End of my Unit 3 project beginning a new.

On January the 22 I have shown my finished picture of my mirror maze. the Down side is that I forgot to resize my picture.




Phil pointed out that the reflections were also quite dark so when I got back to my room I fixed the size of my picture and edit the spectularity on the mirrors.



For Unit four we have to tell a story with an item, person and a location that was given to us. The story I have to make involves Fairy Lights, a Contortionist and an Airposrt. I got some ideas for this but maybe it's safe for me to look at the objects that were given to me in more detail.

my final picture, phil you can look at it too.

I have finished my mirror scene, but I need your guys help in which picture I should use in my crit for tomorrow. I was going for a Victorian theme.


First one



The first picture has a sense that the room is big yet closed in at the same time. But there is a light, which could point someone at the right direction.


Second one



The second picture pulls off the illusion of the endless tunnel idea and the angel I have placed the camera gave it a more daunting appearance.

So here are my two pictures. I like them both, maybe the first one a bit more because theres more things in it. The only problem I have left is, which one I should chose and what should I say at my crit for tomorrow.

for phil

for my item on my essay I thought I could look at wax models. but I remembered a scientist named Gunther von Hagens who uses real dead human bodys for his exhibition, by skinning them and dipping the dead bodys, in a pose, in wax. I was thinking, could this count as uncanny because the way the dead bodies are posed, they feel they could come to life?

FOR PHIL

Hi Phil I could really use some advice on my work or at least at push at the right direction for my Environment picture. As you know my theme is mirrors, and I am using the hall of mirrors idea to help give off the sense of loneliness and seclusion. But I talk to photoshop Phil about this he said I should give it some more character like the setting of the area, the time setting, some designs on the frames and the use of light. I also asked Goodwin for some advice and he told me to give it a things that will asked the audience some questions.
Well this is what I got from both
For the setting the mirrors will actually take place in a maze, still deciding on the time, maybe Victorian. I got some reference images to help with this idea for a mirror maze.

















My painted pictures








And on the mirrors I will add some scratches on them to show the type of people who went in, if it is a one big line than it's someone who is making a path to get out of the maze, arrows to show someone is ruining everyone's fun, graffiti scratches for vandals, big scratches for someone who doesn't like their appearance and/or one big broken mirror.
Here are some examples of scratches.



























Are the ideas that I came up when Photoshop Phil and Goodwin gave me their advice are good or am I missing something?

Environment art 16: some work I've been doing

During this week I was coming up with the lay out for my picture, I did a 3D mirror frame with a slightly open mirror door model in maya yesturday to give the mirror room an imperfectness. Because in when reflections off more than one mirrors bounce the are they're in look the same, so if I add a slightly open door mirror in that room then the area won't look the same anymore.




Today I did an above shot of the mirror room on photoshop so I get the idea of what the room look like.



Finally again today I did a digital painting of what one of the rooms look like in colour. I think this picture is a good example of the type of room I am going for, it's too bad my colours are blochy. I and going to work one the floor a bit more as well the celling.

Mirror reflection test

Today I talk to Ethan(AFlockOfPixels) with his suggestion on my reflection problem, I thought I had to set the reflections in the render settings, but I actually had to set the reflections in the maya meterial atteributes window. Any way here are some render samples.





They both look good but I still need to get the right reflections

Environment art 15: further designing on my final piece

Here is some concept ideas for my final piece, my other ideas was making a back stage to a magic show and a room where people hide behind a table with a mirror inside it.




I also did some research on mirror illusions, really spooky stuff.

Need Your Help ALAN

I was trying to make three mirrors reflecting one another with an object in the middle, but all I get is three squares.



This picture is the example of the type of effect I was going for



Can you help me tomorrow to make this effect possible for my final picture please.

Environment art 14: Maya mirror

Today I was finding tutorials on making mirrors or mirror reflections and there weren't much, so I went on my blog to see how everyone's project was going and I found out that Ruben did a mirror reflection. He wrote on his blog that he used Alans texture tutorials as the starting point and did the rest himself. So I followed Ruben's advice and it worked. I did get some bumps here and there but I was able to make a mirror reflection. The only problem now is to get the reflections bouncing off one another.

Environment art 13: Digital Painting

For the past few days I was teaching myself about digital painting so I could do some concept arts for my mirror theme, and judging from the pictures I still have a long way to go. If anyone knows any good tutorials on digitasl painting or could give some tips I please do tell, because I need alot of help with digital painting.

The first picture is of my mouse, while the rest are my mirrors.

Environment art 12: MORE RESEARCH

Few blog post's ago I mentioned I would buy myself some mirrors and a mat so I could experiment with reflection, and I did. I bought myself three mirrors and one mat. I placed the mirrors around the mat in a triangle. The purpose of the mat is so I can see the changes of the floor area once it is reflected off my mirrors.






What I noticed from my second picture is that the inside contents give off a 3D effect, I don't know if it is the reflection of the mirrors or the way my mirrors are placed.


The first three images are taken from different angles and each of them are interesting. The first image shows an interesting proximity, instead of looking at the reflections as seven triangles, we see it as one big hexagon. The two triangles at the top are grouped as one shape.
The second image shows a very long hallway, made out of mirrors.
And finally the last image shows a big room with bumps on the ground.







For the last two pictures I used an object to see what other effects I would get out of their reflections.
The last image gives me the impression that the reflections are keeping record of the objects movement, like it is jumping from one spot to another. And also the reflections are following a pattern. Each pillar has a group, and you could some what imaging those groups moving in circles.

Environment art 11: Sketches

Here are some sketch's for my idea on the mirror theme.
The first two sketches was a type of mirror hall way. I soon felt that this idea was a bit too typical so I did some more research to develop my idea a bit further.







The research image below was from a book I got called Mirrors by Design. This image shows a different way of using mirrors. Like in the last post, making a small room look bigger. I really like this effect because everything is the same yet still it carry's a sense of loneliness.







I am planning to make a small theater box to experiment with the reflection part of mirrors. And if all goes well I am going make the actual set in Maya.
I still think I need to talk to Phil about this though.