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Final Thoughts

We have started thinking about our final projects, and brainstorming what we want to present. I have been wanting to do a projection mapping project for years now, and finally convinced myself that this is the time. I was able to secure a projector from the gallery, and need software now to project the videos.

Everyone’s Projects

After we all completed our projects, we were able to go into everyones world. There was one group who did an AMAZING job! I know they spent A LOT of time working on their project, but they also had a student who has used the VR lab extensively before. They had a waterfall and a whirlpool that looked awesome, and then some toadstools all over the place. Another group had a cool/ eerie world that had what looked like a shrine at the end. They had some awesome looking trees/pillars that surrounded you.

Best parts of VR

While working in VR someone said you can change your size. Once I figured out how to do that, and move around the world we were building, I was able to work more efficiently. A lot of the time I would work in the size of a dinosaur, and then check my progress in the squirrel mode. It sounds like really weird terminology, but it makes sense once you're in VR. Our project is designed to be played in squirrel mode, that way everything is larger than life.

(The last version had some mistakes so I decided to fix them and reupload the video) The themes from every Rainbow Road course in Mario Kart! What is your fa...

We were assigned groups, and mine decided to create the rainbow road from Mario Kart. It was a fun project, and i spent a lot of time in the VR lab creating the road, some digital trees, Stars, and touching up things. Someone else in my group created the actual Kart, and I thought it was really well done.

VR brainstorm

We are tasked with coming up with ideas for a Virtual reality installation. I instantly wanted to do something revolving other senses, since the visual part is so immersive. I wanted to make an Orange orchard, and have the scent of oranges in the room. I remember going to California Adventures when I was younger, and i went on the ride called soaring over California. They had the scent of oranges when you flew over the orchards, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. They also had water spray on you when you went over the ocean.

Tilt Brush lets you paint in 3D space with virtual reality. Unleash your creativity with three-dimensional brush strokes, stars, light, and even fire. Your r...

We began our digital sculptures/ installations in the VR lab, which was an amazing experience. Its so immersive, but difficult to navigate at first. I got a little motion sick because of the quick movements in the program. Its fun figuring out all of the tools!

Days later after welding up all of the gears, I needed to find a backing for the fish to be mounted onto. Luckily I have a friend who’s family owns a wood store, and he mentioned that he had plenty of stuff to choose from. I found some amazing pieces of burl, but I ended up going with a slab of Padauk. The way the piece flows looks like water, and the juxtaposition between metal and wood works well for representing biological and mechanical.

I had a couple of left over gears so I welded together some glasses for my friend! I would say that he is a “Gearhead” after seeing all of the tools he has in his shop. I think these would be an awesome piece to have in an opera-house.

I was lucky enough to have a friend who owned a welder and other tools to create my sculpture. This was a really fun experience, but I didn’t know what I was doing. It was difficult not to get the rod stuck to the gears, but after a little practice I was doing it less often.

Gears

I picked up four clusters of gears that I disassembled for my project. I needed to clean off all of the grease, and take apart each gear to prep for welding. This was one of the most time consuming parts, because I had to soak the gears in Dawn dish soap, and scrub each part to release all of the grease. This was time consuming but was very fun, and almost meditative. I sat on a chair listening to music while i scrubbed the gears. I was now ready to begin the welding process!

We began our newest sculpture which revolved around the “Found Object”.

I have always wanted to create a metal sculpture, but always strayed away because of needing to weld. I always felt that I never had the time to learn how to weld, and that it would be extremely difficult to get started.

I started brainstorming ideas for metal sculptures, and I initially decided to create a helmet out of beer can. This helmet would represent the feeling of invincibility when drinking alcohol, as well as reference the dangers of driving drunk.

I decided that I would rivet the cans together, to form the helmet. I would then line the helmet with something soft, so that it was comfortable to have on.

On October 2nd, I heard some tragic news about a man shooting into a concert full of people in Las Vegas. I found myself reading, and conversing with many about the shooting. It seemed that there was a lot of division within our society at this time. I decided that I no longer wanted to create something with very sad undertones. Instead I wanted to create something with a more positive note, that our society could do to improve the environment.

I soon found my Idea for my art piece

Slacker

Its hard to strike a balance, where you document and write about your works in progress. When I begin creating art pieces, I immerse myself in the piece and forget to document the process.

In many ways, documentation of the creative process is just as important as the piece itself. This is where you dump your ideas into a bucket, and start painting with your thoughts.

LETS BEGIN

Today I thought the dtc 336 class how to create a moving image utilizing the parallax effect. I felt that the majority of students were able to follow along, which I hope is due to thorough instruction. I used a basic image for the class to work with, so they could get an idea of the tools and methods used. I hope that this was challenging, so that the students learned something fun. They should be able to re-create this effect now!

Here is my completed piece! I decided to use a pirate ship, and skip the base. I liked this better because it can be used as a desk ornament, or I could switch out the ship for something else. After displaying it all together, I realized that I would like to give a very realistic paint job to it. It's something that I would like to do with an airbrush, in order to get all of the detail that I want. I loved the way the eyes turned out, because you can really feel the emotion.

jpodyssey

I finally got to a point where I felt satisfied with the amount of detail on the octopus. One issue that I had was the suction cups on the bottom; the clay was thin because of the armature, but I couldn’t add too much clay or it would bulk up. I ended up using brass cone beads for the eyes, so that it gave a more realistic feeling of staring at you. Baking wasn’t anything special, except it couldn’t tell if it was done. The clay felt pliable still until it cooled completely.

After we created our initial sculpture we began to work on a larger scale version of the piece. We first created an armature to give strength to the sculpture; This was important for my piece, since my Kraken has tentacles that go into the air. I used 14 gauge wire for the main body, and wrapped the head with aluminum foil to bulk it up. The next stage is wrapping the 14 gauge wire with 28 gauge wire to give a texture that the clay can hold onto.

Beginnings

We recently started working with super sculpey to create organic sculptures. The clay that we are using is super sculpey (firm), which holds its form pretty well. I have worked with a similar oven baked clay a long time ago, and I am excited to work with it again. I love working with my hands, as well as creating something from a traditional medium.

Here is a link that helped me when working with the clay

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