Week 9

A lot of time has been spent in further rendering tests this week. Using a combination material in the mental ray render, I have finally managed to produce the wire frame texture over a solid mesh, furthermore, with specific lighting setting a "clay" style effect can also be achieved -




Further development towards an interface with an appropriate aesthetic has also progressed. Using the stock photography I collected last week, and working with the "technical drawing" concept, I have produced the following shell for the interface to be contained within -



Sketch work is continuing to develop the "panning" interface concept.
The interface will focus on a desk that has a selection of implements placed on it, each of these will relate to a content section, and when the user selects an object, the interface will then pan across the desk to the appropriate area.

In week 10, further navigation concepts will be produced, the aesthetic shell will be finalized, and animation concepts will be produced to bring the interface to life.

Week 8

Work this week has been mainly focused on the dissertation to support the project, this means that little studio work has been carried out since week 7.

However, time has been spent sketching layout ideas for the interface with the elements required to convey the content. With the addition of a gathering of stock photography, I am beginning to mock up aesthetic interface idea's. In particular, I am interested in pursuing a moving background image, this will operate in conjunction with the user navigating around the content. If the user was to select face shapes for example, the background image would scroll across to an image of a "technical drawing" style face.

In week 9 I aim to complete the dissertation so that focus can resume on the studio project in time for a scheduled meeting with the collaborator on the 28th of November.

Week 7

I have completed the head tutorial set by Dave and experimented with the hair modifier with successful results. On top of this, experimentation with rendering and material techniques has began to help carve the aesthetic style of the project. One technique I am particularly focusing on is the addition of a wire frame material, this gives the "blueprint" style feel that I have been pushing in the project from the beginning. A test render can be seen below -



With the research analyzed, I have managed to produce the final content listing for the project. From this, I am beginning to sketch visualization concepts that best suit each of the topic area's, these mostly include the use of short animation and rotation.

Research on aesthetic styles in personal websites has given me some insight into how a site can look scientific though the use of subtle 3d elements, grid backgrounds and technical labels on imagery. Also, BA magazine has highlighted techniques when displaying several forms of media on a single page, in particular, it describes a good layout technique that makes text easily readable amongst a lot of imagery by placing it in the center of the screen. An examination into the new "iphone" website has highlighted the use of colour being saved for purely central items of interest, in my case, this would most likely be the 3d models.

In week 8, I am aiming to have a selection of draft layout concepts for the interface completed, these will then be presented to the college collaborator for discussion. I have borrowed a book titled "the human interface" for examination, it looks at the theories behind effective user interfaces, this should help when creating concepts.

Week 6

As expected, a lot of this week has been spent working on the 3d head tutorial dave pointed out, currently it still requires a little work, but should be suitable for the addition of hair before the end of the weekend.

I have concluded my research across websites and books for content, all that remains now is to mount and annotate the collation to produce a final list.

With the help of Cameron my course leader, I have sourced some interface design reference material to analyze, looking at the fundamentals of good design should help me create a more effective interface.

In week 7 I aim to have the research section of the project mostly finished, and hopefully I can begin concepting the product in more detail.