Welcome to BENV2423

It all looks very exciting and I cant wait to get underway.
For thursdays tutorial I have located this video:

WeGame.com - WoW Videos

The Infamous "Leeroy Jenkins" from World of Warcraft. I believe this reflects an important idea about the nature of explosions, in that one explosion can trigger another, which can trigger another and so forth, until the problem can grow out of hand. This concept is very closely related to the idea behind Radioactive generators, in that one reaction triggers another, and without control, the reaction would turn itself into a bomb. Furthermore, the verbal/emotional explosion of the team-mates working with Leeroy reflects the importance of team work - with only one member not working properly, the whole team is demolished.




At least I got chicken.

Finished

Fantastic!
For Russell: Using the links at the top of the page might be the best for finding stuff quickly. However, there are some other interesting blog posts scattered through my pages if you have the time.

Draft Captures

Jobs office.. Needs to be lit better and movers need to be added so as to not get stuck on one level.
Versace's office - Liking the lighting on the bottom level.. created accidently due to top light in jobs space (i think). Tentacles working the way i want! good!

Relative positioning. If space is to be hanging from bridge, will have to move jobs office down

Mashup (v2)

Under Donatella Versace's watch the new 3G iPhone is now the richest self-made woman in the world. She now oversees the production of a dozen collections each year thus potentially toppling one of the seminal technology and design companies of the world and creating a massive vacuum, which contains 15 billionaires. The future of Apple, judging upcoming designer talent since they were listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, has confirmed cult status. Due to the fact that we as a culture inherently care about the visionaries and the artists and the thinkers together, Apple and the iPhone, pioneered the use of celebrities in advertising brands with a fortune of $3.4bn, which grew at 11.3% in the second quarter of 2006.

Not a particularly joyful thing to ponder, a loyal following called for greater measures to tackle the wealth gap. In 2008 the true worth of any man is measured only as market forces exert a greater control over the economy. Rampant economy has been successful for more than a decade so the story is far less about the man himself and far more about just how big of a hit as a major player in the fashion stakes Chinese president Hu Jintao is. And most importantly, in the grand scheme, the most part of his fortune, ahead of US TV celebrity Oprah Winfrey and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, has moved beyond clothing to include fashion, accessories, home furnishings, and hotels into a complete lifestyle brand. Does it really even matter?

Donatella Versace - http://www.vogue.co.uk/biographies/080421-donatella-versace.aspx

Steve Jobs - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/06/20/notes062008.DTL

Zhang Yun - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6039296.stm

Final Image Uploads

2 powerful people and a peaceful picnic

Jobs Office

Inspired by simple harmonic colours and their interplay with white - Steve Jobs office is a geometric formation of smoothed forms.

The View from the top

From the middle floor elevator - Notice the similarities and differencesVersace's Spire from Jobs Office.

Meeting Space

The meeting space is an equalised, harmonic place - accompanied by soothing music and slow movement. The recurring motif of the circle reinforces the idea of the equalisation of power.

Top Down.

From the support structure. These forms are attached to the interior of the bridge, using compression to keep a bar, which suspends the meeting space via chains, in the air.

Versace's Office



The cone - a male representation of power. Ironic perhaps, that it should be used as the shape of an office dominated by a woman. The symbol represents the shifting power values - a womans dominance of power, regardless of her gender. The twisting tentacles surrounding the office imply the constantly changing nature of the fashion industry - where Versace holds her power

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Jobs' office and meeting space from Versace's Inner Sanctum

The view at the top. Versace in her office, overlooking the skies.

Concept workings

For those who are interested

Obviously not all these ideas were used.

2 Draft Submissions

Movers not working entirely correctly. Sorry!

Draft 1:


Draft 2:

Final Submission - UT MAP

For Russell:

Have your speakers plugged in!

If a mover isnt working, shoot it.

Have fun!

Peer Assessments

omg unrealed makes me angry

how does this happen?!

Update

Internet out at home and has been for the past couple of days - optus supposed to be fixing it by tomorrow.
Images etc. will be uploaded when i am able!

notes

here for later refernce. dont worry if they dont make sense to you, they make sense to me

steve jobs: keep it simple
smooth lines
do it all in sketch up so more rounded shapes can be created.
lower space - doesnt seek too much glory (puts most of his money back into company)

versace: extravagent, fake/artificial.
upper space
power extending from fashion

idea: starting room has 2 exits, one way takes you through a teleporter that lands you back where you left. other way.. less desirable, expands and ultimately provides a better path. lesson: dont be afraid to go against instructions.
elevator IS the final room, takes person to meeting space (or perhaps it is the meeting space itself.)

SketchUp Elevator - Donatella Versace

Rough and harsh looking - but still posessing a certain elegance - visible to some but not others. This elevator is inspired by any one of the images of Versace you can find on google. Her fake, plastic 'beauty' rivals her power and wealth. In this way, I have created something that will look beautiful in motion, but motionless, its harsh shapes and angles cause it to look undesirable. The elevator opposes the one used by Jobs in that the rider is completely exposed. I believe this to more closely reflect versace's nature, extravagent and outgoing. It almost serves as a platform to promote versace, but this is juxtaposed by the motion of the elevator going downwards, equalising the two clients. The elevator itself posesses a mini runway, which is representative of the root of versace's power.

Pictures:



http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=f6baf73eadb737f8eb2bbc3e85e3a6fd

SketchUp Elevator - Steve Jobs.

Inspired by the shape of an apple (literal, yes, but aesthetically pleasing and minimalist). Gaps in elevator provide an (obstructed) 360 degree view of surroundings, allowing jobs to observe his surroundings, but only take in what he needs to.
Construction is smooth, minimal and professional. this is the way that I see Steve Jobs, and his relationship to power. The elevator will subtley spin on its way up to the meeting space - linking it to the elevator that will bring versace down to the meeting space. I believe this relationship is important, as the meeting space is a region where the 2 clients are equalised - despite their differences. By linking the elevators - the vehicles that will bring each client together, this equalisation of power has begun before even reaching each other.

Pictures:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=8b159a4b5b0353beb2bbc3e85e3a6fd

36 Custom textures.

Just uploading now - will comment later.
Textures subject to change

My Own tip!

As obvious as this may sound to some people; stay on top of your submissions and be organised in order to try and avoid handing things in at the last minute.

I would pay well to heed my own advice.


Also; contribute to other peoples blogs - this resource that we are able to use can be very beneficial and not only build a strong community, but also give the opportunity to give feedback to other people and get feedback on your own work

Stop being anonymous.

My Tip: Changing the material of a Static Mesh

Courtesy of Russell:

After importing your mesh from SketchUp, in the static mesh browser, down the bottom of the screen, expand the rollout "[0]" and there should be a variable titled "Material"

In order to change this material, go to the material browser and select the material you wish to have on your mesh (the same way you would, were you applying it to a regular brush in UnrealEd), then return to the Static Mesh Tab, and in the Material variable, click the button titled "Use"

Click in the viewport in order to refresh your model, and see the updated texture.

On the topic of 'Power'

Update 28th May 08: Just found this and thought it was relevant to the TED talk as well. just another way of visualising the fact that changes need to be made to our view of the world, and hence changes in our workflow.
http://www.breathingearth.net


Quite a literal interpretation, but still relevant, especially considering the TED talks on the consideration of power usage/consumption and life expectancy in the last lecture. Also, it looks pretty :D


The Z-Machine
This is a stop action photo of a device at Sandia Labs releasing its capacitors' charge. It is about the size of a basketball court. It has achieved temperatures of 3.7*10^9 K (highest man-made temperature ever). During the 100 ns discharge, the power output is 2.9*10^14 W, equal to 80 times the power output of all the power plants on earth.

Think about the capabilities if this sort of power could be properly harnessed and used. Keep in mind the amount of energy is consumes in the process and whether its benefits are offset by any detrimental effects it could (indirectly or directly) cause; CO2 emissions for example.

I think I might use the image as inspiration for some of my 'movement' textures. Imagine this thing in motion. Those arcs would be going everywhere. Fun!

(As long as this is allowed I will try and keep the blog updated with something interesting and relevant about once per week)

Perspective Sketches

Perspective Sketches - 2 point.
-Initially struggled to work with curved surfaces (used a mix of J's and t's(and the flip of each i.e a backwards t or J) since they are a similar shape)
-Explored the way perspectives could distort the shapes, by placing things closer to a vanishing point they became more distorted, and thus, vanishing points closer together resulted in more distorted sketches.


In this one (below) each flat face is on the same plane as the one infront of it. This started as me trying to place objects behind each other co-linearly, but I messed up.

This Plus shape with the rooms is what I am going to base one of my offices on.
I like the shapes created by the one on the left.

Here I tried experimenting with firstly basic shapes, but in very precise and detailed forms. I think it looks quite artificial. In contrast the right shape is far more organic.. difficult to draw in 2 point perspective but still turned out ok.

Perspective Sketches - 1 point.

This is where my work with perspective sketches started. They definitely show progression from here to my final ones. It means I have gained skills from this course, always a good thing.

Sketchup Table

UPDATE: After todays lecture and seeing the similarities between my table and a bridge (a circular one?!) i thought that perhaps removing the centre pillar and making the outer ring rely on the compression of the 4 'legs' to remain standing. This would further emphasise the lack of a central power figure.
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Despite struggling to get sketchup working the way I want it to (its not parametric enough. i need the top/side/front views simultaneously) heres the table.

Notes:
Scale not correct yet.

Intended to demonstrate that power is equal for all at the table, supported by a central stem which is completely neutral. Members at the table are connected by the surface of the table, however detatched by the gap through the centre.

The ornamental additions in the centre not only serve as an aesthetic addition to the table, but a way to exchange information in a powerless way. The size of the spokes is variable in order to demonstrate that regardless of your status; at the table, you are represented as equals. Goods/information can be placed on the circular centre of the additions and then spun around to be exhibited and exchanged with others. (am unsure as to how i can animate a STATIC mesh haha)

Pics:

rough (VERY!) table sketches to come.