Project 5, Part B - Google SketchUp

Full front view

We are winding down to the end of the semester and I just finished the last part of my final project.  I posted the sketches of my building (a college campus) a while back and now I'm posting the final product created in Google SketchUp.  This took me a long time to create.  I didn't get in all of the details you may see in the sketches, but I think I included the most important sections.  My main reason for the differences between the sketches and the final SketchUp images was my problem finding the right items in the 3D Warehouse.  I couldn't find the right kind of windows (probably because I wasn't sure how to search for what I needed).  For the solar panels on the top of the building and the windows on the skinny, tall section of my building, I used a fill in the tiles folder.  I just changed the color and opacity (for the windows) to seem like solar panels and windows.   I placed my building right next to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore City.  I think it turned out well.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with my design.  I got much closer to my sketches than expected.  I posted a few views of my building in SketchUp above and below.  I hope you like them!!

Left side view

Lower front view

Top view

Walter Wick

I visited the The Walters Art Museum a few weeks ago with my family and a handful (when I say handful...I mean 12 friends.  It was more like a field trip) of my little sister's friends to visit the Walter Wick Exhibit. Walter Wick is an artist and photographer best known for the elaborate images in the I Spy and Can You See What I See? book series.   The girls  played a little game where they had to find different items in different pieces of art.  His works included photos and 3D sculptures.  It literally felt like I was walking around in an I Spy book.

Click here to check out the Walter Wick exhibit!  If you like what you see, the exhibit will be at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore until January 2, 2011!

(To the left are a couple of pictures I took at the gallery)

Graphic Design Mags

I wanted to share these because they are great resources for people interested in graphic design. Being a rookie in that area, it has certainly helped me out.



I came across an article that listed the top graphic design magazines.  I didn't even know there were graphic design magazines.  I decided to check a few of them out and my favorites were definitly HOW Design and CMYK.   I really liked HOW because they gave some interesting tips for graphic designers.   CMKY lists a variety of portfolios from different designers.  They also have a contest that allows you to enter in your portfolio and the winner gets their portfolio published in the magazine (give it a shot!). The last notable magazine is Computer Arts.  They offer tons of tutorials on many things related to graphic design.  They also have online competitions using applications like Adobe Photoshop, QuarkXPress, and MUCH more.


Visit the magazine web sites:
HOW Design
CMYK
Creative Arts

Project 5, Part A - Sketches

For Project 5, we must create a 3D object. I decided to create a building. As Part A of the project, we had to sketch 3 views (top, side, front) of the object we plan to create in Google SketchUp. I decided to create a contemporary college campus. The skinny part of the building would have all the classrooms. Even though it doesn't look like it, the tubular objects around the building are floating (objects don't have to be realistic) and they would be used for student dorms. The top of the building is covered with solar panels to save energy (trying to be green!).

I know we weren't supposed to get too complicated, but I couldn't help myself. Hopefully, it's not to complicated to create in Sketchup! I attached my sketches below. Hope you like them.

Front and Top View

Side View

Seward Johnson - 3D Artist

In light of our next project for which we'll create a 3D sculpture, building, or object using Google SketchUp, I decided to to search around for a famous 3D artist. The most interesting artist I came across was Seward Johnson. He created various 3D sculptures, many of which were inspired by famous paintings, photographs, etc. He created life-size, or much larger versions of images. One sculpture that caught me attention was his recreation of the photo called, V-J Day in Times Square, by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Johnson called his sculpture Unconditional Surrender. The images below show both works of art. The image on the left is the original photo and the image on the right is the sculpture by Johnson.

If you would like to see more of Seward Johnsons work, check out his web site here.

Project 4 - Video Remix

For Project 4, I created a video remix using Adobe Premiere Pro and videos found on www.archive.org. The topic for my video remix was world hunger. I chose about 5 videos which I felt would really help me get my message across to my audience. From those videos, I pulled my favorite clips and audio to build a strong and effective video. I'm very happy with the results.

I'd never used Premiere Pro before, so this was a great learning experience. The process could be quite tedious at times, but I still had fun creating the video. For my audio, I used Return to Innocence by Enigma. I pulled the beginning of the song in to introduce the video, then I pulled a section from the middle to give a better effect during the rest of the video. As for clips, the images were pulled from the various videos I used. The statistics, facts and quotes were from the videos as well, but I recreated them with my own text for quality purposes.

While I never would have thought to make this type of video on my own, I'm glad we were assigned to do so. World hunger is an unfortunate, unnecessary fact of life for so many people. The project inspired me to find ways to help, and I hope it has the same effect on anyone who watches it.

To see the end result, play the video below...

Video: Use Less Plastic!

In light of the video project we are currently working on, I decided to look around for some good videos which shared strong and meaningful messages. I came across the video below on one of my favorite sites (http://www.leonardodicaprio.org/). Leonardo DiCaprio is a huge advocate for saving the environment and protecting endangered species. The video I found on his site is about the excessive use of plastic in the United States and how people can improve on this problem.