Design Investigation

For my Design Investigation, i looked at the industry of 3D Modelling as this is one of my main interests for career choice and outside of uni work. I started of by researching into 3D Modeling but i could not find enough information so i started researching into other aspects such a pixar and how they started, matte painting as this was used before CGI was born and then i looked into CGI. i also looked at common programs i have used such as 3D,s max and Cinema 4D, this was very useful as i began to get an understanding of the programs and how they were developed.

Pixar started out as a computer hardware company and created a short animation called Luxo Jnr, this was used as a mascot to sell more computers, this was inspired byt the Luxo tasklight he had on his desk (John Lasseter) In 1975 he enrolled as the second student on a new animation course in california and was taught by 3 of disneys famous 9 old men. In 1980 – 81 John came across some tapes of one of the new computer graphics conferences, this is were he saw the first animations created by the computer, shortly after he saw the first lgiht cycle film Tron(1982) which featured state of the art computer generated imagery, he then went on to meet Ed catmull at LucasFilm, he made a deal to work as an interface designer and then led on to making a feature called The adventures of Andre and Wally B(1984). After this CGI grew massively up untill Toy story was created in 1995 were it continued to grow gradually up to present.

Pixar, John Lasseter and some of their work.

Studios & Lick Creative

After i did some research i looked into some 3D Design companies, such as Conka3D, Jarvis, Lick Creative, i also looked at Huddersfield university and Barrett school of architecture but i found that Barrett was not the sort of 3D design i am interested in. I also did research on design blogs and pixar.

Following on from this i formed a questionnaire and emailed each studio directly, conka were to busy but they replied saying if they got the time they will do it and forward it on, jarvis didnt reply at all so that was not very helpful. Lick creative i managed to get four replies from members of the creative team, so that was very helpful.

Shortly after this i had asked a friend who currently works for Lick to see if they had space for work experience and i got accepted to go. Lick creative is a small creative studio but part of a large print and distribution company called Delta visuals and communication. They do a lot of 3D visual work to show clients rough examples of modeled versions of there product, this then leads on to the CAD department and goes through the process of building prototypes to make sure everything is correct, from here we then move onto the client to make sure they are happy and then the final thing will be made with or without changes.

Here are some of the images from the design comapnies Jarvis and Conka3D

Questionnaire

Question 1How did Lick Creative start? Where do they pitch? Clients?

Question 2Are you interested in particular aspects/sides of design, if so, what and why?

Question 3Where do you go for inspiration and why?

Question 4What do you think is the most important aspect Planning, design or implementation and why?

Question 5When and how did you start in the industry?

Question 6What do you do if you have a creative block?

Question 7What drives you to continue designing?

Question 8Where did you learn/study, how much time did you spend practicing?

Question 9What skills are required in the creative industry?

Question 10What do you look for in a designer?

Name:

Position:

Feedback

Question 1Mainly the film and entertainment industry and the retail sector.Client include: Warner’s, Universal, Sony Entertainment, Rockstar Games, Red Bull, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Millets & Blacks.Question 2I mainly focus on Cinema 4D work. Both for product visualization, high end 3d modeling and animation.Question 33D World magazine, various reference books and researching for specific projects.Question 4All three. This ensures we deliver a finished project to the highest standard, to the clients request and on time.Question 5I started work in the industry in 1998. At the time I was working as a singles buyer for dance music at Tower Records. I then applied for a nternal vacancy in the marketing department. Got the job and have since worked in many agencies around London.Question 6Go on the net and read some of our many reference books. Get a good nights sleep!Question 7The pressure, the diversity of work and satisfying our clients with good work.Question 8I have always been very graphically minded and artistic. I studied at Hammersmith & West London College. After this I applied for Chelsea Art College but pulled out at the last minute. Felt it was not for me. Then started work at Tower Records marketing department. I am pretty much self taught.Question 9Passion, motivation, good eye for detail and a good understanding of clients needs.Question 10I do not employ designers. We do have a lot of freelance designers coming in on specific jobs with specific skills.

Name: John SvanbergPosition: Senior 3D Visualizer

Artefact - Tefal Unit

Here is one of my artefacts for this brief, its a 3D modeled unit for Tefal as they need a display cabnet to hold products for curry stores. When i first arrived at lick i was assigned to help create a display unit for Tefal with the senior 3D designer. He asked me to sort the textures out mainly and also to create the boxes to be stoered inside the unit. Also i was asked to model a wedge unit which would be a leaflet holder to fill the gap between the sink uni that is currently there and the Tefal unit.

I also learnt how to layout the design on a professional sheet for clients to understand how it all works, sizes, colour and also a rough idea of what it will look like. This was a great start to my work experience i began to learn a lot of different techniques for rendering and texturing, i found out so many tips and advice that i began to see my own 3D work advancing aswell.

Here are some pictures of the final rendered Unit along with the Wedge unit that would be placed between the 2 object in the store.

Artefact - Disney Sleigh

Here is the final artefact as i did a lot more work for this one. After the Tefal unit was finished up, i was assigned to create a sleigh for Disney that would be shown in the front of Disney stores to hold products. I was given a visual image of which the art director had found that she liked and also a rough visual of what she wanted to include in the design.

I began to draw around the sleigh and make notes before i went into a rough sketch. I was happy with my inital sketch and began to produce it in illustrator. I have not used this program much so it was nice to be able to get help with certain parts that i didnt understand, once i had produced the final visual i was happy with i showed the art director and she told me to go ahead and produce a 3D Model of it.

I then began to model the sleigh in Cinema 4D, i knew how to make what i wanted roughly but i learnt how to model with meshes properly and cre-ate smooth edges and curves from the senior 3D Visualizer. Thanks to the team for all there help i finally managed to produce a final visual with glit-ter textures added to it and boxes in the centre so it shows its purpose.

I am really happy with the result of the sleigh and the team really liked it and may use it for the final thing, i also got a reference from the lead director Keith Lovelock.

Here are some images of the final outcome.

Industry ReportFrom my contact with professional designers I really wanted to discover how the 3D industry worked and what drives them forward. Unfortunately with a lot of 3D designers being busy, it was difficult to get replies to my questions. Luckily for me all the designers who I worked with in Lick Creative were very helpful and gave me a lot of feedback. I decided to contact Lick because not only did they do a lot of 3D work they also done a lot of artwork for the Film and Retail area. I looked into the history of 3D Design but didnt have much luck finding a large summary of information, i researched the programs and Pixar studios, and found out interesting turning points for 3D design and how it came about.

My initial presentation at the start of the brief showed how many different areas of interest I had before I narrowed it down, but I still managed to do 3D and be with a creative team that also done other work. I had it a bit easy for when I got my work experience as I already knew someone who worked in the department and to make things even better he was the senior 3D Designer, all I did was tell him about my brief and he asked the company and sorted the rest out for me.

So I went in with a questionnaire which 4 people managed to answer due to the company being so busy with work, the people that managed to answer gave me really good information about how 3D will only continue to evolve, because it is so current and when computer technology expands so does the software. The senior designer also said that “with 3D modelling you don’t always get a lot of work or you will find that clients come to you asking you for really big jobs in which you would need to be part of a team and have very fast computers, RAM is everything when it comes to rendering”.

This was a very useful comment and it has helped me decided that I would like to be part of everything including 3D, in which I would need to do a lot more 3D stuff in order to become better and more skilful. I also wanted to know what they do if they have a creative block as I have had a past experience with this I got some good answers, Daniel Bacon, creative director from film and entertainment said “The only thing you really can do is not give up. It will pass so you just have to be determined. I quite often find that doing something more regimented or artwork based to take the pressure off which normally results in the ideas coming back”. Richard Matic, Senior Creative Art worker said rather shortly “5 min break to empty mind, take a walk, and have a cup of tea or a fag”. These answers are very useful, one is complex and the other one is simple.

I have learnt that the most important aspect of 3D modelling is the fact that it will always be updated with computers over time, its definitely worth keeping updated with the programs. This is what makes designers carry on using this medium and also keeping audiences entertained and interested like Disney and Pixar do with their funny films like toy story and also there shorts like Luxo Jnr. It is used commonly in films and also in cinemas as all of the 3D stands advertising films is created as 3D models first, this made me realise that there is a lot more 3D being used than I first thought.