Category: 3D Digital Literacy

This week, we concentrated on using Blender’s additional tools, such as switching to edit mode to extrude faces and using bevels to curve edges to create more intricate designs. I found this workshop slightly challenging. Since I’m not experienced with the tools, I did struggle to follow the instructions when watching the tutorial video while building the skateboard. I’ve made many of the same mistakes previously; for example, I tried to grab edges to bevel or extrude, but the edges always ended up maintaining everywhere, and the polygons tend to have strange shapes. I encountered this quite a few times, and the reason was discovered to be that I was grabbing unconnected edges, which led to the failure of extruding too many layers of invisible faces that are directly on top of one another. To create the best skateboard, I did restart to make few changes and to make the skateboard more realistic.

Building a pull kart was the second workshop task. The progress was straight forward due to the experience of creating the skateboard. I was very careful not to make the same mistakes, so this practical task was quicker than building the skateboard, even though the pull kart had more details.

 

Making a tie fighter was the assignment. The shapes required for building the tie fighter were straightforward; therefore, it seemed that the homework task was quicker than the workshop practices. Selecting the polygon faces on the sphere and then copying and pasting them to make a window for the tie fighter were the main modifications made to create the middle body of the tie fighter. Adding detail by extruding out the top, then inserting an extra loop and extruding in to increase depth. I centered it by using M on the keyboard after inserting faces to make the top round. Using the solidify modifier to make the window thicker was another new technique I learned and used when creating the window section. I completed the wings and areas connecting the wings to the body fast since they mainly involved extruding and beveling. After I finished making one wing, I applied the mirror modifier, and I mirrored them up next to the central body, which directly produced a second wing for me. This is the tie fighter build after coloured.

We began the 3D Animation module with a lecture that covered the basic principles of Blender. Mike then gave an overview of Blender by showing us how to use its features and several useful shortcuts. Following the presentation and demonstration, the first workshop task we were given was to make a table and chairs. Since I’m a beginner and have never used Blender or any equivalent software, creating the table and chairs was much more difficult than I had anticipated and slightly chaotic. It was challenging for me to scale the cubes and then arrange them to resemble tables and chairs due to the fresh knowledge that had been presented to me in the morning. In addition, I’m having a lot of trouble getting used to using the mouse to move Blender objects smoothly. As I saw the demonstration, I did not anticipate the amount of time the first section of this activity would take. The second section of the task was adding colours to the table and chairs which I’ve simply applied brown to the table and red to the chairs.

After lunch, we received the assignment to create an animated snowman. A quick demonstration was presented. The snowman completed effectively. I then scaled everything to maintain its proportions so the shapes wouldn’t act weird when animated. I noticed having to parent the snowman’s body was the most difficult aspect of completing it. To get everything moving in the proper positions, I repeated it a few times, making sure there were no mistakes made.

To make the animation more engaging, I chose to give my snowman a friend and attractive surroundings. To create the snowman friend, I copied and pasted the original snowman by selecting every aspect of it and then clicking Shift D to create a second snowman. Afterward, I decorated them in different ways. In the background, I used a cylinder and cones to create a tree, then I applied the same copy and paste method. I used a sphere to create an igloo as well. I experimented with the lighting a little before animating. Applying lighting had given the snowmen depth and a lively atmosphere. Animating the snowman wasn’t as challenging as creating it, it was straight forward with the demonstration video, so I completed it smoothly with no chaos.

For our induction day on the 17th of September, the induction talk began with the lecturers introducing themselves and the areas that they will participate in animation. During the talk, we were also briefly explained about the course modules and the expectations from the lecturers of our work to receive certain grades on the mark scheme. After lunch, we completed a mini teambuilding project to get to know each other in the course. The project task was taking interesting photographs in our surroundings, then simply animating the pictures by giving them some facial features or designing a character of the object in the pictures. To start the project, we’ve been put into separate groups. I was in Group 4, which also included Jamayne, Naomi, Leon, and Peter. To find places where we could take interesting photos, we’ve decided to walk around the city.

I’ve decided to use a picture of a tree that was taken outside a restaurant. I chose this image based on my initial impression. I imagined the tree as a cheerful and welcoming doorman as I looked at it. I’ve given the tree eyes and a mouth as part of the appeal. I chose to add moving stick arms and legs to give it more characteristics and atmosphere, which gave it a very energetic appearance. This is my outcome of the mini project.