3D Artefacts

Colour Theories

Starting this term we were told to write down the meanings behind colours, what we feel from colours or what we interoperate from colours. We were told to find if other cultures have different meanings behind the colours and if they symbolise or represent anything. These are my descriptions for each.

Red-

The colour red is mostly associated as being a warm colour and is put together with passion or sexuality. As most colours do, red has a positive and negative side of it; Being positive, red can stimulate passionate emotions like love, but to put it negatively, it can be a sign of anger or revenge. The colour red is associated mostly with sexuality and lust, which is confused with the colour pink that associates with love and innocence. Other cultures have different views on the colour, for example in China it's seen as the colour of good luck and fortune, but in India it can symbolise purity making it a nice choice for weddings. I find that red here is mostly used to promote Valentine's Day.

Blue -

The colour Blue is mostly used to symbolise loyalty and trust, being sincere it's a colour used a lot on the "Hero" character or protagonist in films or games. It's associated with being reliable and responsibility, it has a need for restoring peace and getting through hard times. It's considered idealistic, and gives off the aura of wisdom. The colour blue is a 'safe' colour, and so it doesn't vary much between cultures making it the most universally liked colour.

Green -

The colour green is associated with peace and harmony, and is an emotionally positive colour.

It's all about balance, and has the sense of right or wrong, taking the moral stand. A lot of people associate the colour green with a love of nature, animals, and peace. On the other side, a lot of people relate the colour with stability and endurance. Green, because of it's peaceful nature is used a lot of the time for the business world, in particular property and real estate. It's that feeling of safety.

Purple - 

When I think of the colour purple, I usually associate it with spirituality, inspiration and imagination. Purple helps those who seek fulfilment, and is used in psychology. A lot of people find that purple symbolises the future, our dreams and prospects which calms the emotions spiritually. Others argue that it relates to a fantasy world, and escapism from everyday life; Essentially that it's a daydreamer that's trying to escape from reality.

Yellow -

Yellow is associated with being illuminating and uplifting. It relates to knowledge and intelligence, being creative from a mental aspect and helping us find new ways of doing things. It's normally the best colour for boosting enthusiasm, and keeping people optimistic. 

One argues that yellow helps us with decision making and helps us focus and recall information. Others say that it's anxiety producing, and non-emotional coming from the mind instead of the heart.

Orange - 

Orange radiates the warmth from the colour red whilst keeping up with the cheerfulness and optimism of yellow. It's and uplifting colour and relates to a gut feeling or reaction, keeping away from the physical reaction of red and the mental reaction of yellow. Orange brings a positive outlook on life and is the perfect colour to use to get through a rough time. The colour orange relates to socialising and simulating a conversation between two. It's a warm inviting colour, that gets people talking and thinking.

Pink -

The colour pink represents love, compassion and nurture. It's the colour to show unconditional love and understanding. Pink is feminine, romantic, affectionate and intimate. Not to be confused with the lust of the colour red. Pink shows tenderness and sensitivity, which is why it's associated as being very feminine. The colour pink gets us in touch with our personal and nurturing side of ourselves. On the other hand, it can be associated a lot with being over-emotional or having emotional neediness, which comes off immature.

White -

White is purity, innocence, wholeness and perfection. White is associated with being the colour of new beginnings, and the saying "wiping the slate clean" is in reference to white being so pure and being a 'blank canvas'. The colour white is most commonly associated with cleanliness and purity, being the reason behind the white wedding tradition and doctors/nurses wearing white coats. There's a sense of comfort with the colour white, that gets rid of any doubt or intimidation. On the negative side, too much white can be cold, isolating and empty. This leads to the feeling of detachment or sterility. Other cultures see white traditionally as being related to mourning or death.

Black -

Black relates to being secretive or hidden. It creates an air of mystery and 'fear of the unknown'. It creates a barrier between itself and the outside world, which provides comfort whilst keeping it's feelings protected. Black is mostly related to the absence of light, which leads it to have mostly negative connotations; Like for example, depression, isolation, vulnerability and fear. It is intimidating, unfriendly and unapproachable because of how much power it has on us. It mostly gives people fear, because black is associated with darkness which the fear of the dark is a very common phobia. It is the opposite of white.

3D Modelling

For this project, we were told to find vintage artefacts that we could then build in maya and put into an antique shop at the end of the term. To find some good artefacts our class got together and looked around some second hand shops, museums and artefact shops. We took photos with three different views of objects like pocket watches, jewellery boxes, vintage jewellery and weapons.

The first artefact I found was an old wrecked tin box used for cigarettes. 

Using this as reference, I built first base of the box in maya. I had a lot of problems with this; Maya isn't my strong point anyway and I really struggle to understand and get used to the program and the tools so the small details on the box and part of the shapes were really difficult for me. I had to get a lot of help from the lectures to fix mistakes I made when building this and try grasp some idea of what the tools do that i forgot from the first year.

Eventually I managed to end up with a shape mostly resembling the tin box from my reference photos. I ended up building only half of it, then duplicating and mirroring it onto the other side; this did however cause a lot of problems for me later when I was UV mapping the object.

After fixing the problems as best I could, I added the hypershade, and the checkered pattern onto the shape, which would help me to understand the UV mapping.

After this I started to build the lid for the box. This was much easier for me and i didn't have as many problems with this. Although it took me a while to figure out how I would attach them, and how they would fit together. This again caused me a lot of unnecessary problems for me when fixing the UV mapping. 

After finishing building the lid I again added the checkered pattern onto the object so that it would be easier for me. I was then ready to start UV mapping the object.

UV mapping this object gave me the most problems in the whole project. Because of something I had done while building the model in the early stages, the UV mapping had lots of issues and was like a puzzel to sort out. 

After finishing the mapping, I was able to put the lid together with the base and start texturing. I enjoyed creating the texture. Because the reference photos weren't at a good quality, I had to recreate most of it in Photoshop.

This is how the model looked finished without any texture on it. I'm very proud of the shape of the box as it was a really big challenge for me personally.

Because I had decided already from what angle I would use to render the image, I didn't need to worry too much about the base of the model or any small faults and distortions that were round the back of the model. I am however really happy with how it turned out with the texture on it, it wasn't easy for me to create so I'm impressed that I managed to remember a lot of the tools.

Here are the final renders of the model. 

For my second artefact I used some reference images of a pocket watch we found in one of the second hand shops, that was full of vintage clocks and pocket watches.

After getting a lot of help from the lecturer and a classmate, I managed to get the first half of the pocket watch modelled.

It took a lot help and attempts to get the indent in the middle of the model, but since it was the only detail on the pocket watch it was important to have it included.

I then duplicated the side and flipped it onto the other side for the other side of the pocket watch. A few tweaks and changes to the shape, and deleting the extra indent into the model was necessary to get to other half to look right. I was really happy with how it looked though.

After adding the checkered pattern, I started the UV mapping. This was especially difficult with this model as I had to do it in the cylindrical mapping instead of planar mapping. This was completely new to me which is why I struggled so much with it. 

I attempted at best I could to find a similar texture to what was on the pocket watch but I couldn't find anything similar. I added a few affects to a different texture and colour changes and tried my best to get a good texture. It's not perfect and I'm not too happy about it, but it's the best i could do.

Here are a few of the final renders.

For my third artefact, I decided to use my own vintage hand mirror to model. It had a lot of nice details and patterns on it, and I thought it would be a good challenge model for myself.

I started with the basic shape of the top. This was difficult again for me I had to get some help with modelling this part to get it the right shape at the front and the back.

I then started to drag down to the bottom and get that to a similar shape to the mirror, which wasn't as difficult and I managed to get a good enough shape with a few tweaks.

I also had to fix the back a few times to get the shape right when I smoothed it.

I was then ready to add the hypershade, and the checkered pattern on to start UV mapping the object. It was difficult trying to line them up properly so that they were straight and aligned.

UV mapping this object was much easier then the tin box surprisingly,  with not many sides and faces to join together. Below shows the object smoothed out.

My main issue and challenge with this object was getting the mirror effect on the object and getting the design to look like it's embedded into the object. After many attempts and fails I finally managed to get something that would mirror properly. I am really proud of how it turned out however, especially of all my objects I'm really pleased with this model.

These are the final renders of the object, which I'm very pleased with.

Overall I did really struggle with this project, and i'm not amazed by the final results. I did try my best and I'm really happy with the mirror especially. I think I still need to get very used to maya and practise a lot more to understand it better.