Cycle 2

https://youtu.be/Ymn3bq0i1Y0?si=IvjfVNHiVMXmmv-6

For Cycle 2, I started building the 360 degree environment that I talk about in my cycle 1. I used some reference photos that I took of my grandmother’s house back in August and started modeling the big pieces of furniture that are in that room as those were the most important in setting the space. I then worked on building up the hallways and walls to make the room an actual living space rather than a bunch of furniture scattered around.

Something that was really challenging in this process was allowing myself to be okay with items not perfectly accurate to real life. A viewer would never be able to tell that the things I’m modeling aren’t one to one because there is no reference to the space other than what I’ve made, but I had a hard time looking at my project and not seeing the imperfections in it. I also realized that the rooms are filled with too many objects to be modeled for the scale of this project, so deciding what items are important and which can be left out were hard. I decided to stick with the larger furniture items and then only make the smaller objects that have to do with what I’m going to animate to lighten the load.

There was a lot of good feedback and ideas given in class after showing everyone my project. The first big takeaway was that people enjoyed – and I enjoyed watching people interact with – the video style format and looking around at the environment on individual screens. Quite a few people wished for more interaction and expressed a desire to move around the space so that is something to consider. I’m hoping that some of that desire will be satisfied once the full animation is in place, but I also like the idea of only being able to watch what’s happening and not be able to interact as you would a real memory.

I’ve also been having lots of personal debates about the route I want to go down with materials and what style I want to make the look of the project. There were some good notes about how the grayscale – which was originally left as a placeholder – could be used purposefully to create some additional meaning. The overall feel of the environment was described as “dreamworld”, “astral projection-like”, and “shadow realm”, and I enjoy those interpretations of the work.

Next steps are to finish the short film 🙂