Leanne
Stone
Planning my alien tech
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Today I started planning a general idea for my one minute film for this project. This helps me to start to get an idea for my final film. This allowed me to think also about the comment my final film will be making on technology in society. The mind map helps me with the contextual appeal of the film I'll be making, making sure I keep it relevant whereas the mind map is going to help well with visualising my board making sure the things I would like to achieve are possible but each element would work well together. Through doing this I have the general idea for what I would be interested in doing and how I could include visual effects in my scene.
sketching my alien tech
To the left is my first sketch of the kind of alien tech I would like to model and animate. I did do a little story planning first, which is above as I didn't want to plan and sketch out a piece of alien tech and end up having a mis matched story line or a piece of tech that did not fit within a story or style. I want to create an intimidating piece of tech that could transform seemingly into an everyday object, in this case I am thinking a camera to show the takeover of technology. On the right is some more sketches just to help me envision what I really want this to look like. I think this design is both simple but effective in what I want it to achieve.
creating my image planes
Before starting to model my alien tech in Maya, I needed to create my image planes. I needed one from the front perspective and one from a side perspective. I felt the top was not useful to me, however if I do need it, it'll be easy to draw up. To make these, I first put in my guidelines, this is so that I can make the head and the legs of the body and make them the same shape. I then created clear, bold lines that I will follow when modelling my alien tech. I have kept my image planes quite simple so I can quickly do the box modelling to this shape. I will add the detailing afterwards by seeing what looks good such as the details on the legs to make this look more mechanical and technical. Below are the final drawings for my image planes.
Texture ideas for my tech
Texture moodboard
I thought to plan further my model, I would look at textures each part of my tech would have. Below is a board of the three major textures I need to think about on my tech. This includes the plastic type of the camera body, I want this to be a plastic like white texture. However to match the rustic metal look I want they should be a little dirty and older looking. This plastic will be paired with a glossy, black material for around the lens of the camera which is a material I need to look into more. There is also examples of some lenses and a look into the different kinds and ages of metals I could use for the legs of my alien tech. On the right is some examples of my primary research with textures and ideas for my model. The camera at the top is what is inspiring the overall design for my tech. This camera has some what of a futuristic look to it which I want to bring through in my alien tech design. On the right is also various metals I have been looking at for my tech legs. This concludes of photos of metals I have found both in my home on everyday applications and outside of my home. I like the idea of a less shiny metal that is more rustic and beaten up, with a darker grey colour to it, rather than the polished, light metals more commonly found around my home.
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independent research
On the right is some examples of my primary research with textures and ideas for my model. The camera at the top is what is inspiring the overall design for my tech. This camera has some what of a futuristic look to it which I want to bring through in my alien tech design. On the right is also various metals I have found around my home to get me thinking about what kind of metals I want to use for the legs of my alien tech. I found the metals around my house to be too smooth and clean for the look I want to go for. These surfaces are polished and rather reflective and shiny. I would like a more rugged look for my tech
To the left are my favourite and most educational pictures I have taken from metal and metal detailing around my home. Not only did this give me the best idea for the texture I want, my favourite being the metal furthest to the bottom right, but also an insight into the kind of details I could use in my alien tech. This is why I have taken photos of things such as hinges and chains, as it gives me inspiration for the technical side and mechanics of my alien tech. I had purposely made my image plane loose to give room for addition to detailing on the legs and also room for technical addition. I am very happy with the information I have gathered from this as it's massively helped my envision what I want my tech to look like. This will definitely prove useful when modelling my alien tech.