Week 11

This week started with a lecture from Chris and Mark, the lecture was a wide overview of our new project asset creation. We learnt the basics about polygons what to do, what not to do, texturing how simple a set up it can begin as and how complicated it end as with something that looked like a fuse box. For the most part the lecture was about Maya the program we will be using through out this project. Having never used Maya before i did get lost on some things but for the most the lecture was very informative and well laid out. 

On Tuesday i had my first go with Maya in a group workshop held by Chris. He taught us the basics and the overall layout of the program by the end of three hour work shop i had a slight grasp of program and had made my first model a lamp. As shown below. For my first go I don't think it looks too bad looks less like a lamp however and more like a speaker for some intercom. After the session we were asked to build a lamp at home. 

My second lamp went much better resembling more of a modern lamp that you would find beside a bed or on a coffee table of sorts. In this design the overall proportions of each shape lends it self better to the lamp unlike the lamp before that had a lamp head way too big for the design i was going for, a bendy lamp on a desk. In this design i really like the more organic base design and the how the bulb sits in the design. One thing i didn't do however is that i didn't work from a reference which is something i rectified on my next design which was much more complicated. 

After designing the beside table lamp, i decided that i really wanted to push my self as i had really caught a bug for designing things in 3D. As i find it a lot more relaxing than 2D as everything can designed right down to the lowest measurement. So the next few days i began designing the Pixar lamp that you see at the beginning of films like “Toy Story” a lamp I’ve grown up to know and love. Compared to the last design this one is a lot more complicated so through out i referenced images on the internet of the Pixar lamp. The overall out come of my final design i think is a success. Compared to the last two designs i really went into detail which i think shines through on this design. One detail i really wanted to get right were the springs because i really wanted this to look accurate, something that could work and exist correctly. As you can see i used a few shapes to make the design look real.

Another detail i did on my design was the wire for the lamp and the on and off switch on the wire. I was rather hesitant to put wire on and below are two pictures of the design below one without and one with. The reason being that without the wire the lamp appears to have a character to it probably endured by the Pixar lamp i grew up knowing. Yet with it the lamp looks like it could have a real place on a desk for example in a game. Either way however this detail taught me some new things as to get the shape of the wire i used bend deformers something i was told by Chris to research during the production of my first lamp, the bendy lamp. I really like the details on the ‘on/off’ box on the wire as they really add some realism to the design and the taurus i used, at where the wire enters the base of the design just furthers this. Overall i couldn't be prouder of the design especially having just learnt the basics Tuesday.

Overall this week has been productive having learnt a new program and worked hard to produce some designs.