For the colour palette im going for really bright vibrant colours with darker tones for the backround to seperate everything nicely and enhance the geometric look by giving outlines on the edges with darker faces
For the scene im going to make a nice geometric vapour wave scene with procedurally generated mountain range-like shapes up either side of it, making it look almost like you are travelling through a canyon with these shapes on the sides to pull the focus only towards where the camera is going, letting the viewer focus on the assets I have made. To show that this project is almost like a museum of old retro things. I'm also going to include the sun in the back with the gradient and the starry background to give it a sunset kind of look.
For the most part, this scene should be fairly easy to make. I'll start by creating a plane for the bottom surface, and I'll set it to a grid as shown in the image. For the mountain shapes im hoping to make it procedurally geerasted so i think this will have to be done with geometry nodes which i will have to learn but it cant be much harder to get my head around than shader nodes(i hope) and ill give them the same grid kind of look but obviously it look different due to it not being a flat surface. Next i want the background area but i think for that i will probably use an image for that and ill make the starry sky out of world shader nodes which is nice and easy and i have done this before but without the colour but adding the astral clouds should be easy enough to create myself but the sun will probably just be an image or maybe a few slightly reshaped planes to give it the circular shape it has.
Here are some examples of similar products of art galleries/ museums that I'm going to make, even though these aren't retro wave, they are still the kind of idea I'm going for, without the retro theme itself. I made sure that all of these images were 3D renders so that it's as close as I could get to my idea, and I think that it really conveys the kind of product I'm going for since it has everything looking nice and uniform, with all items being even spaced roughly so it doesn't look messy and cluttered.
The robot is one of the many assets I plan to make for this project, and I think I'm going to have it as one of the first ones that come up in the scene, as it was the first thing that came to mind when I heard the theme "retro". I think this robot has a really nice retro charm to it, and it is exactly what I had in mind when I first thought of it. I want to also animate this robot when I have it in the scene, but it will probably just be something simple like making the head rotate and moving the arms from the shoulder, because as you can see in the image, it won't be able to bend at the elbow, which I think gives it that old retro look, so it's not too complicated.
For this colour palette its not really anything to take about since i just took it from the image but i think its a nice palette since it not too bright and all of the colours are kind of muted which give it that nice faded look, i think this will create a nice contrast to the scene itself since the scene is so neon in comparison.
For making this robot i think i will find some references and and make something similar to the image shown because i really like this design. some of the techniques i would use would be mirrors on literally everything because its symettrical so this would save massive amounts of time. I would also use boolean modifiers to make the little holes on the bottom of the torso with a cube and 2 cylinders.
For the textures i would just go with basic base colours and then change the metallic and roughness values on everything other than the main body because it has that slightly grainy look on it so i would just use the same kind of texture i used to make the metallic look on the robot i made for my previous group project i had to give it that slightly rough look.
Finally for the animation i would only animate the head and neck so the head can spin on the z axis but i would also animate the arms from the shoulder section only on the x axis so that is can spin upwards but thats all i would do just because i dont want these animations to be too complex and they wouldnt require rigging. I'm also considering at the time of writing this that i might make it so the entire upper body can rotate so that it makes the arms more able than just going up and down.
Here are some real-life examples of some retro toy robots I liked the look of. I think that it would be good to look at some real-life examples of these robots, but I will also check out some 3D models other people have made that are similar, so I can see how other people go about making this kind of thing.
The model itself for this asset will be fairly simple to make, as it's literally just 26 rounded cubes that are just placed nicely and uniformly with eachother and then I will just have to texture them on each side and add the black borders for each side.
For the Rubik's Cube, I plan to make it animated, starting all mixed up and then solving itself. I feel like this idea is good because it's just a simple animation, but it does quite a lot in such a short time, which is exactly how I want all of my animations to work, because the object itself won't be visible for a super long time. I think that a Rubik's Cube is a good addition to have for this project, as it's something that a lot of people might consider to be a retro toy.
For the animation of this it will just be a case of working out how to get the cubes to rotate with one side and then making some of the cubes rotate with another group so i dont think parenting the object will work but I will work it out closer to the time and get it written here so i know exactly what im going to do when it comes to actually making this asset but i dont think it will be much of a challenge really.
3D Examples
The Game Boy is the first console I want to make for this project, even though it is a handheld i still think it's easily the most iconic option. I've also decided to go for the classic grey colour on it because I think it's actually the best looking one, and it makes it an even more iconic choice. I want to use the Game Boy as another one of my first items showcased in this video, which I am making because of how iconic it is, and the animation will be a game cartridge floating out of the top of it.
I think making this gameboy will be fairly easy for the most part just using simple modelling techniques. Some sections may need boolean modifiers to remove shapes from the main mesh, and i think on the bottom right front side corner i will need to use the knife tool to give it the little bend. I think more than anything bevels will be the most used technique as it has a lot of curvature to it.
For the animation of the game boy i plan to have a game cartridge float out of it as it floats through this scene. The cartridge I will make will specifically be Pokémon Red for the Game Boy. I think Pokémon Red is the most known, since when I think of pokemon I think of charizard which is the cover of Pokémon Red, so that's a better choice of blue, yellow or green.
When it comes to actually making this skateboard its going to be fairly simple, really, and I will just have to get the curve on the board as it tips up slightly on the sides and quite a bit more on the nose. When I get to making things like the hangers and everything for the wheels i will honestly just duplicate the first on i make and make sure it's positioned correctly.
For the texture im going to use the colours I mentioned before on the colour palette, but I am also going to add some stickers onto the underside of the deck just to make it seem like it's owned by someone already, and I will also try and add some wear and tear to it in places on the underside too, so it looks used.
I absolutely had to add a skateboard to the scene I'm going to make, I feel like skateboarding is a huge factor of the retro era I'm going for, being 80s/90s. I'm going to animate this so that as it comes towards the camera, it does a trick like a kickflip or something. I was originally going to make it float around and do nothing, but I changed my mind because it gives me the chance to show off both sides of this skateboard and how I will decorate it with stickers on the texture.
For this colour palette i will actually explain it because i kind of had to come up with my own idea for the colours on this model. So, the black is obviously for the grip tape that goes on the top of the board, the red I chose for the wheels, and I'm not sure why, but it's just instantly where my mind went to for the colour of the wheels. The grey is for the screws, baseplates, hanger and trucks because they are metallic. finally ive got 2 shades of brown which will be used to create the wooden shades, and I will use a couple more shades than just these 2, but they are like either end of the spectrum i will have, and I will be using a colour ramp for the texture of this.
For the animation of this skateboard i am going to make it do a kickflip as it floats through the scene, and to do this animation i will need to learn how kickflips are done in order to get it looking realistic. I have already had a short look at how they're done, and I made an awful illustration of the stages of doing a kickflip. Even though this drawing is definitely not the greatest i feel like the visuals and the annotations of it definitely explain it quite efficiently, and I think that I will be able to easily recreate this realistically.
I think just like the skateboard I spoke about before, guitars are another thing I consider a huge part of the 80s/90s, with the emergence of grunge and nu metal. Guitars are the biggest part of these music genres, and the effect they had on culture, especially in the 90s, was undeniably prominent. I am not going to animate the guitar because, honestly, I couldn't think of any way that I could really do this other than if I had a person playing it, but that would take far too long for the time I have on the production phase of this project.
This colour palette was taken from the image on the right, and it's the kind of look I want to go for when creating the guitar I will use for this project.
The reason i want to try and replicate this design is because when i decided i was going to make a guitar i instantly had this nice blood red idea in my head with the black section on the front of it because if I had a guitar myself i would want it to look like this although that's kind of how I have picked the design of everything i am going to make because I want this project to seem kind of personal to myself and i think that it will make choosing the individual designs easier than if i was trying to replicate someone else's ideas
When it comes to actually modelling this guitar I am planning, it will be fairly simple to get the rough shape of it, but it could be a bit of a challenge to get the actual curve on the guitar looking nice and realistic to a real guitar. The neck will be the easiest part without a doubt, since the frets can be done with either an array modifier or just simple duplication of the objects I use. It will probably take a good deal of research and reference finding to get the proportion perfect on it, but I think that you kind of need to research anything you make thoroughly to get it looking as good as possible.
When I came up with this idea, i wasnt sure what I was going to do for the label on the tape, and it took quite a lot of thinking, but I realised I'm going to get an empty label and take it into Photoshop and then use a drawing tablet to write whatever I want on the label. I spoke to my mum about this and asked what kind of thing she used to put on her tapes, and she recommended Top 40s from the radio, which seemed like quite a funny idea to go for, so I will do something like that.
The Sony Walkman absolutely had to be done for this project, and it matches up quite nicely with the music side of this project. When I make this model i am going to animate it, and the animation will just be a simple one, being the tape slot opening and the tape floating out of the device. I feel like this is a good idea for the animation since it replicates and shows off the functionality of this infamous item from the 90s. Making this should be fairly simple, although I will need to research the technical things like how a user would open it up and eject the tape, although I think it might just be the stop/eject button on the side, as you can see on the left.
I think that it will be nice and easy to make this model since it's a fairly basic shape, and I'll just have to put the little details on the sides, but that shouldn't be too tricky. The headphones could be a bit difficult, but I'll probably be able to work it out quite easily, and last of all, I have the cassette tape, but that's an easy model to make since it's just a rectangle with a few details on it.
For the texture, I'm thinking I'll probably have to use image textures on a few parts, so I can have the text that's printed onto the device as the labels, unless I can find a way around that just using shader nodes, but it's unlikely I will, so image textures will have to do.
The Polaroid camera was an idea I had slightly later than the others, and I found it while I was writing my Pecha Kucha. I plan to make this animated with a Polaroid picture coming out of it again to show the functionality of this asset, too. I think this asset is a good one because it's a piece of technology that was kind of a brand-new thing at the time they came out, and it shows what technology has evolved from to what we have today. I think that showing how far technology has come is quite a good thing to represent in this project because it is like a museum of the 80s/90s era.
To make this polaroid camera im going to use references so I can get it as accurate as possible. I think most of this model will actually be quite easy to replicate, as the main body of it is literally just a square that tapers inwards around the middle to then be a box again. To make this i will use loop cuts and then scale it to get the shape correct.
Texturing this model will probably be really simple, as it's made of a few colours and the sections for each colour will be pretty easy to separate to get it looking good.
The animation for this model is like I said before, the camera will flash, and then a picture will print out from it. I'm not sure what picture I'll put on this print, but that's something I will probably think of at the time. I like the idea of this animation because it's just another item I can show the use of, which I think is vital for this project to really show off each thing
I decided that a boombox would go really well with the Sony Walkman in the regard that they are also the derivatives of modern-day music technology, with Walkmans being like prehistoric Spotify and boomboxes being what has now become speakers. I feel like showing where things in the modern day have come from is good, since this whole project is going to be like a retro gallery, and it can show how things have evolved. The kind of music that comes to mind when I think of boomboxes is hip-hop, since you see them in a lot of music videos in that genre, and hip-hop is a huge part of the 80s/90s music scene.
This model is as simple as a shape, but the little intricate details make it quite complex, actually. To make this i will probably find a specific model of old boombox and then get different angles to see all sides to make sure I get it looking nice and accurate. I actually quite like the image I've found here.
I thought I should include some sort of film-related asset, and I was stuck between a DVD and a VHS, but I then thought a VHS would be a better idea since DVDs are still being made today with Blu-ray. VHS tapes, in my opinion, are cooler since everything you see on your screen is just on some tape inside this plastic box. The film I'm going to go for is The Goonies, as it's a film I grew up with, even though it is quite a while before my generation, and I feel it's quite an iconic 80s film.
When I get to making this model, it's going to be fairly easy, I reckon, as it is literally just a box, and then I can use a transparent texture for the clear plastic so you can see inside the case for the actual tape wheel and the label on it. I will just do it as an image texture, I think, because I can't really add detail to something like a normal label just using separate faces.
For the case, I plan to animate these where the can opens, and the VHS comes out of it, which will give me a chance to have an extra model made for this section. The case itself is just a rectangle, so it's going to be simple to make other than the little bits inside that keep the VHS held in place when it's inside the case, and the texture is just going to be an image with a clear inside.
To design and create these rollerskates, it's going to be a bit of a challenge as I've never really made anything like this before. To make both of them, I'll use a mirror modifier. When it comes to actually making the model, though, I'm going to use references as it's just the easiest way of getting models accurate.
For the texture, I want to just make a simple leather texture for most of it and then a rubber material for the sole and the wheels, so you can clearly see they are different materials.
Rollerskates are what I think I'm going to put with the skateboard, as they're very similar and both a sort of mode of transport, although I can't imagine people using rollerskates to get somewhere quicker, but that doesn't matter since they're definitely something I think of when I think of the 90s. I can't think of a way to animate these, so I don't think I'll bother, but I'm going to make a pair of them rather than just the one.
I have had 5 years to practice different areas involved in my course, and during this time, I have discovered what I am best at, along with what I could aim to improve. An area that i continuously complete well and that I consider my strength is 3D modelling, therefore I have chosen to 3D model my final design to showcase my skills in this area, which allows me to further develop my skills and also complete this project to the best of my ability.
Another strength that will help me to complete this project is my ability to work from home. I can do this as I have my own PC which can load the resources that i need to use to progress, such as Blender, and I am able to access my files at home as my work is loaded onto my USB. This is a strength as I am not restricted to only completing my work at college, so if I am behind on work, then I am able to do what I need to do at home, which will help to ensure that I complete my project on time. I also sometimes get the motivation to add information to my blog or model things whilst at home, which is a strength as it shows that I am enthusiastic about what I do and can focus and model complex things.
The first weakness that may impact my project is that my time management is not ideal, as I tend to procrastinate tasks quite often. This is a weakness as it will affect my ability to complete my project on time, and it could lead to excessive amounts of stress if I leave everything until the last minute and have to rush everything - this would also unfortunately mean that I wouldn't complete certain areas to the best of my ability, as it is rushed. To overcome this, I decided to create a timeline that I could follow to ensure that I complete everything that I need to for this project and maintain a good pace of working - this will ensure that I have enough time for each section, which means that each part of my project will be completed to a high standard.
Another weakness I could encounter is that I may not have the skills that are required to make certain models for this project. This is a weakness as I will then have to take the time to learn these new skills and techniques, which will cause me to have less time to produce these models, which could lead to me stressing due to lack of time and rushing to complete tasks, which will reflect poorly on my project as it will be completed at a lower quality. Unfortunately, this would most likely result in me receiving a lower mark than I could achieve if I had more time.
The first opportunity I can use to my advantage is using this work that I will be producing for this project and putting it on my portfolio. This is an opportunity as it helps me to expand and improve my portfolio, which will be useful for future opportunities, such as University and potential commissions that I may receive.
The second opportunity is that I am able to develop my skills further when making basic animations, as it's not something I've taken the time to try to learn yet. This is mainly due to me only sticking to making models in blender, as I feel like that is where I create my best stuff. However, now I have decided to try something new to help expand and broaden my skills. This is a good opportunity as learning new skills will give me the chance to be more open, and I will be able to take on different projects that I may be challenged to face in the future, and it should help to ensure that most of my ideas can actually progess further in the process as I will have the skills fulfill them.
Another opportunity that will gain from this project is the ability to enhance my skills further through practice. This is an opportunity as I will learn different things which will allow me to potentially produce different models and designs as I will have the skill set to do so.
Being able to find references online for models will be a huge help throughout the entirety of this project and will make for faster progression because it will allow me to create models easier as I can base it off of the references I find and this will enable me to make them with the correct proportions and precision. The reason this is an advantage is because not only will it increase the quality of my project, but it will also allow me to complete it much quicker, which leaves me less strained for time.
The first threat that I may face whilst designing and creating my project is the risk of losing my work as the USB I keep all of my work on - including my blog and my creations - therefore, if I lose my USB and don't get it back, then I don't have any backups. I could reduce the impact of this threat by backing up all of my work on a second USB or by saving it on my PC at home.
The second threat that I could face during the time I have to complete this project is suffering from the loss of my work due to corrupted files. This would mean that I wouldn't be able to access my files and therefore my work - this would be a massive problem as I wouldn't have any evidence and therefore wouldn't be able to prove that I have completed the work, impacting my progress. To overcome this, again, I could back up my work on a second USB or a different device, meaning that even if my files become corrupted then they are safe in an alternative space.