3D Modeling
Project 2: Anthropogenic Stalactites
Production of Play
2018
This is the first draft of all five objects placed together in a single scene. Saber, the maid figure, is the center of attention. Her importance and status is conveyed by her size and her dominance over her dog. Even a very sizable dog has become her steed. A mass abundance of blow-up flamingos have come to offer her a roll of tape, an item of value in this world. The yellow bookend is a passing spectator of the event occurring. The viewer of this image can then place themselves as part of the event as a blow-up flamingo, or just a passing on-looker like the yellow bookend.
I had troubles working the camera and adjusting the focus and depth. After much trial and error, I was not able to achieve the perspective I desired. My next steps in this project are to figure out exactly how to utilize the camera and how to make it work for the mood of my scene.
Here are views of each individual rendered object:
The bookend was fairly simple to model. I used bezier curves to create the curvature of the object. I then extruded the spline and implemented a cloth simulator to add width and depth. Boolean was used to create the face holes. The rectangular hole and the part sticking out was made by selecting the faces and using those faces so the part sticking out would be the same shape as the hole. The sticker was a photo of the actual sticker placed on a material.
This tape dispenser was slightly more challenging. I still used the same spline technique to create the sides of the dispenser. A few tubes were used to create most of the other shapes. The most challenging part of this model was creating the spikes of the dispenser because the shape did not have enough edges to effectively pull out each spike. the green tab part of the tape was also a photograph of the actual tab, but this time, the material did not transfer correctly, no matter how I manipulated it.
The blow-up flamingo was probably the most fun to model. I enjoyed trying to replicate the organic shape of this object and seeing it come to life. It was this model that reminded me of how important it is to collapse the objects correctly, otherwise in sculpting mode you'll find that your new object is hollow and will create holes. I found out the hard way after I had modeled the body, but I suppose it's more accurate to life, as the real object is hollow anyways. I used many circles and lofted them to form the neck. The plug was made from tubes and the cap for the plug was made from a spline. It was originally a very flattened pill but I couldn't get the bend deformer to work properly. The text was added in bodypaint along with the rest of the imagery. I also learned afterwards that I should have probably made the maximum higher than 1920 because the eye rendered very pixellated.
This dog is probably the seventh or eighth rendition. Despite how easy it looks, the shape was very difficult for me to achieve. I tried almost every possible way to make this dog, but the method that ended up working was metaballs. At first, I used two metaballs, one for the head and one for the body. Later, I realized that I should have used three instead — one for the head and two for the body. With this, I was finally able to get a better base shape for the dog. The rest was made in sculpting mode. I used boolean to cut out the hole but that was also refined in sculpting mode. I decided to leave the paint job a bit messy like the actual model. A wall material was used to replicate the rough texture of the dog.
Surprisingly, this model was not as difficult to start. I started with a single cube and extruded the planes until I had the general shape of the figure. Symmetry and subdivision surface was also implemented. The body in general was not too hard to make. Even sculpting the dress wasn't that difficult; the axis symmetry came in handy. The most difficult and time consuming part of this model was the head. I started with two spheres, one for the head and another smaller one for her bun. Excluding the bun, the hair was the most intense sculpting session I had to do. However, despite all the hard work and time put into it, I was only able to make subpar hair. The next most difficult part was trying to maintain the smoothness and roundness of the limbs. Everything else was not too difficult to model.
And for those who are interested, here are the five actual objects:
For the actual remix part of the object, I focused more on the concept of my work and how it relates to the Anthropocene. I initially started with a ritual narrative, but I began asking myself, "Why?" and "What do all of these objects have in common?" Essentially, I viewed them as two kinds of items: trash and toys.
It wasn't until more pondering that I realized how these objects — toyish in nature— fall more under the realm of playful rather than useful. I came to the conclusion that toys, and objects alike, are ultimately just items of trash in our world. They reflect the Anthropocene just as much as any other kind of material development if not more. No other species than our own creates these mass-produced, plastic vessels of pop culture. Toys, in their own regard, are then not only the epitome of the Anthropocene but are also specific time capsules of each epoch within.
I then began to wonder about the scope of influence that toys have on our world. From an economic standpoint, the toy industry alone generated $18.4 billion this past year (Source: The NPD Group). This statistic alone revealed to me the carelessness of human society. According to this plastics trade magazine, plastic toys make up about 90 percent of the toy market.
Economically, the manufacturing these cheap plastic toys is detrimental. The process of making such toys releases various dangerous chemicals and toxins such as lead, chromium, and phthalates into the Earth's ecosystems and atmosphere. Due to the types of plastics used and the combination of other materials, these toys are difficult to recycle (Source: Huffington Post). Since these materials cannot be separated at the recycling centers, many of the objects are thrown to waste. These shiny, new toys are "used" for only a fraction of their lifespan, only then to sit in a landfill for hundreds of years thereafter.
My composition was initially an analogy on human exploitation of Earth's resources and our view of toys as a perfect miniature version of our world, but as I further developed my work and researched the destructive path of plastics in relation to toys, it organically evolved into a commentary on the environmental devastation of our contemporary lifestyles.