Overview

Project theme: Primitives

Primitives are simple starting points. These are objects that act as elements with which you can arrange into more complex designs, or upon which details and complexity can be embedded. Primitives typically begin without context or meaning. Only through the manipulation, recombination, subtraction, and transformation of primitive elements is meaning and context constructed, either through the performance of these actions or within the end result of these actions. If we consider the idea that a primitive does not need to physically exist (existing but without a body), then primitives can act as conceptual building blocks, with which larger ideas can be constructed.

For this project, I would like you to imagine physical or conceptual building blocks. You will need to choose a project model to frame and develop your project, choose a project format that corresponds with your media interests, and follow the weekly production process. You will be asked to conduct peer reviews throughout the process and will be afforded the opportunity to submit work revisions based on feedback. You will also critically reflect on your work and the project theme in a 150 word work statement.

A successful project will demonstrate understanding and mastery of 3D tools and processes, application of formal design principles, attention to detail and composition, and lead to discussion about your work during a critique.

Project models (Choose one)

1. Bounding approach: Consider an object, system, or other thing that you are interested in.
   • Conceptually or physically identify the subject’s core primitives. Identify how these primitives are combined to create the end result.
   • How might these primitives be recombined in new ways, or how might the primitives be presented to viewers to help them change their understanding of your subject?
   • What can be edited out or subtracted?
2. Revealing approach: Identify objects that captivate your imagination. These could be characters, environments, vehicles, shapes, materials, products, architecture, aspects of the environment or ecosystem, etc.
   • What shapes, patterns, structures, materials, etc., are they made from?
   • What context or setting are these objects typically found?
   • Explore how you could recombine or juxtapose elements in unexpected ways to create something new or establish a new context.
   • Consider using a process like photography, audio recording, sketching, scanning, 3D scanning or photogrammetry to incorporate analog process or elements.
3. Intervening approach: Consider the larger picture of a particular social or cultural ‘system’ in which you are interested. For example, you might be interested in the justice system, the economy, etc.
   • What are the components that comprise these systems? How are these systems established? Who or what are the system participants?
   • How might changes to their core function or disfunction change outcomes?
   • Think of ways to visualize these ideas literally and abstractly.
4. Activating approach: Create primitives as a means to participate in a cause or ideological avenue for engaging in conversation, dialogue, education, or awareness building.
   • What is the function of a primitive in this context?
   • How might primitives be used as a teaching tool, or a tool or designing solutions to problems?
   • Will you be creating objects or images?
   • How will those who view or interact with your work?
5. Situating approach: Establish a framework, story, or narrative within which your project ideas live.
   • How might you use a curatorial process to present relationships between objects or ideas?
   • What is the framework that helps structure your ideas?

Project formats (Choose one)

Choose a format that you can reasonable accomplish within the timeframe of the project. Do not use motion or animation in the final output.

1. High resolution image(s). These images are large enough to allow a viewer to spend time looking closely, enticing them to explore discover details.
2. Poster design (follows a particular poster format)
3. Magazine or book illustration
4. Comicbook pages/panels
5. Realtime display on Sketchfab.com or p3d.in websites.
6. Modular game assets (with examples of the things they can construct)
7. Archiviz Renderings of interior or exterior spaces
8. Renderings in the style of portrait photography
9. Renderings in the style of a particular style of photography, painting, or illustration.
10. Product design concept renderings
11. Character design concept art or
12. Other (talk with instructor about an idea not listed)

Production Process (All steps required)

Week 1: Concept development

Use one of the five models to develop a concept. What makes for a good concept: Concept Definition, Concept Formation, Design Concept Thoughts.

1. Concept(s): Sketch, label, and write ideas in sketchbook.
   • Fill 3 to 5 pages of your sketchbook with project ideas. You may also work digitally if you prefer an all digital workflow, in which case, sketch the equivalent of 3 to 5 pages of a paper sketchbook.
   • Upload jpg or png images of sketchbook pages
   • Must be clearly scanned or photographed. This should look professional, do not upload blurry, rotated, poorly cropped images.
   • If you used the concept development worksheet linked in the assignment rather than a sketchbook, you may submit scans or well cropped photos of the concept development worksheet page, or upload a pdf file.
   • Note: Develop the concept around your interests. Are you interested in fashion or video game environments? Great, solve the theme around your interests!
2. Mood board or reference sheet: Find reference images and put them into a large image canvas. See example of mood board. Save as a single image.
   • You can use Photoshop or Mural.co
   • Submit as a png or jpg
3. Work intent: Describe what you will be doing
   • Include name, date, chosen project model, and project format
   • Short one sentence description of what you intend to make.
   • Upload this in an MS Word doc format

Week 2: Production begins

1. Submit screenshots from Blender showing significant progress.
2. Post your screenshots to the Project 1: Progress 1 screenshots discussion thread
3. Meet with instructor if needed

Week 3: Production continues

1. Submit screenshots from Blender showing significant progress
2. Submit a draft of your 150 word minimum work statement
3. Participate in peer reviews for statement drafts
4. Post your screenshots to the Project 1: Progress 2 screenshots discussion thread
5. Meet with instructor if needed

Week 4: Finish production and present work

1. Upload final materials as a LASTNAME-project1-files.zip file
   1. Include final work statement
      • MS Word .doc format
      • 150 words minimum
      • file name: LASTNAME-project1-statement.doc
   2. Include the media (finished renders) you created
2. Post your finished renders to the Project: 1 submission images show and tell discussion thread
3. Participate in work critique with peers

Week 5: (Optional)

1. If all work was completed and submitted on time, you may submit work revisions based on peer and instructor feedback. This is not required.

Writing a work statement

A work statement is a clear articulation about what you’ve made. This is not a journal entry, where you might feel compelled to complain about problems you’ve had with software, or that it didn’t turn out how you wanted. Instead, imagine this is being printed in a magazine, or put on the side of a gallery. What do you want your viewers to come away with?

Example projects with work and artist statements:

• geist.xyz by Zeitguised
• Mushtari by Neri Oxman
• Institute for New Feeling by Nina Sarnelle

Include the following to create a clear work statement:

1. Your name and date
2. Title of your work
3. Which of the five project models you used
   • IE - “For this project, I used the “bounding” model.”
4. What did you create?
   • IE - “I created images that depict …”
5. Why did you make it?
   • IE - “I created this work because I am interested in exploring …”
6. What is the work about?
   • IE - “This work is primarily focused on …”
7. How is what you did in your work demonstrating what what you’ve said the work is about?
   • IE - “You can see an example of this in the work where I have used … to reference …”
8. Were there any unexpected, interesting, or strange outcomes?
9. Did you have any interesting moments where the projects theme helped you understand something new or from a new perspective?

Constraints

All assets used in the production of the work must be created by you, be appropriately licensed for use, or be appropriated in a transformative way that significantly alters the nature of the original asset. For example, you can use a texture pack you downloaded from a texture website, however, if you render an image of just a flat plane with the texture applied, this is not really creative transformation since the entirety of the image is work from someone else. Your transformation and contextualization is what’s important. A render with a background that uses an image from Google image search (please don’t do this) that comprises more than 50% of the work is also not really enough creative transformation. If someone reviews your work and says that the image’s background is their favorite part of the image, you’ll have to then explain how you didn’t make the background, which is not a great situation to be in.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Do I have to use only 3D primitives in making this project?

A: No, you can interpret the project theme however you like. You could of course take a literal approach and use only primitives that are available in 3D software, but it may be more interesting to use a more conceptual approach and use complex models and materials that are conceptually something you’ve defined as a “primitive” for something else. Be sure to talk about this in your work statement.

Q: I’m having trouble coming up with a project concept. What do I do?

A: Don’t panic, this is the hardest thing there is beyond learning technical production skills. First, look through the “inspiration” links to see what other artists and designers are doing. If that doesn’t spark any ideas, download and try the concept development worksheet. Many people are able to generate ideas from this worksheet. If the worksheet isn’t helping you come up with any ideas that you are interested in, the third recommendation I have is to use your environment to generate ideas for you. Through observation, ideas can come to you. To do this, write down everything you see, think and feel, and apply a filtering process to establish relationships between those things. This is part of a design thinking process, and there are many design thinking processes to choose from. How you develop your concept doesn’t matter, and the concept itself doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you are going through some kind of creative or generative process to articulate a concept, and can then respond to it by creating creative works. I often find that listening to other artists and designers talk about their process inspires my own. Often, the stranger the process, the more interesting the work is.

Here you can see Andrew Jones demoing Alchemy, a drawing tool, to generate shapes for a character design process.