Simulacrum idea – #12

So why did I choose the wheel? We were asked to choose an object and produce a simulacrum for the object that conveys all aspects of the redesign including history, dimensions, tactility, weight, sound and social context.

I had a think, and the first object to come into mind which had a bit of history behind it was the wheel. It’s the most used invention ever, today it is used in cars, trains, machines, planes, buses, and all sorts of equipment. The oldest wheel found was found in an archaelogical dig in Mesopotamia dating back approximately 5500 years ago.

As history has it, humans first acknowledged that things were easier to transport by rolling them over fallen tree logs. Then sleighs were introduced, then they combined the 2 to make a rolling sleigh, then the axle was invented, which in due course, brought about the invention of the cartwheel. So it was at this point where I started to think about animating one of these. The reason for me using “greensleeves” as background music for the cartwheel is probably self-explanatory, but as the cartwheel was used oftenly in the Victorian times, it seemed to fit.

Using “history” as a basis for my animation, it seemed only right to have this cartwheel somehow evolve into something newer. With more time and more familiarity with the program, I could have come up with a more “evolutionary” process, but for the project’s sake, I was only able to draw up one other element, and that was the tyre.

There are over 400 million cars and trucks in the world today, thus proving the tyre to be possibly the most used object daily. As this is the newer form of wheel, I decided to use some new metal for the background music, (actually ripped from the 300 movie) but in due course shows how both music and inventions are updated and changed as time goes on.

Simulacrum idea – #11

It is done. In the end, I decided to use Adobe Premiere for the transition from old to new. using the camera in 3Dmax to my advantage, I was able to create the illusion of the tyre coming out of nowhere when the camera passes through the centre of the cartwheel and using cross fades allowed this to run smoothly.

The video basically consists of “The Wheel” title, followed by a short description of the animation, then the video of the cartwheel is shown accompanied by “Greensleeves” in the background. The wheel starts to spin round, and so does the camera, eventually aiming for the centre of the wheel, displaying the text “out with the old..” fading out, and then fading in with “..and in with the new” and then displaying the video of the tyre.

You can see the video here which I uploaded to youtube, but the image quality is quite poor.

Simulacrum idea – #10

With little idea on how to animate in 3Dmax, I searched the internet yet again for a tutorial on animation. After visitng quite a few sites, i managed to find one which animated cog movement. Although the tutorial wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, I could apply it to my wheel. It basically taught me how to rotate the wheel on any axis (in this case Y) for a set amount of time. It also taught how to keep the speed constant, but in my case, I wanted to have the wheel speed up over time, so all I had to do was mess around with the time graph a bit.

Managed to get the wheel to start off slow, and as time progressed, the number of rotations were increased, giving it a “speeding up” effect.

I’ve also now applied this to the cartwheel, although not as fast because I doubt cartwheels rolled at 70mph in the olden days!

Simulacrum idea – #9

Ok, with my completed alloy rim, I was ready to draw the rubber tyre. After some searching on the net for some inspiration, i came across a tutorial for making realistic rubber tyres. It didn’t actually take as long as I thought, but the outcome was amazing, even better than the rim itself. I’m most impressed with the tread myself, although after rendering it, the tread seemed to smooth out a bit too much but it still looked realistic so I decided to stick with it.

Here’s a screenshot of the alloy complete with rubber tyre attached.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to animate them!

Simulacrum idea – #8

That was painful, but neccessary. I managed to fix a lot of holes and got the spokes looking quite smooth. I also applied a metallic chrome finish to the rim to give it the desired metal look. As well as the material, I used the “turbosmooth” option to smooth out all the harsh edges and give it a nice polished finish!

 As you can see, it looks a lot more like a real alloy wheel rim now.

Now I need to create the rubber tyre to fit around it!

Simulacrum idea – #7

I’ve now managed to give the rim a more realistic feel to it, by introducing the look of a real moulded alloy rim. In the first screenshot you can see that it looks like a generic “tube” as 3Dmax likes to name, with no detail whatsoever.

You can see in the screenshot below that i’ve introduced some depth to it by indenting into the rim slightly. This is where the rubber tyre will sit eventually.

This looks like it’s practically almost done. Although, looking closely at the spokes, through the slight malfunction I had earlier, it’s left some holes. Looks like I’m going to have to edit the vectors myself. It’ll be a lot easier than starting again!

Simulacrum idea – #6

Just managed to sculpt this using a tutorial on how to make a tyre rim. Although it didnt exactly go to plan. For some reason, when I bridged the points from the outside of the rim to the inside of the rim, instead of them going straight across like your normal 5-spoke alloy, they went a bit skewy. I must have not aligned them properly, but I like the effect it has given. Here’s a screenshot so far..

At the moment it’s looking pretty flat, although i’m pleased with the way the spokes turned out. More to come..

Simulacrum idea – #5

After being thoroughly impressed with my ability to make a cartwheel from scratch and make it look real, I now have to think about how I’m going to introduce the tyre and how I’m going to somehow get the cartwheel to evolve into it.

But before I jump the gun, I need to have a tyre to work with. I’m continuing to get more used to 3dmax and the way it works so hopefully it shouldn’t be too hard.

I’ll continue to browse and try out tutorials and see if I can come up with something at the end of this weekend.

Simulacrum idea – #4

After watching some tutorials from lynda.com I started to understand 3Dmax a bit more and became familiar with the material editor.

I was amazed at how easy it was to turn something flat into something that looked almost real. In this instance, and for use with the cartwheel, I applied several different wood effects to the wheel to see how it would look. I decided that an old wooden effect matched what I was looking for the most.

Here’s a screenshot of the finished cartwheel.

As you can see, it looks a lot more authentic with the wooden material effect applied compared to the original.

Simulacrum idea – #3

Just been working on the cartwheel in 3ds max. its quite a figity program to use but i guess i’ll get used to it sooner or later.

here’s what i’ve managed to create so far..