Week Commencing 24/02
This week I started the project proposal as well as the presentation slides for my proposal. I think it went well - I copied the different bits of criteria for the project proposal and went through and checked them off as I went through, so I feel fairly confident that I've covered everything I need to. I also put together a timetable. Although it's impossible to tell what exactly I'm going to be doing when (because I'm certain that issues will pop up and I'll run into things that I hadn't thought of), it's still good to have a good foundation to build on.
Week Commencing 2/03
This week I did my project proposal presentation. Again, I think it went pretty well and I've been given the green flag to go ahead with my project which is most likely going to be a zoetrope. One of my tutors is actually really interested in old animation toys and even has some that he'll bring in for me to have a look at. It will be super helpful to have a tutor that is not only interested in the same topic as me, but also knows more about it and even has some real toys that I can look at and use for primary research. I now feel more comfortable and confident in trying to pull of this project.
Week Commencing 9/03
This week I started my idea generation and research. A lot of the research I did this week was pretty similar to the research I did for my unit 12 video essay project, which made things go a bit quicker. One thing I did do that was different though was looking more into creative practitioners to see how they make zoetropes. I've also done some research into actually making the zoetrope, rather than just looking at information about zoetropes which has been super helpful - I did some research by looking at websites and videos, and also by talking to my tutor who suggested the record player idea in order to make the zoetrope spin.
Week Commencing 16/03
I spent this week on idea generation and research. Normally in a project I get a few ideas and let them sit in my brain for a few days, and eventually I find myself only thinking about one. In this case, I'm thinking mainly about the Mario Kart race idea. I need to carry on with some research looking at the painting process for 3D models among other things, but I'm aware that I need to start looking at my target audience sooner rather than later.
Week Commencing 23/03
Again, I spent most of this week on idea generation and researching the painting process for 3D models. The idea gen and research went well, although I am starting to wonder if I've maybe set myself too ambitious a goal, so I'm sadly having to think of potential 'backup' projects I could do, for example if I can't get a 3D zoetrope working in real life then I could look at making a 3D render with the same colours and everything you'd see on the real thing. The main thing that scares me is the painting process - I don't have much experience with painting and I also need to buy new kit if I want this project to actually look good because the paints and brushes I've got at the moment don't make for a very nice finish. So I'm starting to worry a bit about that but thankfully I know that there are people on my college course as well as a tutor who have experience with painting miniature models.
I also started target audience research this week and I'm really pleased with how it's going - I feel like I actually understand more about the people this product will appeal to and how to make it appeal to them.
My 3D printer also chose this week to start playing up - I tried to 3D print a Mario figure to do some test painting, but the entire print just exploded. The problem is there's a really thin layer of filament that gets stuck to the print bed. Thankfully I know someone at my church (and again, there are tutors at college that can help) who has some colleagues that are clued up with 3D printing, and that's been a help and they've given me some suggestions on how I could fix the issue which I am yet to try.
Week Commencing 31/03
This week I started modelling the standard kart. I'm really pleased with it so far and I'm now getting into the more fun part of the project, so I'm expecting my motivation to start sky rocketing. There are still a few issues with the model of the kart though, but as they aren't major I've decided to leave them for now and come back to them later should I have the time to. The small issues I've got is the fact that the steering wheel can't be printed at the moment and also the way the wheels print. The wheels is an easy fix, and if I have to go for a kart that doesn't have a steering wheel, it won't be the end of the world and there'll be so much to look at it may not even be noticed anyway.
Week Commencing 28/04
This week I started animating which was really fun. However I did very little work over the easter holidays and I'm starting to reap the rewards of that now - I notice how far behind I am on my written work - not that I'm that far behind, but it's just a lot to balance with the practical work I have to do as well. However the animation process went well this week. I found it very helpful to get an animation and then take each frame and make a 3D zoetrope in Blender. This helped me understand the zoetrope better and things I need to consider when making an animation for a zoetrope. Things like rather than the kart getting hit and falling straight back, it had to rotate about the centre of the circular platform by 18 degrees (as there were 20 frames I had to do 360 degrees / 20 frames = 18 degrees). I've now finished the original animation idea I had. But there's always a 'however' with this project.
However, when I measured my models and the 3D zoetrope I'd made in Blender, I noticed that the zoetrope was 1 meter in diameter. It got worse when I put my test 3D prints on the platform I'll likely use (that was kindly donated to the college) and realised that they were absolutely gigantic. So I went back into Blender, scaled the zoetrope down to 32cm in diameter (I also scaled down the karts to keep everything in proportion) to match the diameter of the real life platform, and again measured the karts. Now instead of being 8cm long, they were a mere 2.6cm long. When I'm 3D printing something that small, it's very likely that the quality will be awful and that the printer will struggle at that scale. Now to the climax of the however - I might have to make an entirely new animation, with a different amount of frames and with smaller karts than originally intended. One idea for the animation I've had is to just have the standard kart drop a banana behind it, which then hits another standard kart, and then the kart spins around and falls into the slot behind and then the animation repeats. This could potentially be done in slightly fewer than 18 frames, which means that the frames on the zoetrope will be physically further apart allowing the 3D models to be bigger which solves the print quality issue. With the animation also being slightly simpler and the projectile (previously the shell, now the banana) not having to travel as far, I could easliy drop the number of frames of the animation which would solve a lot of my problems.
Week Commencing 05/05
This week was super productive. I started off the week prior to this one still planning to do the shell animation, but now I've gone through a couple iterations of the banana animation and have finally come to one that I'm happy with. I've finished the animation, 3D printed all the karts I need (as well as get a new nozzle for my printer to improve the quality) as well as the mounts for them and the bananas, which means I should be able to start assembling everything next week. I've also prepared a png file of the layout of the platform I'll need which I've given to someone at college to prepare for the 3D workshop, so that I can get the platform made. Just last week I was doubting if I'd even get a zoetrope finished and this week I've been so productive it's just taken all the stress away.
Week Commencing 12/05
At the time of writing it's currently Tuesday (first day of the college week). Again I've been pretty productive just adding some bits and bobs to my written work. Today I also went to visit the 3D workshop to get the platform for my zoetrope made, and they've said that they can make it today I believe, so that's super nice and something I don't have to worry about. But apart from the written work, it's just a case of painting everything, sticking it together and then sticking it all to the platform.
Overall Evaluation
Creative Process
What did I create?
I created a 3D zoetrope - a Victorian era animation toy, but with a modern day twist. Zoetropes typically make use of 2D images for the animation, but I chose to push my limits and try to create an animation made of 3D printed components. The animation consisted of a kart from the Nintendo game, Mario Kart 8, driving forwards, hitting a banana peel, spinning around and repeating. Zoetrope animations have to loop due to there only being a limited number of frames, and therefore space for 3D objects. I decided to look into this and chose to use a technique called ‘Animation Multiplexing’ - this simply means that the number of frames it takes for a subject to complete an animation cycle is more than the number of frames on the zoetrope. My animation is never ending - the kart is always driving forwards, then being hit by a banana peel and repeating - it never ends. The karts themselves were also hand painted by me, something I had never really done before.
What was the brief or objective?
"The FMP is the summative project for your final year of the course and a time to show off the skills and abilities you have developed. This project will test your self-directed learning through the completion of a substantial creative digital media production and your overall grade will be assessed on the skills and creativity you demonstrate, so it is important you not only use the research, development and technical skills you have learnt from previous units but improve upon them. It is also important that your project has enough ambition to achieve the higher grades, but it also has to be realistic in terms of time-frame, goals and resources." I chose to make a 3D zoetrope because it was something that not only really interested and excited me, but also it was something that could teach me a lot of new skills as well as push me outside my comfort zone. This project definitely did push me out of my comfort zone and forced me to think outside the box occasionally. I learned new skills in and animating, preparing models for 3D printing, 3D printing, painting techniques and laser cutting.
I see myself working in the 3D industry in the future, so this project was a great way to showcase my various skills in 3D as well as develop them.
Purpose and Intentions
Aims + Emotion I was Targeting
I wanted to make something breathtaking, the star of the show if you like. I’ve made some impressive projects previously on this course ranging from a short documentary about me and my hobbies to 3D animations of transforming robots, but I wanted to make something that had a real wow factor, something that you could be enticed by for hours. The zoetrope then was the perfect choice. The zoetrope itself is almost a mystery - how can some spinning objects possibly be turned into a beautiful and seamless animation? Most people view it as magic - after all it is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. This was the perfect choice for my final project on this course - a big challenge and learning curve for me, a mind-bending spectacle for everyone else.
Analyse Key Decisions
What Decisions I Made and Why I Made Them
The first big choice I made was what the actual animation was going to be on the zoetrope, and I chose to do a Mario Kart animation. An alternative idea for the animation I seriously considered was a Star Wars lightsaber fight, however I decided against it as the characters would have had a lot of tiny parts (arms, the lightsaber itself etc) which would’ve been tricky for 3D printing. One reason I went with the Mario Kart idea is it just puts a smile on people’s faces. Whoever will be viewing my zoetrope whether in their adulthood or teen years will have likely grown up playing Mario Kart, myself included. It’s a fun, not-too-serious, nostalgic, social game. Another reason I chose to do a Mario Kart animation is because there were a lot of challenges for me. I had to animate a character’s arm throwing a projectile, a kart spinning, a shell flying through the air and more importantly, how it would all be 3D printed and work in real life. While in the end I didn’t end up using the character throwing, I did still animate it and it was a good challenge for me. Also because the kart was going to spin and therefore slow down a bit, it meant that I had to figure out how I would get the animation to loop seamlessly. Normally making an animation loop would be relatively easy if the subject stays in the same place the whole time, but because the kart finished the animation in a different location than it started, it provided a whole range of challenges.
But I think the biggest turning point in this project was the choice to do a different animation. At the point I made this decision in the project I had just over 2 weeks left, and in that time I had to do a completely new animation, arrange the animation frames on a circular platform in Blender and somehow convert everything from a digital product to a physical one. I chose to do this because keeping the original animation (one kart throwing a shell at another kart in front and to the right, that kart then dropping back a place and repeating) just seemed like too much work to do in such a short timeframe. However I still wanted the animation to remain similar, so I chose to have just one kart dropping a banana behind it, the banana then hitting the kart behind, that kart spinning and repeating. I also chose not to stress myself out more than I already was by not having any characters in the karts. The karts themselves are the main focus point of the animation - the characters would have just been a nice extra. I’m slightly disappointed I didn’t get to include the characters though, but I still learned a lot as I did still model them in Blender.
An alternative to changing the animation was keeping the same animation but producing a 3D render of the zoetrope in Blender. I didn’t want to have to do this though as it would have been really disappointing after all the work I’d put in to not have a physical product, and I’ve said multiple times throughout the project how I wanted to get a physical zoetrope made, and that that was the main goal.
Evaluate Outcomes
What worked well? What didn’t work as expected? Did my final outcome meet my intentions?
What worked really well was the look of the final product. Under a strobe light the effect of the animation coming to life is a magical experience. There are no imperfections in the animation either - there’s no 3D karts slightly out of place causing the kart in the animation to appear as if it’s jittering, it just works perfectly. Another thing that worked really well was the result of the paint - similar to the last point, there was no flickering effect on the paint - the paint was consistent on each kart. I’m really pleased with this as the painting phase of the project was the bit I was most worried about, so I’m really impressed with myself that I managed to get the paint consistent on each kart. I’m also really glad the paint worked well because it communicates the colour theory research I did.
There was nothing that didn’t work as expected on the final outcome. While I encountered many problems and things that definitely didn’t work as expected (like 3D prints exploding) during the project, it seemed that I managed to get all of the problems out of the way in the production phase. When I put the zoetrope on the record player for the first time and changed the speed at which it spun and shone a strobe light at it, it just worked. I didn’t have to change a thing. I think this is a result of my extensive research and planning - because of my knowledge of zoetropes and how they work and the planning I put into production, while impressive it worked the first time, it wasn’t surprising.
This project absolutely met my intentions. I’ve already said how I wanted to create something that has a real wow factor, the sort of product that makes people question “How is this possible, and how did a college student produce this?” I’ve been blown away by zoetropes on videos on YouTube and have longed to see one working in real life. So the fact that the first time I saw a 3D zoetrope working for the first time in real life was my own zoetrope and that the animation worked seamlessly the first time just made it so much more special. I’ve been in disbelief that people have been able to make 3D zoetropes, so I’m even more in disbelief that I myself managed to make one. I’m very very happy with the final outcome of the project and I’m impressed that I managed to make something of this quality.
Reflection on Progression of Ideas
How did my ideas evolve? Were there any turning points or key influences? Did my thinking mature over the process?
I started off with just the idea to have a character driving a kart, throwing a shell to a kart in front and to the right of it, that kart then spinning round and dropping back so it’s now level with the kart that threw the shell, and then repeating. When I first had this idea animated in blender, I noticed that there wasn’t much movement in the karts. So I decided to change the animation slightly by having the karts hover (move up and down) just to give more of a sense of movement. I also made the kart that was throwing the shell fly up and angle itself towards the other kart a bit, just to make it more visually interesting. However I did have to scrap this idea as I didn’t have enough time to get everything 3D printed, painted and assembled in time. So I changed my idea to a single kart - the kart would drop a banana peel behind itself, the kart behind would then spin round and repeat. The animation was still similar - there was still a kart using a projectile that spun another kart around. Also to give myself less headaches I chose not to have the karts hovering - this meant that the kart was always at the same level which meant that the mounts for the karts were always going to be exactly the same. Because I made that choice I could then batch print karts and mounts which drastically sped up the whole process.
The key influence of me making this decision was time. If I’d had even just one more week I would’ve persevered on the original animation idea and had a more impressive animation to behold. But I think this shows maturity on my part - I knew the animation would be less impressive but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make in order to have enough time to finish off the other important parts of the project, the written work. This shows a big progression in maturity as in other projects I’ve been known to just focus on the production side of things and almost neglect the written work. However in this project I’ve been much better at balancing the written work with the production, and me changing my idea to a more simple animation shows this.
Make Informed Judgements
Was my process effective? What would I do differently next time and why?
I believe my process was effective. I chose to block out my production phase into stages - I started off with modelling and designing, doing test 3D prints along the way to make sure the individual objects printed correctly. Then I moved on to animation and fine tuning it accordingly, cleaning up any rough edges and making sure the animation would work in real life (i.e. no floating pieces, so objects clashing etc). With the design completed I then started 3D printing all of the objects. While they were all 3D printing I started work on the platform - getting the design for it and then converting that design into a dxf file, and finally having the final platform made by the laser cutter. Once I had everything 3D printed I then painted the objects and attached the mounts to them. Now that I had everything ready, I glued everything together and that was the production phase finished - all I had to do now was put it on a record player and watch it spin. Doing it this way meant that I wasn’t trying to juggle multiple things at once - I could just focus on one thing at a time and tackle each problem as they came, rather than trying to solve 3 or so at once. Also thanks to having to wait for things to 3D print, it meant that while things were 3D printing I could carry on working. This meant that different stages of the project overlapped which helped save a lot of time.
If I were to do this project again, I wouldn’t do anything differently. It’s very rare that I say this, but the process did just work flawlessly - there’s no major issues that I can identify with the way in which I completed this project. My process allowed me to solve each problem as they came, make steady progress and ultimately make a high quality product within the agreed time frame.
Conclusion
Summary of my strengths and areas to improve. Emphasise my development as a creative thinker
In conclusion I am very happy with how this project went. I believe it is by far my best work yet - it pushed me out of my comfort zone, allowed me to showcase my various skills and showed my ability to adapt to certain situations and overcome problems. Something I’ve always struggled with in projects is time management - I leave everything until the last minute. However this time, because I was doing the written work simultaneously with the physical, creative work, I stayed well on track and got everything done on time. I did have to change my production schedule a few times but that was always inevitable no matter what project I did. I did also eventually only have 2 weeks to make a zoetrope, but that was due to me experimenting with different things and finding out about zoetropes and the best way to make them as I went along, not because of my time management. I’m really happy now with my workflow and how quickly and effectively I’m able to complete projects whether it be a written piece of work or making a zoetrope. I can really see how I’ve grown as a creative practitioner since starting the course and I’m a much more complete student now.