Patrick Harty-Final Year Project

 For this week, I continued my work on my blender doughnut, exploring more of the features that the software provides. I first used the geometry nodes to add sprinkles on the icing surface of my doughnut. I did this by creating a cylinder mesh, downsizing and altering it's shape to resemble a single sprinkle. I then used this as the base object for my geometry nodes to copy all over the icing's surface. Tools such as the weight paint or the poission disk, allowed me to control the location and density of the sprinkles. I was even able to randomize the position of each sprinkle using the random node. After I was satisfied with the doughnut's overall look , I then made of few more sprinkle shapes, inserted them as a group in the geometry nodes and the applied a randomized colour for all of them. This gave the sprinkles a more realistic look. As a last touch, I also added a few sprinkle balls by manually duplicating and placing spherical meshes around the doughnuts surface. Sp...

Modelling, colouring and texturing in Blender For this week, my main aim was to learn how to use blender for the first time and create my first object, the beginner Doughnut. This was my first time ever using the program for 3D modelling specifically, so I followed a long a series of tutorials, each one instructing how to use most of the tools and programs that Blender offers.  Like with any new program, one of the first things I covered were the basic short cuts/hot keys used to create, move, and scale objects in the program. This allowed me to create the basic torque (doughnut) shape, altering its scale to look big and puffy. Using the grab tool in edit mode, I made sure the overall shape of the doughnut was lumpy and uneven to make it slightly more realistic. After doing that, I simply duplicated and cut the upper half of the doughnut, to make the icing layer. To help the two layers blend together, I used a combination of the grab tool and size modifiers make the icing look li...

 PARALLAX 3d Scene For this visual experiment, I wanted to learn how to create a 3D scene from a 2D picture. I wanted to do this as I think it could be useful for me when I'm brining 2D layers from a drawing program and placing them in a 3D space. I could also add in special effects and animation to make the scenes more engaging/visually stimulating.  To help me understand this process, I followed a few tutorials for cutting out and masking layers in photoshop and brining them into After effects as a 3D object. Since this was my first time doing this process, I used the example photos from one of the tutorials I watched, just so I could follow the exact steps shown on screen without getting confused. Original Photograph After downloading the photo and importing it to Photoshop, I carefully cut, masked over and cloned the main elements from the photograph until all of them were separated into different layers. I did this by mainly using the pen and stamp tools. I...

 After effects Cube 3D animation For this week in my technical research phase, I learned how to use Adobe After effects to create simple 3D assets and then animate them. I wanted to experiment in After effects first as I was already familiar with the program's interface from past projects. Although my 3D comic will be primally static, I wanted to have a few moving elements in each panel to bring some sort life within the environment. Using a tutorial I found on YouTube, I first created a simple cube completely in After effects by arranging 6 solid square shapes within the program's in built 3D space. I then created a separate composition from those layers, so I can directly transform/edit the cube's dimensions.  After doing this, I then moved onto creating a simple 3D animation using these techniques. I created a quick two second composition loop of two square frames flashing. I did this so that the sides of the cube won't look too ...

 Blender Grease Pen experimentation As part of my research phase, I wanted to experiment and learn one of Blender's most popular toolsets currently, "The Grease pen". This allows users to draw in a 3D space. This can be used to make traditional 2D animation, cut out animation, motion graphics, storyboarding, etc.    By following a tutorial made specifically for beginners, I was able to get the hang of some of the basic tools to navigate and use blender. My main aim for now is just to get familiar with them and draw basic dioramas and 2d objects. With practice, I'll hopefully be able to advance onto making more complected pieces in the coming weeks.   

  Initial project Idea  For my final year project, I've decided to create a motion comic adaptation of a famous sci-fi short story. I've always been a fan of both the comic book and sci-fi genre in pop culture, especially when it came down to classical science fiction novels, such as Frank Herbert's "Dune", or Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 99".  "Dune" by Frank Herbert Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury     Furthermore, Online creators such as Scott Base(AKA, "badspacecomics"), have demonstrated that interesting sorties could be told just using a few comic panels. The first three panels of Scott Base's short story, "The Suit". I plan to take this a step further and design a comic that could be more immersive to the viewer using a mixture 3D and 2D illustration and VR. Not only will this allow me to improve my current digital illustration and design skills but allow me to branch further into new mediums of art and technology...