A Memorial Tomb

Weekly Blog Entry Research & Project Updates (3)

This week I completed my preliminary concept work and am now ready to jump into the actual modeling process starting next week.

The theme of my research for this (final) week – tombs, vs modern design sensibilities. I want this piece to initially feel very modern, sleek, minimalistic. This is why the foyer is designed very simply (MoMA inspired), lots of space, minimal decoration on the walls (only controlled peeks into what awaits down the line).

I want there to be a sudden and jarring shift from the sleek, simple modern foyer and halls (referenced these images), to the grand, mausoleum-esque structure of rooms 1, 3 and the side room (referenced from here – must continue to research before actual modeling of space in 2 weeks). That said, the texture for ALL walls (sleek, mausoleum-esque, etc.) need to be the same Marble White (I want the shape and design to shift between new and old, but the texture and color should remain consistent throughout – sterile, white, pure backdrop to make the colors of the birds, especially the black of the owls, pop throughout!)

Below I have a low-poly, conceptual 3D model of the initial Foyer space (a capsule is included representing player height), with the cage peeking into room 3, the transparent wall looking into the side room, and the initial hall (cavernous) players enter – notice the almost complete lack of other pieces except…

· Orange Cube (the Vulture)

· A few black cubes (the first owls)

· A grey rectangle – the plaque (detailing what the colors/birds mean – if unable to put this in in time, this information will be available in a separate document)

Below is a concept hall 1 (notice the few black cubes that line it initially as is intended for the first hall). The Halls will be modularly built, so while this is representative of the first hall due to the lack of “cubes” (owls), all halls will look similar if not exactly the same (variation can be added as I will discuss below with the concept Room 2).

Below is the end of Hall 1 as it opens into the first Mausoleum space (notice the increase in cubes everywhere – an important fact was learned from placing all these cubes here; lighting matters! No matter how low-poly the birds are, there are going to be a lot of them and that can really slow things down, but proper lighting – need to add light panels into the halls and rooms – can make less seem like more – especially for the already black owls, of which there will be more than any other bird!)

Below is the Configuration of Cubes from the above Hallway pictures – this is a test of how I will be able to take one bird, duplicate it into a flock, set that flock as a group, duplicate the group, and then use tools like nonlinear bending, rotating, scaling, etc.to begin making configuration variants that can lead players down halls, storm around a room, form a “tornado”, etc.

Below is the Mausoleum Space for Rooms 1, 3, and the Side Room. Note the contrast in design from the above images to highlight the change in atmosphere as well as the effects of the Pandemic on the globe as a whole. There will be a skylight at the very top for each one (small whole for light to shine down in from – allows for natural light without distracting from the piece), I will determine if windows to the outside are necessary in here in the coming weeks (I put them in the initial Bubble Diagram… but I think now I shouldn’t, especially if I intend for these spaces to be tombs).

In the spirit of making the above spaces tombs, I should look into adding stone slabs representing coffins (maybe in the walls), and arches that lead in and out of the space (see here for both).

Below is Room 2 (shaped like the foyer – sleek, modern). Notice the additional walls that have been added – these would be very easy pieces to model and place (if determined as necessary – currently optional) to make the room feel different from the initial foyer (can also be put into the halls for forks in road, additional curves to vary the halls, etc.

Finally, the overall layout is below alongside last week’s bubble diagram. The bubble diagram was closely followed, a few changes were made in the halls, but the spirit of the initial anatomy is held up in the 3D low poly concept of what the space will actually look like.

Also of Note: I found the DNC video with the beautiful tribute to the (then) 160,000 who have died from COVID – need to find a way to project this in room 3 (link to video here).

I am very excited to start modeling seriously next week (I will also be continuing to lightly research – specifically for additional reference material, though I have enough to start now – theoretically, with all the prep. work I’ve put the last few weeks, the actual modeling I will be doing for the next 5 weeks should be the easiest part of the whole project)!

Additional topic to think about:

1. Consider a way to stop players from loitering for too long (is this even necessary? Wanted? A timer?)

Tentative Project Schedule

· Week 4 (This Week) – Week 6: Model Museum Space

o Week 4: Modular Hallway/Wall Pieces

o Week 5: Modular/Unique Pieces for Room 1, Room 3, Side Room (Mausoleum Spaces)

o Week 6: Modular/Unique Pieces for Foyer, Room 2 (Modern/Sleek Spaces)

· Week 7 – Week 8: Model Origami Style Birds

· Week 9 – Week 10: Texturing Museum Space/Birds

· Week 11 – Week 14: Putting Everything Together – Place assets in game engine (Unity); appropriate scaling, duplicating, lighting work, sound work (acoustics in Museum Space and how the glass of the birds plays with that). I give myself 4 weeks – more time than any step earlier - but can easily be pushed to less time if I am behind in the previous steps outlined in the schedule above.