Squall, by Angela Wang (2021).
Two of Awanqi's work on the left next to two of Leyendecker's work on the right. Awanqi has influenced a large part of my interest in art during highschool and was one of my earliest inspirations for my interest in illustration. I have a lot of respect for her compositions and use of color, and I can't help but admire how she sticks to themes she likes. I've learned from her drawings to be thorough with the research put into my work, and her work helped developed my preference towards character-centered illustrations. Some of Angela's illustrations that led me to her work are "the shroud of agincourt" and "dear painter", and I've aspired to follow her steps to draw out the fantastic in both subtle and overt ways. "The Shroud of Agincourt" (left) and "Dear Painter" (right) by Angela Wang.
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Article: www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/what-reddit-s-r-place-game-reveals-final-2022-image-prior-ending The final canvas before access was restricted. For April Fools Day 2022, the forum site Reddit revived an older forum from 2017 (aka subreddit) known as "r/place" or "Place", an online collaborative canvas in which each user is able to edit one pixel every five minutes. Compared to the 2017 Place, the 2022 Place ended up becoming a much larger project, expanding to four times its initial area and increasing it's color palette from 16 to 32 colors. Starting out as a blank 1000 x 1000 pixel canvas, the canvas was completely filled six hours after it went live. By the time access closed 83 hours after its launch, the final canvas had grown to 2000 x 2000 pixels and hosted well over eight thousand images and entries (according to the final entry list found on Atlas). Since the final canvas doesn't reflect the entirety of images that existed, many replaced images that currently do not exist on the final canvas can be found in timelapse videos or the slider found on the r/place subreddit. A comparison of the canvas space and size from the first day (left) to the final day open (right). After closing the canvas, the r/place admin provided various resources (1)(2)(3) regarding the canvas' activity, which include the final image, timelapse videos, and tile placement data. When going through timelapses and reaction videos, you can experience an amazing collection of different types of communities and subreddits based on the appearance of certain images, such as national flags, logos, icons, and memes.
Reddit users have been posting about their favorite moments, moments of community solidarity, drama, and appearance of fandoms and celebrities. The excited response to Place shows how it was an amazing experience where communities came together through collaboration, mini community wars, and defense against trolls. Place was more than just a fun artistic project; it was a gathering of communities coming together to show their solidarity, talent, memes, and icons through a display of live entertainment, such as coordinated tile placement and battles. It wasn't just for certain groups but was open to all. Some of my favorite moments have been watching the Ukraine flag bloom, the Osu! community staying solid, giant black masses of trolls creeping around the canvas, and trying to find the hidden plethora of hidden Among Us characters (which also allowed me to appreciate the incredible amount of detail). In general, I thoroughly enjoyed watching communities come and go. My personal collection of Among Us characters found so far. For me, Place is a good way to learn about different communities you can find on Reddit, and it shows how art-related games provide fun, accessible entertainment for large groups of people. Similar sites and games such as Drawpile, aggie.io, skribbl.io, Drawception, and broken picturephone provide great ways for communities and friends to doodle together and hang out. Project 4: Projection Mapping
For my final presentation, I stuck with just music videos and had no animated effects. Unfortunately, there was little time to create additional content as intended, so I had to scrap animations I was working on in order to adjust to using keybindings for MadMapper. Despite being unable to proceed with my initial idea, I still liked how I mapped out the wall and adornments because each portion of the wall felt well contained. Each of the three disks contained a different video, and the floral wheel was mapped so a flashing light would appear only on the spokes. The video above on the right shows a clear example of how each area and effect was mapped, masked, and bound to keyboard. On the left is how mapping looked on the wall with "Lilac" by IU in the background. On the right is how mapping looked on the laptop screen with "Bones" by Imagine Dragons in the background.
Unfortunately, the black and white patterns obscured part of the videos, but overall I think the project was a success. Many of my goals were met, and I liked the result I whipped up using limited content: the floral wheel seemed to pulsate, the keybindings worked well, and I was able to toggle certain areas effects, and videos.
Two rough animations that were not used for the final. Given more time, I think the next step would be to explore more of the performative aspect because I didn't have sound and I didn't perform live. Since there was an interactive gallery that passed through my area, I set up the mapping and left it running so people would be able to access the limited space and properly interact with the walk-through. I also didn't want to feel out of place and make things awkward for people passing by. Even though the live performance aspect was taken out, I think the techniques I learned are very beneficial to general video editing and effects. Additionally, my location was one very nice because my projection went uninterrupted by passerby and energy short-outs. Since I liked arranging videos and effects to perform in class, my plan for projection mapping is to perform to different songs by using a combination of music videos and effects. The music videos will act as a base to be mapped into different shapes while the effects will be layered on top of videos and general surfaces. Three songs I have in mind are "Bones" by Imagine Dragons, "Feels" by Calvin Harris, and "Timing" by Klang Ruler. By playing different songs, I want to show how the same videos and effects can be rearranged to give off different feelings, resulting in three separate performances. I want to theme the project to 'windows between worlds', so I'm planning play a song and separate its corresponding music video into smaller shapes using MadMapper so that the video is divided into sections in different positions on the wall. Then, animated effects will be layered on top to make all three performances feel thematically tied. I'll be using MadMapper to cue different effects through keybindings, so I will be able to toggle a certain effect or layer whenever and however I want. If possible, I want to create a variety of short animated motions with transparent backgrounds so they can be layered on top of each other in any order. I want the project to feel thematically tied, so I'm thinking of coordinating imagery and color for the music videos and effects. An example of what I envision for a performance using MadMapper and keybindings. A general moodboard for the kinds of colors and imagery I want to use for my project. Project 3: A-Frame Environment Screenshots from my created environment, full experience available below. Click here to explore the environment. Use 'WASD' keys to move around and drag right mouse button to turn head. Turn on sound for full experience. Click here to view the code. As an extension of Project 2: Build-A-Beast, I used A-Frame, an HTML-based framework, to create an environment for the organisms I previously made. The different presets and components available through A-Frame provided a solid foundation for the ground and sky, and I was able to make adjustments to color and lighting. Previously made models were added in, including two lizards, a toad, and a fungus toad from Project 2; and I created additional cloud models to fill out the sky and duplicated a tree model found online.
As seen in the code below, the primary environment preset used was 'Yavapai', and I added hills for more terrain. Initially the hills were far away, so I reduced the size of the play area to push them closer in. Additionally, I made the ground a calming green and added small mushrooms to speckle the landscape with more color and texture. I made the sky a dark purple but then lightened it to brighten the entire environment. To give a misty feel, I raised the level of fog and considered adding a particle system to simulate rain. Unfortunately, the particle system would not work because the fog preset messed with the particles, so I just included fog. A screenshot of the code used for the environment preset. After establishing the base environment, I added in the different models. I placed the models of the organisms according to where they could be found: the lizards on high areas, and the toad and fungus on or buried in the ground. Then, multiple clouds and trees were added in at various dimensions and sizes to seem a bit more realistic. The trees took the most time to place because of their sheer number, and I tried to scatter them to appear natural in the midground and background of the scene. By refering to an additional script, the models with animation were able to move: the lizards, toad, and clouds. Unexpectedly, the models looked dark in A-Frame compared to the gltf viewer because of lighting. For the future, I need to consider giving them spotlight or ambient light in A-Frame, and I want to try out lighting on individual models and the general environment, such as a warm yellow light similar to my brainstorm. Comparison of the same model in A-Frame (left) versus a gltf viewer (right). Since I didn't have time to model trees, I used a model found online and adusted the colors darker to my preference. Despite not being coniferous trees as I initially planned, I liked how they filled the landscape. I used the same model adjusted them to different dimensions and heights to make the environment more natural. The trees took the most time to set up because they were individually placed, which took up so much time. While they're not as tall or populated as originally intended, they still look fine. Lastly, I added some sound: croaking for the toad and general woodland background noises. The croaking for the toad is an edited version of a wooden toad instrument so it has a deeper tone, and it was attached to the toad model. The background noises were attached to fungus but adjusted so you could hear it hear in a larger area. A comparison of the initial moodboard versus the final result. While the A-Frame environment is simpler than expected, it provides a well-established play area to explore and add models to. The different tones of green fit the environment well, and the lighter colors used for the sky and ground work well with the darker models because their saturation doesn't clashing with the models. While the toad does stand out, it doesn't feel out of place because the dark trunks of the trees balance out the landscape. For this project, I wanted to create a realistic setting to match the appearance of my blender models. I needed an ecosystem that would be appropriate for toads, pitcher plants, small lizards, and fungi, so the first thing that came to mind was a temperate rainforest, similar to Washington's Olympic National Park. There needed to be moisture in the air, soft terrain, tall trees, and shady spaces. Then I thought of a slightly mountainous terrain, so I pictured sloping mulch and tall conifers, which would create places for the toad to nestle in and the lizard to crawl around. I wanted the area to feel damp and cool, so I expect the environment to be slightly more purple with dusk or evening colors. However, I don't want the environment to be so dark it feels like night. A moodboard of what I want the environment to be like. Link to live site
Link to code For this pop quiz, I created a miniature environment through an A-frame preset by editing the code on glitch.com. The main focuses of this pop quiz were to change the default placement and colors of the default models, to add a sky and/or videosphere, and to a gltf model with animations. Unfortunately, the videosphere is spotty and sometimes will not show up. While it can be viewed in a preview pane by changing the script's source release to either 1.2.0 or 1.3.0, it will not work in a new preview window. Code: <html> <head> <script src="https://aframe.io/releases/1.3.0/aframe.min.js"></script> <script src="https://rawgit.com/donmccurdy/aframe-extras/master/dist/aframe-extras.loaders.min.js"></script> <script src="inflate.min.js"></script> </head> <body> <a-scene> <a-assets> <a-asset-item id="lizard" src="https://cdn.glitch.global/00823efa-4732-4780-86a3-ebba205fb8a9/lizard.gltf?v=1646772270757" position="0 3 -4"></a-asset-item> <video id="clouds" autoplay loop="true" src="https://cdn.glitch.global/00823efa-4732-4780-86a3-ebba205fb8a9/clouds2.mp4?v=1646775826154"></video> <img id="sky" src="https://cdn.glitch.global/00823efa-4732-4780-86a3-ebba205fb8a9/ref.jpg?v=1646775246127"> </a-assets> <a-box position="-1 2 -3" rotation="60 45 0" color="#4CC3D9"></a-box> <a-sphere position="0 1.25 -5" radius="1.25" color="#4169E1"></a-sphere> <a-cylinder position="1 .9 -3" rotation="-30 20 0" radius="0.3" height="0.5" color="#0818A8"></a-cylinder> <a-cylinder position="0 0.5 -2.6" rotation="-3 20 45" radius="0.3" height="0.5" color="#0047AB"></a-cylinder> <a-cylinder position="0 3 -4" rotation="60 90 15" radius="0.3" height="0.5" color="#00008B"></a-cylinder> <a-plane position="0 0 -4" rotation="-90 0 0" width="4" height="4" color="#0096FF"></a-plane> <a-videosphere src="#clouds"></a-videosphere> <a-entity gltf-model="#lizard" position="1 0 -2.4" rotation="0 -30 0" animation-mixer="loop:repeat"></a-entity> </a-scene> </body> </html> Project 2: BUILD-A-BEAST Screenshots of the lizard, toad, and fungus models (click to enlarge) This project focused on mastering the 3D modeling and animation program Blender, in which I made three organisms - a lizard, a toad, and fungus - that are part of a predatory cycle. The lizard is a fast, small crawler and climber; the toad is a pitcher-plant-like hunter that eats the lizards; and the fungus is a fast-spreading growth that takes root in living or dead toads. All three were modeled and skinned, and the lizard and toad have small animations while the fungus is not animated. It took much longer than expected to assemble the models since multiple parts were made for the head, body, and limbs, which is why the fungus model was finished after presenting the lizard and toad. Each part was modeled to closely represent the characteristics of each organism, and a bit of sculpting was done to add volume to the eyelids and fungus edges. Some takeaways for me are paying attention to what parts need to be modeled versus skinned, and how a smooth versus a geometric look can convey different characteristics. Models of the lizard, toad, and fungus separated into individual parts
For this project, animation was both the most memorable and hardest part. The animations were focused on basic movements since I had limited time to work on this project, so I tried to show the behavior of each organism by making the lizard's head motions more alert and active while the toad was more stationary and lethargic. Rigging the models was easy, but the toad was a bit more troublesome because many parts of the model were incorrectly weight painted onto the front arms. I had to undo a lot of pairing so that the weight paint of the left side wouldn't be mirrored onto the right. Additionally, I found out that the difference in animating body parts that were attached to an axle versus free moving was based on the way bones were added to skeleton, such as extruding versus adding. Overall, I really like how this project turned out. Although the animations were limited, the appearance of the organisms fit my initial vision and the skins add a nice realistic touch. I like how the geometric sharpness of the lizard emphasizes its thin and bony body while the smooth toad emphasizes is large roundness. The fungus was also fun to create because of how different parts were layered and slightly adjusted through sculpting. I feel much more proficient in blender because of my mastery over modeling, and I've learned a lot about adding skins and animations. I feel like it'll be good to study and understand the shapes and characteristics of different creatures for future reference. For this pop quiz, I used Blender to create and animate an object. The first model shows practice with modeling and skins, while the second demonstrates rigging and animation.
For this project, I came up with a small ecosystem centered around a predatory cycle. The respective organisms are the pitcher toad, small crawler, and parasitic fungi. The idea is that the pitcher toad will dig into the ground and can extend to 4-5 times its body size to form a pool of water. Small organisms like the small crawler will come to drink from the pools formed by pitcher toads and succumb to chemicals secreted by the toad. However, parasitic fungi can take root in the mouth of pitcher toads and make the toad unable to close its mouth, which will result in the toad becoming engulfed by the fungi. While the toad is made of warm and earthy colors to blend in with the ground, the lizard and fungus will be more vibrant as they don't need to blend in with the environment. The drafted references to be used for modeling. References used for drafting the lizard, toad, and fungus. Colors of the references are not representative of the colors to be used for the models. |
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