find an image of an interesting microscopic anatomy, trace on tracing paper, scan and then digitized and compiled them all together to form ONE virus.
The virus cells that I was inspired by can be seen below.
Virus #1: Structure of Virus
Virus #2: HIV
Virus #3: Structure of Polio Viruses
Virus #4: Ebola Virus
Then, I combined them to form into one motif:
I had 2 versions of the motif in terms of colour to have a general outline vs how I intend for the virus motif to look like — clearly going towards the direction where my “healthy, normal, and non-virus” main motifs will soon change its “pure” colours to the spread of virus.
Apart from motifs, since the previous lesson where we were demo-ed on how to animate our banner in After Effects, I had thoughts mingling in my mind and thus decided to write it down:
To be brief, I noted down how I think I want my animation to be — main motifs zoomed in or out, virus approaching main motifs, spreading of colour, etc.
When I had these thoughts, I was thinking of Star Wars — how their spaceships were floating in space, the movement of space when spaceship goes towards whirlpool galaxy(?).
Maybe these images will help to show you how I envisioned the background of my banner to be:
Recently, I head down to the Experimental Medicine Building, to use the resources that they have on human microscopic anatomy/structure.
First foremost, I was taught the fundamentals of using a microscope, and lastly the choosing of whichever samples that I would like to view on.
I was spoilt for choices with the many samples, however the technician was of great help. He sat beside my work desk and assisted me — he even play trial and error to view the different samples to get the pattern that I was looking for in our human anatomy.
I selected a few of the samples, and did a screenshot of what I studied:
Mammal Cerebellum
Human Spinal Cord
Human Scalp
Mammal Thyroid and Parathyroid Glands
Mammal Kidney
Human Lung
Human Skin, Non-pigmented
Mammal Artery and Vein
Human Skeletal Muscle
Mammal Compact Bone
Mammal Ovarian Follicles
Human Ovary, active phase
Human Tongue
Mammal Esophagus
Human Stratified Columnar Epithelium
Why do things appear when we least expect them? These past few days, I have been holding on to a book that I found in the library, and perhaps it should be the first few things I should have found from the start of the Pattern project.
This post will consist of some hardcopy research:
Previously, it was just exploring of the different structures symmetrically repeated and reflected to form a motif. However, I am moving on to the process of putting together 2 or more different motifs to become one.
The first few examples can be seen below, where 1 human microscopy is repeated, and overlayed with another. The only difference between the two are the opacity.
On a side note, when I see these motifs (above), I realised it looked like the lace material.
And another example below, where I layered 3 different structures into 1. Though it is messy as the lines intersecting were pretty obvious and distracting.
From the consultation, I was introduced to an artist who does her work in abstract forms with an unorganised, messy and complex backdrop or surroundings.
Her name is Julie Mehretu, and these are some of her works that I find them interesting and are parts of my inspiration:
To minus off the use of symmetry and reflections, I combined the tracings that I had, following the best fir of positions of the structures, and started to form them into one whole motif.
Then, I repeat the image above, and formed design inspired by spirals, cosmos or what looked like mandala due to the radiating in and out. (Mixed in a little knowledge of Art History over here)
Next, how do I make it look as messy as Julie Mehretu’s? I decided to try and have textures. At first I thought of manually creating textures using several techniques I found online. But I too, wanted to try the grunge effect. So the images below are the before and after of grunge texture, with colour and monochromatic.
From hardcopy to softcopy
So from the previous post, I printed out selected images from a source that has data on human microscopic anatomy, traced those images, and lastly scanned them in. Not really at random, but I selected those images based on the type of patterns that I planned to incorporate into the entire motif — bones, cells, and connective and supportive tissues.
Softcopy
I did a few trial and error to vectorize the images that I scanned, and tried on getting a few motifs as a start. First thing first, I started by using each microscopic anatomy into its own motif by repetition within its own elements. I might say these trial motifs were headed towards the direction of symmetrical and geometrical patterns.
(Majority of the motifs are similar to the previous ones. Basically it shows the variations if I’d rather choose those motifs with intersecting lines in the middle or minimal intersection?)
Motif #1: the microscopic structure of our bone #1.
Motif #2: the microscopic structure of our bone #2.
Motif #3: the microscopic structure of Connective and Supportive Tissue #1.
Motif #4: the microscopic structure of Connective and Supportive Tissue #2.
Motif #5: the microscopic structure of Connective and Supportive Tissue #3.
Motif #6: the microscopic structure of cells
HOW DO I CREATE MOTIFS?
I planned to use the raw imagery of the human microscopic anatomy from the lab, but with tight schedules, I resorted to an alternative: using resources from books and online articles.
I was inspired from watching Bonnie Christine’s method of transferring hand-drawn sketches to digital. Therefore, I gave it a go to create my motifs.
Firstly, I selected a few microscopic images (from the website, book, and article,), printed them out, traced them over and finally scanning them in to digitize them.
You can view the images below:
Human Cells
Connective and Supportive Tissue
Bone
With these bunch of scanned images, I would compose them to form one motif.
(Still progressing…)
On a side note, I find the pattern designs done by William Morris, from the Arts and Crafts Movement, pretty interesting. Arts and crafts movement is well known for its decorative art. From William Morris’ art, I like how the artboard/canvas are all filled up with patterns leaving minimal negative space.
All along I’ve been planning the outlook of how I want my pattern to turn out, how it will look from afar vs when zoomed in. Thus, these gave me more depth to the idea of how I want my motifs will look like.