Final Major Project Evaluation - Level 3 Year 2
Candidate Name: Aidan Jones
Candidate Number: N/A
Pathway: 3D Modelling
Project Title: Gridlocked
My project ideas came about after a recent trip to Rome, from there it was up to me to come up
with how I was going to integrate Rome in my project. I used a mind map to help me visualise my
ideas and pinpoint a bit of Rome that I was particularly interested in, my journey led me through
Romes architecture, the Colosseum, ancient civilisations such as Rome, Egypt and Greece and the
idea of a game whereby you are a gladiator fighting to survive in the Colosseum. I decided I was
particularly interested in Romes architecture so one of my first thoughts was recreating some of
Romes most famous buildings in 3D modelling software such as Cinema 4D. I knew I needed to think
outside the box though, recreating Romes structures and not doing anything with them would have
been boring and unoriginal. To gage further ideas, I decided to begin researching into Romes
general history and architecture (both old architecture and new architecture). I quickly came across
a proposed new stadium for A.S. Roma supposedly inspired by the Colosseum - Stadio della Roma.
After researching into the history of Rome I learnt that it had originally been an Iron Age village, this
gave me the idea of potentially recreating Romes structures but purely in iron. This was an
interesting idea and a nice take on Romes history but it didnt seem like a particularly good way to
add variety to my work nor demonstrate the different textures and styles I wanted to use.
http://www.rome.info/ancient/history/
My mind map.
The Colosseum was probably the bit of architecture that interested me the most and with many
stadiums being redesigned and rebuilt at the moment it seemed like the perfect opportunity to go
ahead and modernise the Colosseum.
Tottenhams new stadium currently being
Proposed look for Barcelonas new stadium New
built. Camp Nou.
Of course, if I was going to redesign the Colosseum the big question is why, what purpose would it
serve? Id learnt from previous projects (Unit 10) to include the news and current affairs in my work
to help gain ideas and make a real-life connection, so upon reading the latest headlines on BBC News
I came across another article on the strain on our prisons. This led me to the idea of a reformation of
the prison system whereby prisoners fight each in a modernised Colosseum, the reason for doing
this is to reduce prison numbers, provide entertainment for the people and provide a safe and
secure place for prisoners to stay. I had also come up with a few ideas on how the Colosseum would
be redesigned, firstly it would have the ability to change environments and secondly after
researching into new stadiums it would have a modern yet traditional look. I wanted to take
inspiration from the Colosseum in terms of design, trying to replicate the traditional look and feel of
the Colosseum while trying to modernise the materials and features. The more my project ideas
developed the less I focused on Romes other structures and the more I focused on the Colosseum
and reformation of the prison system.
Colosseum in Rome.
Chelseas proposed new stadium.
My primary research was what started my project, without it I wouldnt have had the ideas about
Rome which led to the Colosseum, stadiums and prisons. I did my secondary research after my
primary research; my primary research had settled my initial plans but the secondary research
helped to consolidate these as well as developing ideas further. I didnt look at a particular artists
work but I did take inspiration from the things that I saw on websites and YouTube. For example, a
lot of the video tutorials I watched online were low-poly designs, me taking inspiration from these
videos meant that some of my designs ended up being low-poly as well. Mt. Mograph was a
YouTuber that I followed, his tutorials are very clear and you felt like you were actually learning
something as you went through them. In terms of websites I also enjoyed looking at sites like
TurboSquid which contain a whole selection of professional 3D Models, the models on this website
all cost money and they tended to be based on real life stadiums such as The Emirates and Camp
Nou but they reminded you of whats possible in the software youre working in.
A low-poly tutorial I used to help me make Paid 3D Stadium Models from Turbosquid.
one of my floating islands.
By looking at wider world issues I was able to see if my ideas made sense and whether they provided
any logic. I looked at issues such as the strain on our prison system which helped support the need
for a reformation. I also investigated things like population control which has been gradually
increasing over time, this links into the idea of the government introducing the games to reduce the
number of people on Earth.
My project materials have mainly been focused on the software aspect of things. Ive used Cinema
4D to create my models and Photoshop to create detailed and informative boards. Ive used a lot of
Adobe Illustrator in this project to create design sheets, and although its a bit of software that Ive
used before I havent used it to the extent to which I have in this project. In Illustrator, I frequently
used the 3D perspective tool to help draw lines and create 3D shapes, this came in especially handy
when producing my Cinema 4D work as I was able to use the shapes to try and replicate them in
Cinema 4D. The time I have spent in Illustrator has rewarded me with new skills such as using the 3D
perspective tool properly, replicating/drawing buildings and objects better and just generally
developing better-designed sheets. My Cinema 4D skills have also developed, looking at my
screenshots of development I can see the tools Ive used (which were new to me) as well as learning
simple ways to make attractive objects, such as creating a tree with two cones. The cloner tool was
essential to the success of my work and I used it in almost every scene. Because of this by the end of
the project, I felt confident in using it, including using the different modes (object, linear, radial etc.)
and changing the coordinates to make sure the objects were the right way around.
Stadium Designs (1) created in Adobe Coral Mood Board created in Adobe
Illustrator. Photoshop.
Overall, I was pleased with my final outcomes, when I initially started designed my floating islands
they were boring and basic in design but I later went on to add mountains and trees to make them
more interesting. It was an important balance to make sure the island had enough stuff on it to
make it look interesting but not too much stuff so that it was overcrowded. Floating Island (1) is low-
poly styled, I choose subtle yet effective colours depending on the object. For example, for the rock I
used a grey/brown colour, the mountains I used a slightly lighter grey, for the sun I added a yellow
and for the trees a green. Although there is a hint of white on the clouds ideally, I would have made
the clouds much whiter than they are in my final render.
By enabling physical sky and global illumination I could produce some nice shadows and
lighting effects on my scene. As with all my islands I tried to make it neat and somewhat
symmetrical, for example the trees placed around the edge, the placement of clouds (left,
middle and right of the scene) and allocating a designated spot for
my mountains (at the back of the island) Floating Island (1)
This was important as I had to ensure a big enough place for my stadium. Because I made the
stadiums individually I had to import them into their corresponding islands, I tended to use the
simple system of Floating Island (1) goes with Stadium (1) and Floating Island (2) goes with Stadium
(2) and so on. Because Id made my stadiums so big I had to do a bit of scaling when I joined the
stadiums and islands together. To start with I scaled the islands up although I quickly realised that if I
were to have any chance of fitting the stadium onto the island then the stadium would have to be
scaled down. Once done it was just the case of using the move tool to position the stadium where I
wanted. I always tried to add variety to my work and this was the case with my first floating island,
what makes the clouds have weird shapes is the addition of a noise texture, there are various types
of noise textures available but instead of just picking one and sticking to it I gave each individual
cloud its own type of noise texture. This took extra time but by doing so it ensured that each cloud
had its own unique look. Thankfully with this island, I didnt encounter any issues that stopped or
slowed down the production of work.
I experienced a few problems during the development of my second floating island notably with
my palm tree leaves, I had used a cloner to place the leaves around the trunk and the problem
was with the leaves being at completely the wrong angle to what I wanted. To start with I
couldnt fix it so I actually started to place and angle the leaves manually, I tried this for about 20
minutes before becoming increasingly frustrated and realising there was no way I could place the
leaves accurately while trying to make the tree look attractive. It was only upon returning to
the cloner route that I realised the problem lie in Cloner Properties Plane, by changing the Floating Island (2)
plane from XY to another one of the two options (ZY or XZ) I was able to fix the problem and
have leaves that were angled the right way. The use of a sand dune, waterfall and palm trees
ensured that the look and feel of Floating Island (2) was more tropical and upbeat to that of Floating
Island (1) My use of colours reinforced this, I used quite bright cheerful colours to try and convey the
mood of a tropical scene. With each colour, I used a gradient typically taking the light and dark
variant of each colour (e.g. for the grass a dark green and then a lighter green) This made the
texturing more interesting as objects would typically show a slight change in colour tone. If I were to
improve on the model slightly it might be that I would redesign the palm tree leaves so that they
were pointing up instead of down, typically palm trees that have leaves flopping down mean they
are dead. I was especially pleased with the lighting in this scene; when I initially added the lights, I
wasnt sure what to expect but it actually ended up creating quite a nice effect. When the light was
placed behind the mountain it looked as though theres a beam of light which could be seen as a
sunrise. When I placed the stadium on my island it made it look like the light was coming from within
the stadium, giving the impression that the stadium was producing its own light.
Trying to place the leaves manually around the Getting to grips with the cloner.
trunk.
I plan to use a showreel to show my floating islands and stadiums at the End of Year Show. I will add
a camera in Cinema 4D and then use this to render a rotation of my island with my stadium on it.
After Ive done several different renders I plan to combine them together using Adobe Premiere Pro.
I will add some music preferably something dramatic but also something that hints at an anthem for
the games, my current choice is Honor Him from the film Gladiator performed by Hans Zimmer. I will
apply audio transitions so that the music phases in and out at the beginning and end of the video. In
addition, video transitions will be applied between each render to make the transition between
scenes smooth. I would like the showreel itself to be between 30 and 60 seconds, its important to
find the right balance; it needs to be long enough so that I can fit all my 3D models on it and that it
doesnt feel rushed but not so long that people wont bother watching it at all. I choose a showreel
for presenting my work as I thought it would be the best and most effective way of showing as much
of my final outcomes as possible in a short space of time (video length) Each individual rotation
tends to be quite quick sometimes only lasting a couple of seconds in length and because your
moving around the model you get to see more of the scene then you would from just a static
picture.
My time management for this project has been good but there was definitely some room for
improvement. I spent a lot of the early days of the project creating A3 boards and didnt start my
final stadium designs until quite late in the process. By starting my stadiums earlier, I wouldnt have
been finishing them off in the final week. This would also have had a carry-on effect with my renders
meaning that those two would have been done earlier causing less stress on the final week (instead I
ended up rendering the day before the show) This rush at the end meant I wasnt able to finish
Stadium (4) to the extent I wanted, while the exterior was done the interior was not as detailed as I
would have liked. I tried to make mental plans in my head for each College day, it might have been
something like complete two A3 boards or start designing my islands, either way, it allowed me to
have a target for the day, something to aim for and I feel like it helped me to keep on top of things.
The only thing in writing I had was a simple checklist telling me the overall things I needed to work
on such as website, Cinema 4D, Photoshop etc. I tried to stay organised throughout this project by
keeping work in folders, ensuring each Photoshop and Illustrator board had a PNG version available
and by uploading my screenshots to my website at the end of each day. I also kept all of my
screenshots stored on the memory stick in case I needed them again, stored in specific folders based
on the scene. Bearing this in mind, I do feel as though my organisational skills have improved during
the last 8 weeks. I also feel like if Id planned the project out from the beginning then I wouldnt have
started the production of my stadiums as late as I did, which is definitely where I could improve next
time.
My screenshots organised into folders based on the scene.
FMP Checklist on Google
Keep.
Looking back at my proposal I can see the journey Ive been on and how much my project has
changed, initially in my proposal I wrote about how I wanted to redesign Romes most important
structures and even redesign artefacts such as the Roman eagle and Roman weaponry. These ideas
drifted out of my project due to my commitment and interest in the stadium/prison plan. In my
proposal, I set myself the task of building a series of modernised Colosseums, I have managed to
achieve this by building four finished stadiums. I found that building my floating islands and stadiums
preoccupied a lot of my development time and that once Id settled on the stadium/prison plan
reinventing other Roman structures wouldnt have fit into my ideas.
Floating Island (1) + Stadium (1) Floating Island (2) + Stadium (2) Floating Island (3) + Stadium (3) Floating Island (4) + Stadium (4)
