Making blog
I tried to improve efficiency of the drum vent hole by fitting a one way valve on the drumskin. I cut a circular hole in the skin and used silicone sealant to bond it to the drum skin. In my eagerness to try it out the valve fell off. However on trying out the generator on the open hole the efficiency was much improved and the light was brighter and more constant.
I've been playing around with poster layout ideas. I'm particularly interested in the use of repetition in a design to give a unified and consistent look.
I'm also considering colour in the design. Colour theory and the psychology of colour are important in graphic design. Different colours can have a different response from a viewer. For example red, yellow and orange are associated with appetite and used a lot in food adverts. Blue is not a colour that occurs naturally in foods so would be off putting to customers - you wouldn't want to see blue fish fingers. Yellow is one of the most eye-catching colours - I've been using yellow as a bit of a base colour to push the product forward. Yellow can also be a bit overpowering and tiring on the eye, so in some cases, it needs to be used carefully. With regards to the Rainbow Running Ruddocks, I thought a boost of yellow energy is a good thing to include in the design.
Another thought on colour, in a lot of graphic design it's good practice to limit your colour pallet - it makes a design clear and pleasing to look at. Bit with the Rainbow Running Ruddocks, I can't not have a rainbow, so it's important to be consistent with the use of colour to avoid a big colour assault! Which is why I'm bringing in the yellow.
I'm still working on ideas for the logo - I don't like the paint splatter on all lettering - the words get lost and I don't notice them. I have a new idea.
Final thing I need to decide on is the text - do I dot it about, which I like because it guides the eye to the point of the show that it refers to, but it looks untidy from a design point of view ... or do I align it all in one block so that the view isn't searching for it - got to think more on that.
I'm working on combining together elements of running shoes and hiking boots. I've played around with a few different shapes and think I might've settles on a one that has the right balance.
Next task is deciding whether to go for a landscape or portrait poster format. My initial idea was to go for landscape but after making a few rough plans I quite liked portrait with the logo/name at the top and shoe at the bottom.
I was going to go for just the one show side on but then I played around with looking from an angle, and decided that seeing the underneath (to show the battery compartment) might be a good idea.
After the chat with Ruby, I thought it might be interesting to make the film into more of an advert to showcase the invention as a product, so I did a quick thumbnail storyboard (very rough sketches) of what the different shots could be. I'm not too sure how is best to set up the scene to video the characters' jaw movement and take stop motion photographs as I know I will have to mix the two different techniques together when editing. I'm just going to try and get as many photographs and films from lots of different angles so that I've got lots to work with later on. The joys of working from home...my cat has very already been 'helpful' checking that I've got all of the camera settings correct!
Ruby and I had a great chat about the progress so far - I showed her the puppets and she talked me through her idea for a portable version of the device that you could use out and about. I got to see Ruby's drawing of her ideas for her own prototype too. She's come up with some really good ideas about what materials she could use and also some considerations on how the user might be more comfortable wearing the device. I talked through the next steps of how I'm going to make an animation of the invention and Ruby is going to come up with some ideas of what the two characters might be talking about.
Now that the puppets are almost finished, I can get onto the most important bit - adding the Jaw-O-Meter! I've made it green like Ruby's drawing and thought it would probably attach to the face around the ears so have added some straps. Where the teeth wind up - I've made some little wooden cogs to go over the handle. If people wanted to power various different devices with the Jaw-O-Meter I thought it would be sensible to have the mask plug into a main transformer box which the devices would be attached to. This could also show how much power is being generated with some kind of dial or pointer.
The bodies are made from foam which is covered in papier mâché to keep the faces and bodies looking similar. The legs have bolts on to attach them to the set so that I can photograph them easily. The hands are made from a special type of clay called Magic Sculp. I thought if the characters are chatting lots they might need cups of tea to keep them going so the hands are made in a shape to make it look like they are holding a cup. I've also been gathering various materials to try out for the hair - wool and wood shavings seem like an ideal choice for the two different 'Mam and Gran' characters.
This is what the faces look like when the papier mâché is dry and painted with acrylic paints. In some areas the face needed a little bit of smoothing so I used PVA in a thick coat to even out any dimples. I've left gaps where the eyes are going - I'm going to use painted beads for these.
The papier-mâché I am using is very thin tissue paper with watered down PVA and a tiny bit of plaster mixed in to make it a bit stronger. I put about 4-5 layers on and once it had fully dried I scraped out the plastercine inside so that I would be left with a hollow face - nice and lightweight to keep the jaw working.
After playing round with the clockwork chattering teeth I could see that if I was going to make characters, they would need very lightweight faces to keep the teeth mechanism working so I'm going to sculpt the faces from plastercine, and then paper mâché over the top so that I'm left with a lightweight shell for the faces. The first attempt at sculpting a face looks a little bit creepy!!
Recently, I’ve been looking at the power tree’s generator and its’ leaves!
Generator -
The generator will show how much power the tree is making and convert it into something that we can use to power other things!
To show how much power is being created, I’ve included several meters that measure voltage and amps. These are two of the main ways of measuring electricity, and if you multiply them together you get watts a measurement of power (and light bulbs). This means we can use the meters to tell how powerful the power tree is!
I’m going to use lots of solar panels on the power tree so I’m including a clever little circuit called a “buck/boost convertor”. The buck/boost convertor will take all the power coming from the solar panels and create a consistent output. Exactly what I need to power things!
To show the power tree working I’m including a small fan that will come on when the power tree is in the sun!
Leaves -
I’m using 3D printing to create the solar panel leaves.
Each leaf will be joined to the tree by a stiff wire that runs down each branch. This means each branch and solar panel can be repositioned to best catch the sun. This type of metal wire structure is often used by animators for their models so they can create stop motion animation - they call them armatures.
The leaves themselves will be printed at Octo Design (where I work). We have a 3D printer, that we use for prototyping our designs before they are manufactured. Our printer creates 3D models by melting a liquid with a laser! It creates the model in slices, one on top of the other. Once the print is complete, it needs treating with heat and UV light before it can be used.
I created several designs for the leaves on the computer, before printing a prototype of my favourite. I was happy with the results, so I’m now printing all the leaves I need for the power tree. Once these are printed, I should have all the parts I need to make the power tree!!
The next step in this project is the fun part - animating! I really enjoy this part because it brings the creation to life, and you can start to see how it'll all unfold when it's rendered.
The most important parts of this animation are showing how the leaves open to collect the energy, and also seeing how it powers the generator inside the tree. I used the leaves I rigged up earlier and animated them uncurling when the sun comes up, and curling back up when the sun goes down. I also wanted there to be a difference shown in the type of power they collected, so I had the generator spin different directions depending on whether the power was solar or wind powered.
After animating, I did a "playblast" which is when you export the video as it looks in Maya, just to see how the timing all works before you render it out, as you definitely don't want to render out something wrong! The playblast looks a little confusing to people who don't use Maya, but you can still see how everything's going to move and work in the final video.
A quick look at the energy track and power indicator lights
After I'd modelled out all the assets for the animation, it was time to add materials to them, which is what makes them colourful and textured in the final render. I used Pixar's Renderman to render out my work, which is what Pixar use for their animated films to make them look really beautiful.
I decided to give the tree a glass material so you can see how all the wires inside connect to the leaves, and so you can see the generator spinning as the leaves collect energy.
After I'd added all the materials, I rendered out a couple of frames from the day scene, and from the night scene to see how they'd look. I took them into Photoshop to add little details like the stars, as I'll be adding those in after I've done all the 3D work, and it's always good to get an idea of how everything will look before you render it all out.
Today I had a Zoom meeting with Ava to discuss the advertising and marketing design for her running shoes. It was good to find out a bit more about how the idea came about and talk about who the shoes were aimed at. Since my research into show designs and advertising I had started to put together some ideas for prints and patterns. We had a look through those and Ava picked some favourites for me to start developing further.
Ava had been working on a model of one of the shoes which was good to see. I have a few pattern ideas but first priority is to come up with a final shoe design that takes Ava's original sketch and combines elements of running shoes and hiking boots in a hi-top style.
I’ve been sketching out my initial interpretation from Mathews drawing.
Mathews idea has led me to thinking about the way the food will be dropped onto the cars and shipped to the hamster. My idea for this is to use a hamster tube (like what they’d run through) but the food will be sucked through the tube to place onto each car for it to be taken to the hamster.
I’m also sketching ideas for the cars to be able to flip the food at the hamster as the car passes his wheel so that the busy little guy can just keep going while he eats.
Absolutely loved this idea from Lainey. Our oceans, seas and rivers could really do with such a useful invention and the wonderfully detailed and well thought out drawing sparked a lot of ideas.
I really like how the Seasweeper1000 has potential to come in lots of different sizes and shapes too, maybe as big as a whale for somewhere like the Great Pacific garbage patch or a tiny little Pufferfish to collect microplastics on coral reefs. The idea has so many useful applications.
It's a clever thought to power the SeaSweeper by burning the rubbish it collects but I was thinking that perhaps there's so much rubbish in the sea that it might not even need that much energy to swim about!
So rather than waste extra energy I've been thinking about how the SeaSweeper could collect and also sort the rubbish. Any items that are recyclable could be stored and brought back to be recycled. Burning the rubbish that can't be reused to produce power will also make sure there is more room to store the recyclable items, meaning it doesn’t have to come back so often. You could also use these trips back to land to make any essential repairs and insure it doesn’t break down deep in the ocean and become floating rubbish itself!
I’ve included some drawings that I’ve made after studying Lainey’s idea that explain a little more how I think the invention would work.
today I have been exploring more about what the Rubby gloves may look like if they were a real world product. I feel I have got the rubber material looking really nice for the friction balls.
In addition to this I have been looking at what the charger plate may look like and explored the materials it could be made out of. I feel this would look a little more polished like an apple device as it will be connected to phones and tablet etc.
A quick video to show the process.
With 3D animation there are multiple ways of going about it.
The clouds, drone and flare all follow a 'motion path'. This allows objects to be attached and animated along them seamlessly.
For the bug I wanted the animation to add some depth, so after animating the wings as separate objects, I used A 'nonlinear deformer' which allowed me to make additional movement to the tail, legs and antennae. With all that grouped, I animated it moving up and down in sync with the other movement.