Brainnado

It's like a brainstorm but more violent and leaves ideas scattered around and falling from the sky in weird places.

For movement; The character could propel themselves by a violent or sudden means that launches them through the air and they are left to brace for impact and hope they landed somewhere where they wanted to be. Their surroundings could be full of damaged objects that the character has collided with that aren't explained until the character is seen moving for the first time. Some of these objects could be based of props from pinball machines.

Alternatively the means of propulsion could be a powerful spring or spring-based mechanism. Unless the character is organic in which case it could be a coiled tail of similar appendage.

The character would need some kind of protection for their head, like and acorn cap or something. Or natural body armour like an armadillo (if it's organic) or a thick plate/helmet if it's mechanical.

For movement; All these are alternatives for the dandelion idea I had earlier. Each carries a different style of motion but all are influenced by the air, allowing room for conflict in the narrative for lack of control. The sycamore seed would be the most energetic of the movements with its rapid spinning, whereas the others hold a far more peaceful drifting style of motion. If this was to be the character's primary means of motion then they would probably a rather placid or docile character (with the exclusion of the sycamore seed which could produce a slightly confused but energetic character).

For materiality; A character made, or possessing rubbery appendages would probably have a malleable body. This would also influence the nature of their movement as well. The character would probably be able to reach afar to grab things or contort their body to move about.

For materiality; A character with a liquid body that is viscous enough that it can essentially be atable without a container could be interesting. Their motion would be very fluid (let's face it, there is no other way I could describe that) but probably slow and creeping. Perhaps they could be contained within a solid suit or something that protects the liquid creature inside?

For meaning; The character could be lonely and constructing an imaginary friend for themself or looking for one. Their equivalent of a teddy bear. Being a unique, alien character they could find a friend in unconventional objects.

Three's the Magic Number

I've been thinking about Project 2A (yes, a day after the hand-in, hush) and I've got some concepts for the three "m's" already. The first one that came to mind was a trash can for meaning. I thought that this character could collect objects that nobody wants or collect a specific type of object (recycling bins). In any case it would be a collector of some sort, potentially even a kleptomaniac.

The second object I thought of was a dandelion for movement. I'm not sure if organic things are allowed to be used so I'll have to check on Friday but I like the idea that my character's primary means of getting from one place to another would be by wind-directed air travel and they may not have full control over it.

Lastly I thought of a cellphone, or any generic hand-held electronic device for that matter, as a source of materiality. I like the range of materials that feature both internally and externally. It would allow me to make a character out of metal, plastic, rubber and glass components.

These are of course just initial thoughts. My favourite is definitely the trash can for meaning but I'll see what else comes to mind.

Materiality and Post Submission Reflection

Well here is my final video. I am very pleased with the final cut and I feel I've learned an enormous amount about Maya which I can apply to projects to come. If I had a better understanding of Maya and a little bit more time I would have played a bit more with the transition between the metal and rust, making it so that parts of it rust before others rather than all of it changing at once. I also would have made the active orbs movements more complex and in a longer video shown more arrangements and forms. Perhaps I could have had the sky reflecting on the surface of the orb as well.

Materiality

My poster for MDDN 241 - Project 1: Materiality.

Mental Ray Restored!

No witty pun or whatever for my title today, the relief that my renders came out working has my focus at the moment. I am now in the process of constructing my final video but here are a couple of sneak previews of what it will look like;

Some might say I am excited...

Touching Up

Well it's been a little while since I posted and contracting tonsillitis didn't help. I have confirmation from Fingers in the Noise to use their Ambient Podcast for my soundtrack. I'm still having difficulty with mental ray for rendering my work so I'm flying blind for a lot of it but what I've done so far I'm happy with. Hopefully the tutors can help me kick these bugs out so we can have a completed project :)

Orbiting the Orb

As I was too tired to post this when I finished last night you're getting it this morning instead. I have been doing some intense animating to try and get as much done before Easter because I plan to be gorging myself on chocolate with my family over the break. So far I've managed to get a large portion done however some aspects are still proving difficult. So far this is what it looks like;

 I added in the spire post which has these little projector orb thingys on it to power the core of the orb.

Yeah pretty much.