NATURE DEFINES HUMAN
Undoubtedly, nature created humans and humans are made for nature. There is data to prove the fact that humans have lower levels of cortisol the stress hormone when experiencing immersion in more natural and bright environment. Yet we are too occupied in self sustaining and hunting out our desires, we have forgotten what it truly means to be happy, free away from our attachment to meaningless materials and far out of touch with our animalistic sense of happiness, the happiness to be alive in nature.
DESIGN CONCEPT
The concept aims to tease a self-help book using 3D modelling technology to encourage viewers to purchase the product through an intriguing life changing experience. Inspired from a number of sources, that includes psychedelic videos, podcasts on the human nature, book covers, and the environment. Psychedelics may not be related to nature in this case, however the concept behind attracting the viewers attention and immersing people, in this case "reality", is what is crucial in creating nature immersion. The question sparked upon this project is "what happens when we utilize nature and recreate it into three dimensional animations where it will bring out a person's true nature?" The message of this concept is implemented into the book title "Unfold". A psychology based genre tying in with nature is what this project believes to be remarkable. The animation will show the transition between self destruction to a blooming state of mind. Clearly displayed through the dead tree situating within rainy weather in filthy flooded waters, a representation that we humans do transition through self destructive demeanors at a point in life, destroying what we enjoy most the observation of beauty. The scene will then pan to a healthy lively tree where people reach a stage of fulfilment. Follow by one of the most important aspects of self growth is learning to give love to others and in return, you are connected with the community. The transition of human destruction by means of climate change (i.e. flooding) and deforestation to a point where regrowth of what we are is slowly ending is signs we are living in a dystopian society, yet my animation indicates that we can always make it back wherever chapter of life we came from, giving hope.
PROJECT TIMELINE
MOODBOARDS
All images sourced from Unsplash
INSPIRATION
Informative Resources
The book "The Art of Belonging" by Hugh Mackay, is based on a fictional Australian suburb where characters attempts to 'fit in' society and local communities. In terms of human nature, the ability to connect with your community is one of the many aspects to self growth.
The podcast "Robert Greene ON: The Daily Laws of Mastery, Power, and Human nature & How to Harness Your Dark Side For Good" talks about the importance of humans inner power. Accepting all sides of humans and a guidance on how to lock away humans dark side.
Scenes
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Guerrilla Marketing
A popular concept often associated with low-budget, early stage companies.
Why is Guerrilla marketing considered as a low-budget marketing strategy? That is because unlike traditional marketing where investing money is a requirement to sell out the product, whilst guerrilla allows businesses to be creative. Investing in time, energy, imagination, and information instead. These creative use of physical and digital guerilla campaigns sparked upon this project where curiosity is the key to attracting consumers. Specifically, experiential guerilla marketing that focuses on connecting consumers with an experience of the product or story. In terms of 'digital' deliverables of this kind of marketing, 3D animation will be the focal of this project. With free to use programs like Blender, the creativity is limitless. What's required is the investment of time and imagination.
Traditional marketers, at the end of the month, count money. Guerrillas count new relationships.
VISUAL RESEARCH
The artistic style approach envisioned in this project would be predominantly 3-dimensional art. As much as I am very captivated in creating fully 3-dimensional realism art pieces, it may not be attainable for a beginner in this field. However, I believe the addition of some realism within stylized art is a appropriate start.
EXAMPLES
This is a stylized 3-dimensional image of trees amongst flowers under fog in the night, where it does not utilize any realistic textures.
This is a realistic 3-dimensional image of an individual tree amongst nature such as grass, dirt and other trees, where it utilizes realistic textures.
Image Sources:
Anton Tkachev / ZERB LION / Matheus Lima / Anna Natter / Nabil Ouridjel / Marcos Paulo Coelho / Yana Polonskaya
BOOK TEASER EXAMPLES
Furthermore, I think that researching on other book trailers will be beneficial in my video editing process for my animation. Here are some examples I find intriguing in getting inspiration from and the techniques implemented. Particularly noting the use of 3 dimensional imagery and motion graphics in general.
TECHNICAL RESEARCH
Scene composition is crucial in creating successful and impactful imagery in any kind of design. Therefore I believe that understanding the fundamentals of what makes any image effective is essential. In my assessment one, I never considered composition techniques in my 3D renders as I was just starting out and was figuring out all the Blender settings. Unsatisfied with the direction I was taking, I decided to enhance my work after studying scene composition.
This 18 minute video explains very distinctly and straightforward through digitally drawing imagery that portrays each composition tier.
Some things to consider from this video:
- Flow: Drawing the viewers eye by leading them point by point of elements and objects. E.g. Rule of Thirds, Leading Lines
- Colour & Focus: Understanding colour theory is crucial as it guides the viewers eye to where it should be looking. If there a same colour converging, the focus will lead to somewhere else in the image, unless there is focus (depth of field/blurred) applied to a specific background. There is a lot of different methods to draw the viewers eye by adjusting hue and saturation of the colours as well.
- Story: This is specifically in having control over objects and elements to move in a specific direction in order to convey a story. Frame layout also express various perspectives of the story.
Images Sourced from Unsplash
ELEMENTS & PRINCIPLES
PROCESS DOCUMENTATION
SELF DESTRUCTIVE SCENE
Process Time: Approximately 2-3 days
PUDDLE WATERS + RAIN
As I wanted to create grounds that look dirty to portray destruction of nature, I followed this tutorial and then modified the values to my preference. From this, I was able to create dirty puddle ground that looks like filthy waters.
RAIN
As I wanted to create rain that will make contact with the water surface under, this tutorial was able to imitate this.
TREE SCULPTING METHOD
The video is primarily created for healthy looking trees. However the same technique can be implemented in a dead tree through sculpting, just minus the leaves.
CREATING TEXTURES
By creating my own textures, I would require to know how to make my own image mapping. This tutorial was easy to follow in creating my own textures from photos I've taken.
CREATING FOG
Lastly, I wanted to make the scene look mysterious, hence I created fog around the tree. By adding fog, it enhances the visual impact for the story I want to convey.
My self-destructive concept is to tell people that there is hope within harsh environments. The hope is the light source shining onto the tree. Simply adjust the watt value to 1000w and move it above the tree to do so.
CONTENTMENT SCENE
Process Time: Approximately at least a week
From assessment one, I didn't know how to create grass grounds that have dirt below. I only adjusted the colour of the hair particles used within blender. Since then, I attempted to create realistic grounds using my own dirt photo taken.
Here, it is very clear that creating realistic grounds from plain dirt is difficult. The tutorial's dirt texture photo has rocks and pebbles which enhances the bump of the ground, which I do not have in my plain dirt photo. Despite this, I decided not to change anything and keep it as it is, because I'm going to cover it with grass.
Same technique applied in creating seamless texture image mapping. Instead of having the one image like my tree bark, I've duplicated my dirt ground photo into 9 copies. Followed with a 'healing brush' tool in Photoshop to erase any unwanted lines.
TREE VERTICES EXTRUSION METHOD
In this scene, I followed a tutorial on creating artistic trees. However I did not follow the rest through as I just wanted to create a simple tree. By using vertices extrusion, the tree was easily created as oppose to the sculpting method which is a lot time consuming.
GRASS
To create grass, I went with this youtuber's 'longer way' approach, by duplicating using 'Array' modifier and adjusting the shape. His other methods requires 'weight painting' or 'scattering' which I do not have.
SUN
This tutorial explains the steps to creating the sun easier than other tutorials researched. Although this video is predominantly creating ocean. This youtuber included an easy to follow tutorial to creating the sun.
Experimentation [Not included in final]
This experimentation of creating a leaf isn't included as I had software setting difficulties in activating the 'hair particle system'. A particle system places objects onto another objects and can be modified with its quantity and rotation easier than manually layering objects.
Implementing the same technique through vertices modelling by using skin modifier to create extrusion off of the vertices, however, decrease the thickness more to create the branch.
Sapling Tree Add On
Constraints
There was quite a few technical constraints within Blender that did not appear as compared to the tutorials I've followed. Firstly, the soil ground cannot be created in a realistic texture form as the soil photo I took was plain dirt. There was no pebbles or rocks to create the bumps in the ground. Secondly, I wasn't able to paint in 'Weight Painting' mode, as it is one of the crucial tools to painting the areas you want your objects to appear on another object. For instance, placing plants on the painted areas to create a sense of variety in the environment. In this case, I would need to consider placing them manually. Thirdly, the 'Particle System' didn't show the particles on the object required to attach my leaves on the branch. Instead, I spent longer hours to slowly layer the leaves carefully on the branch one by one.
CONNECTIVITY SCENE
Process Time: Less than a day
With this final scene, I wanted to portray multiple trees uniting with one another. As per tutorial, I followed most parts where I used the 'Sapling Tree Add On' and modified the number of leaves and branch values to my liking. Duplicated the trees to 5 on a plane and then proceeded to duplicate 9 copies of the plane to create a larger scale landscape.
Applied same tree bark texture as contentment scene.
BOOK COVER
Process Time: Less than a day
Due to time constraint and previously delayed technical issues, I am using a free book cover online generator to do my book mockups.
EXTRA RENDERED IMAGES FOR VIEWING
PROJECT STATEMENT
This project offers an immersive realistic experience to book enthusiasts, specifically those who seeks future prosperities that enhances their background of learning. Unfold is an eye opening resource on communicating impactful messages to people who is seeking growth within themselves. Delving into various phases of the human nature where people grow into a blooming state of mind from self destruction. Notably, the target audience is projected towards people with childhood traumatic experiences who can easily develop self-destructive tendencies. Unfold indicates that no matter which chapter of life humans are at, there is always potential to grow as a person. The delivered 3D animation will not only promote the book, it will guide people through a metamorphosis and influence people to learn from reading. Transforming the way people think of themselves. The end goal shows the bright side of a healthy looking tree and how the blooming state of mind is connected with other likeminded souls in a visual representation. Project will be delivered through a 3D animation of the book on a digital screen in full framed video format. In addition there will be a book cover mockup animated at the end of the video. Initial ideas of billboard mock-ups of the animation will not be included as it takes away the ability to immerse in the artwork at the physical exhibition.
What comes a great idea comes with its pros and cons. Creating three dimensional artwork is a lot more complex than two dimensional, particularly rendering time. If the computer do not have the good specifications required, it will be time consuming. Assessment one of this project reflects these constraints clearly. Therefore, I have decided to upgrade my PC setup at home so I can create the design outcomes I desire. This project has made me spend too much time sculpting and modelling an individual tree that I could've made use of the 'Sapling Tree Add On'. However, the time invested was an insightful experience starting out in 3D modelling. This concept about nature do sound quite complicated for a beginner, because not all nature look the same and requires creativity to make nature look unique amongst others. There was also technical difficulties towards the end of the project. My computer completely shuts down in the middle of rendering the third scene. As such, I was very frustrated and had to spend time fixing and replacing my PC. After fixing and thinking everything is fine, another technical issue came by. The screen kept freezing every time I open the computer. Thus, the PC needs to be fixed further, which delayed most of the last week before submission date.
Honestly, from the very beginning of this project, I have struggled to narrow down an idea. I do have interests in creating visual impact for the community (as mentioned in week 1 class activity). Moreover, I wanted to challenge myself in something unfamiliar to me. However, I complicated my own ideas because of the high standards I placed on myself. Contemplating that this project will be shown to the public, it has planted anxiety and pressure on me.