Cinematic Flaneur - Designing & Modelling (Day 2)

With the final day to do our project during the week days we really had to apply ourselves today to do what we could. However, the main issue was the difficulty of creating it along with the sudden thought that it wouldn't be as practical and it wasn't truly following the design's brief instructions. What it lacked was the capability of uniquely exploring the city. We could harness to cameras onto the apparatus and move it around however, the limitation of movement being restricted to normal human areas was too great factor to ignore. So unfortunately, as the day's end was upon us we had no choice but to leave it to the weekends so as we gave in our final ideas, Moke went home to finalize the Solid Works design being the CAD operator while the rest of us went home to think about what we had to do and to perfect our idea.

Cinematic Flaneur - Designing & Modelling (Day 1)

With our deadline drawing ever close our next task was to fully apply ourselves as best we could to help our CAD operator Moke to finish the design so we had something to hand in on Monday allowing us to quickly move into the actual fabrication of our design. Giving in ideas wherever we could as he created it through the Solid Works program. As the time was adopted into actual project we began to realize how difficult our idea was to produce through Solid Works but we were just hoping that it was just the initial stages and it just meant working harder and using more time but getting there eventually. So after a day's worth of work we headed home to rest for the next day to come.

Ideas provided as a group:

Advance Solid Works

Solid Works was something that I found a great deal of interest in from the beginning however seeing as I was busy in the afternoon and that I wasn't the CAD operator, along with the other group members except for Moke I didn't attend this session. This was because it was designated only for the CAD operator.

Cinematic Flaneur - Group Tutorial

Today was the group tutorial where Kim critiqued our design and theory with a basis of helpful feedback. With this in mind, we came together afterward to apply new ideas to our project after having heard what Kim had to say. Moving quickly, we went to our respective tasks to ensure we could get them done as quickly as possible. However, we would be unable to do too much until the Solid Works design was done and ready by Friday which was the plan. So, I moved on to creating a stronger foundation for our idea which was the perception of the fusion of two separate worlds into a single with a foundation of critical thinking behind it that we want viewers to develop themselves.

Cinematic Flaneur - Grouping together Ideas

Today being the day before the Group Tutorial we had to ensure that everything we had to say would be up to scratch. So to ensure this after discussing with the group what our idea truly was, I typed up a short paragraph in preparation for the tutorial itself as shown below:

"The idea that we’re going to represent is the perception of two separate worlds in a single. This concept originated from the idea that every human is born into the world viewing it upside down. But as we accustom to the dark, we accustomed to the light of the world as it reflected images through our eyes right side up.If the world was never reflected the right side up would anything be any different? Or simply… Would a reverse world become the norm and a world the right side up be the exception?..
This is why we represented two images of the same world with different views, using the concept of mirror imaging and reflection.
The world is capable of always having a black and white based on how a human perceives a happening or image, and what we aim to visit is the perception of images. The life we walk is based on our personal perceptions of the world we see. We will always have the choice to see the world positively or negatively and these are the decisions that determine the direction of our life.
Just like we can choose to see between the lines or just what’s placed before us it’s all based on perception."

Apparatus Idea resolved:

3D Lab - G2

Fortunately enough this time I was able to attend this session where I found the other members attending it too. So with Moke Xu and Jack Yang we were introduced through a long introduction lesson what equipment and tools we would have to become familiar with for steelworks. Wood-works is however saved for another day at another session. But as I've bee assigned the job of Producer I won't have to concentrate too hard on this area. Daniel Lee the fabricator and Jack Yang the Assistant Fabricator will be the ones to attend the 3D Lab on later dates upon finalization of our Solid Works of our design.
After this session which ended reasonably quickly we came together for another group discussion for a quick talk about the idea behind our design in more detail so we would be prepared for the tutorial to come on the Tuesday and the talk did us some good as we were more aware of what we were attempting to represent with our idea in the end. However on a good note we also managed to figure out a way to incorporate two cameras into our one single apparatus.

3D Lab - G1

I'm not entirely sure which group I assigned to however, unfortunately I wasn't able to attend this session regardless but I'll be going tomorrow for the most part. However, I'm aware that Daniel Lee has already attended the first session which is good.

Moke's idea from yesterday that we agreed on:

Cinematic Flaneur - Solid Works

My own ideas from yesterday:
Today we came in all introducing ideas that we thought up through the night, and upon discussion we agreed on a single idea to truly develop which is something I'm going to introduce as the final days draw closer. However one issue we have come into contact with is how we are going to support two cameras on the design we have chosen for the time being. I guess, we'll have to visit that issue as time passes.

The moment that I've been patiently anticipating has finally arrived where we learned about designing objects. Something I was always overly interested in the moment I first heard about this course. Today we learned about Solid Works another program that I'm probably going to have to ensure I'm familiar with. We went about creating camera parts with the program and even though I was initially slow I soon got the hang of things and created the designated camera parts. This forced me to question where this would lead me in the future as we narrowed down our path of interest. But for now my path of interest is our present course of action for this project.

Group work - Bullet Time

So today we were introduced to a concept that was familiar to all of us thanks to the Matrix Movie that we all watched as kids. We were to incorporate the idea of bullet time into a short movie in groups of twelve. To achieve this we had to position several cameras to encircle the subject in the center. So with limited resources all of us got out laptops out using our laptop cameras to do the job. It was difficult at first but we managed to synchronize the cameras together by assigning everyone a number and simply counting up and down to signal when to take the photo. After that, we came together with the collaboration of all we did, and made it into a quick time video as instructed and inserted some sound into it. After that little project which we presented around 12.30pm.

Our next task was now to get into groups of four and start our newest project. To create an apparatus to support two cameras made for exploring the city in a unique manner not yet seen. This time I'll be working with Daniel Lee, Moke Xu and Jack Yang. So once we were home the plan was to research what we could do with what we had and come in tomorrow to share the ideas.

Semester 2 - Summary

This Monday we were enlightened on what adventures that would come before our path along the course of the semester. Of all I heard so far, the part that peaked my interest the most was the fact that we'd be learning about Design Data which is something I can go about in greater detail, but for now all I have to do is just go home, read and get back into university mode.