For the final project we had to model, texture and animate a short piece.  I choose to create a kitchen scene that was modeled using mostly polygons and textures using pictures of wood textures and lamberts for solid colors.  The dishes in the kitchen would essentially put away themselves as they fly into cupboards.

For the midterm assignment we had to make an model and texture untraditional chess table and pieces.  I decided to use New York City as my inspiration.  The pieces on the board are all skyscrapers and buildings.  Also included is a 360 degree rotation of the board and its pieces.

This pre-made single-celled organism scene was textures using blinn’s and anistrophics

This pre-modeled scene was textured using many found images and cloth texture images.

This was also modeled using nurbs.

A chandelier modeled in Maya using nurbs

What would it be like if we could have several glimpses into Lisa’s life and maybe go on some of her exploits with her.  What if we got a chance to see how she lives her everyday life, her routines, her activities and learn more about her personal life?  This piece aims to tell the story of Lisa’s life and experiences through interconnecting short clips or the usage of vignettes.  As opposed to Lisa’s prior animations and video’s general linear format, the user would be able to choose and navigate through any portion of the map representing Lisa’s living quarters and other places and learn something about the subject.

A visual map displaying Lisa’s home, place of business, retail store she frequents, and maybe even a boyfriend’s home all have potential to tell stories about Lisa and vice verse.  As the user zooms in on the map and specifies a place to explore Lisa’s activities, they then experience part of a continuous yet non-linear story of Lisa’s life. We frequently use the saying “if walls could talk…”  What stories would Lisa’s surroundings tell if they had the opportunity to speak. How interconnected is Lisa’s life.  Does her professional and social life intertwine. Does she have a soft side? What leisure activities does she like? How was her childhood?  Our personal possessions are little reminders of things we have experienced in our lives .  The journal we had as teenagers, the love note from a 5th grade boyfriend, or maybe even the broken vase that we managed to somehow glue back together in order to keep our parents from punishing us.  Is the bottle of wine, cheese and crackers on the coffee table an indicator of a romantic movie date night the night before.  We pass by our personal possessions daily and wake up everyday to an unfinished task or reminder of other things that have come or that may have already left.  These stories like our possessions are strictly ours and are only shared with others by choice.

Maybe in creating a map of the places that Lisa frequents, people can navigate through her life and maybe even begin to put together pieces of a larger story.

Each place that Lisa frequents will hold more stories and short vignettes about her life or things that she is doing. For example, if Lisa’s apartment building is selected….

The user will then be taken to actual apartment building where upon mouse over of the building…

Places such as Lisa’s apartment and other places in the building she might frequent will become highlighted for further selection.

If the user decides to select Lisa’s apartment, they can choose from a variety of different rooms

If the closet is selected, other objects in the room will become highlighted upon mouse over, leading to other stories upon selection.  (i.e. if the sweater on the left is selected, a short animated clip will play detailing a date night at a bar where Lisa wore the sweater.

The same would go for any other room.  Clicking on the lamp plays a clip with an unexpected story line.

Watching random clips of Lisa would probably be fine.  However, my goal is to have each object or place tell its own story that links to a larger story.  Some of the content might not initially make any sense if the user has only watched a couple of clips.  Therefore, each video can be watched randomly and will start to come together once more of the story is told.

Reference sites

hbo imagine

the saddest thing I own