Reassessment

Weekly Blog Entry Research & Project Updates (1)

After an enlightening meeting Friday with my advisor, through his recommendation, I decided to take a step back and reassess my project for this semester. Thankfully, I am in no way going to scrap everything and start again from scratch, instead, I’m shifting focus. As short as the graduate program is at Becker, it’s not so short that I have to try and expose myself to ALL aspects of 3D art in one semester (as my advisor put it, that was an “ambitious” goal).

Through discussion, we both agreed that the idea of exploring space in the context of the Museum Hall from the previous post was the more interesting and realistic way to go in regards to scope for the semester (and honestly, I am thankful, from a technical standpoint this project will be a lot less on my plate than I had thought based on my initial project post).

So I dove into it, looking at various examples of interesting Museum interior (and some exterior) spacing, trying to identify what, if anything, the radically different designs and philosophies had in common. As it turns out, despite the shifting designs and philosophies of the museums – they all either go out of their way to tell a story, or compliment a story being told through the piece(s) on display.

The stories vary, and are very open and general, for example, the Hongkun Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing, tells the story of the history of painting in its architecture (the museum primarily displays paintings), with archways meant to evoke the feeling of being in a cave (where painting famously got its start). The Tippet Rise Art Center (an open space, mostly outdoor ranch museum), seeks to compliment the story the pieces are telling, it’s a story of being part of the world, getting lost in your senses as you explore and come across the pieces dotting the landscape that challenge you to lose yourself and accept how big everything surrounding you is. The “Museu dos Coches” meanwhile, tells the story of constant progress in the world of art and technique.

Now, as I plan to model a Museum Space not designed to stand the test of time, with pieces of all kinds making their way to be displayed inside it, I figured I could afford to be a little pickier, more specific, about what story I could tell through the architecture, or what story could be complimented through the architecture. I started thinking to myself what story I want to tell… and really, there’s only one worth telling right now – the story of the Coronavirus Pandemic. I will construct a Museum Space that, through its interior architecture and pieces, will tell the story of the Pandemic from its start, to present day.

How do I plan to do that… well, regarding space, I will take inspiration from the previously mentioned Tippet Rise Art Center and the Corning Museum of Glass. The Museum itself will be a combination of indoor and outdoor spacing (when exploring the space, players will begin outside, view an unnatural outcropping – more on that in a moment - and enter a pure white building). The interior will take some cues from the Museum of Glass (I love how it looks, pure, the texture and life of the space will be coming from the pieces that tell the story of what is happening right now, this will help compliment the pieces I want inside this space). The pieces within the space… will be birds.

I came across this wonderful piece below and realized I could replicate something similar. Birds are often associated with various symbolism that can help tell the story of life in the Pandemic from its start, to present day.

Vultures, representing your (or the worlds) character being tested very soon, will be the outcropping outdoors. Indoors, the ceilings and walls will have various other birds of varying sizes placed (on the walls, the ceilings, the floor) and mixed together to tell the story of life in the pandemic. You’ll explore the space (likely comprised of hallways and 2 or 3 open rooms) and see the story unfold through bird symbolism. I wish to use the following 6 birds (1 is optional) at least (links below provide additional information)…

https://www.worldbirds.org/bird-symbolism/

https://www.richardalois.com/symbolism/bird-symbolism

· Owls (Representing insight, wisdom, death)

· Vultures (Representing character to be tested in the not-so-distant future, a period of bad luck and misfortune, opportunities for inspiration)

· Crows (Representing transformation, change, adaption)

· Eagles (Representing courage, rebirth, power)

· Sparrows (Representing productivity, diligence, creativity)

· Doves (Representing peace, maternity, love, and purity) - OPTIONAL

And like the image above with the origami birds, I will model these birds in the origami style (low-poly, blocky, simple designs that can be quickly generated, easily duplicated; efficient and stylish). The birds will be textured to appear as if made of reflective colored glass...

... the color depending on what each bird represents.

I don’t know if I want to make it explicitly clear to whoever explores this space what it is about, that’s something I could do, I’m not sure I should do, this aspect will require some debate.

Tentative Project Schedule

· Week 2 (This Week) – Week 3: Concept Designs of Origami style Birds, Anatomy of Space (Bubble Diagram), Conceptual Sketches or 3D models of Interior & Exterior (exterior may be scrapped entirely if scope demands it, Vultures described as being outside may be moved inside as a result) * I can already start to see it in my minds eye! *

· Week 4 – Week 6: Model Museum Space

· 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.