Lightwave process 1

To begin my Lightwave project, we were asked to design and create two models for a futuristic vehicle. We could use any techniques, with any functions - as long as it didn't involve wheels. To begin the project, I first research in to different transportation methods, so that I could get an idea of the kind of thing I'd want to do for my final peice. Once this was done, I started sketching out idea's - using techniques such as combining animal traits, to come up with something unique and original.

Eventually, I settled on a design which was based partly on a boat and a hang glider - and a small craft influenced by the design of a Fly.













For my first design, I decided to go with the part boat, part hang glider. I began by making the base of the boat, since this would be the main structure of the design. I did this by first creating a box, and molding it in to the shape I wanted to achieve - I did this by selecting the ends of the ship, clicking the right polygons and moving each sides to make the curves. To create the move defined curves - specifically the bottom aspects - I selected the points on the polygons, then clicked on them seperately, to move them individually to mold them in to shape. I also used "smooth shift," and "move," to add more decoration and depth to the sides of the ship.














To create the ropes to connect the hang glider and the ship, I firstly created a disk - streached to a cylinder so it was similar to a long tree trunk. I then duplicated this, so I had two of the same thing on the same layer. Then I created a circle, used the slice tool to create the rings and smoothed them out so they were more circular. Taking the cylinder again, I duplicated it to add it too the bottom. Once that was complete, I added small decoration by creating a circle, squashing it together with the sizing tool, and placing them on the sides - from here, I altered the sides until everything fit together and looked correct.














Placing the suspender to the ship, I duplicated as shown in the above image - so that I now had two. I then placed them on either side of the ship and rotated them until they connected at the top ends.













For the glider, I got a cone shape and selected specific polygons - these were the bottom parts of the structure - then I deleted them so now it had a flat surface at one end and a pointed part at the other. I then selected certain polygons on the roof and using the extrude tool, pulled them out slightly so the top had dents and ridges in it to give it more depth.

I then rotated the glider and placed it on top of the ship so it connected with the two ropes I had created earlier.

After I had the correct shape, and placement - I set about duplicating it, sizing it smaller, and placing it on top of the original. I did this three times, still making each one smaller than the next to create winged effect. Once I was satisfied of the placement and sizing, I made the whole thing bigger than the ship by streaching it.

Once the ship was complete, I added textures by saving some to my "images" folder. I then named each individual peice of the ship, so I would be able to texture them seperately. I then added them to the ship - using a wooden texture for the bottom - a red material for the glider and a metal for the attachments holding it all together.

Once this was done, I rendered it and create a small video peice to go with it.

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Mark Research

To begin my research, I thought of looking in to dance and movements. My inspiration came from Matthew Koon's dance type - which is experimental and moves really fluidly and tells a story through this.

For my project, I'd like to incorporate in some way, dance and how it can be used to animate. I feel that dancing can tell a story and communicate in a really beautiful way. I feel if I do use this media, I'm going to blend it in to all different techniques - such as paints, illustrations and other videos.

Animation. (Techniques)

This is the type of Animation I've been thinking about doing. It's stop motion, but more with Humans and things around you than creating models or sets. I really like the idea of this because I could experiment a lot and try out different methods. I could also try animating a wide range of materials to come up with some kind of concept.

The reason I liked this video is because it uses a mix of media's, such as a girl walking on a bed, but there's other things that move such as pillows and blankets - and it works really well. I'd like to delve in to this area of animation and come up with something thats more my style.

Another short animation which uses this technique is deadline. A guy used post it notes on his wall to create moving objects such as logo's or monsters. He animates as well and he actually interacts with the movements of his animations, so it all becomes a nice blend of mixed media and clever timing, movement.

Animation. (Research - tutorials.)

Because I want to do my this animation in Photoshop, I've decided to view some tutorials online on the best, most effective ways of producing one. Because I don't want to start out with something really hard, I've been researching in to small animation. This one included a cat which flicks it's tail - to do this she simply drew in separate layers on the parts she wanted to move, and then drew in a different colour above the original position, where she wanted it to move too. This is a technique I may use because it's straight forward, it works well and it means not having to redraw everything again.

The reason why I'm choosing photoshop as my main tool is because I feel it looks more effective and allows you to use more digital techniques with ease.