The concept for this image was to consider the focus of tech companies on A.I, while considering dystopia. I think that Google and Apple can both seem cultish. Google has an experimental approach, and Apple has a perfectionist approach to tech, both have the same goal to gather as much data as they can, and to use this data to effectively schedule our actions.
My idea focuses on a war for A.I dominance. Both companies lose the war, and A.I lives on. Needing energy to survive, it begins to replicate nature to solve this rather than rely on humans. While starting as vines it works together with nature to create a human entity. I found it interesting that if A.I and nature could, it might choose to be human and take over. Maybe they are a bit sad about humans disappearing, or they think that we were onto a good thing that we ruined, and this new entity doesn’t think it will make the same mistake.
This has been a really challenging image and not just for the theme and needing to learn Maya, but also because I have studied 3D before and while it was a long time ago, I still have fairly high expectations of myself. Firstly, to be able to add this image to my portfolio it needs to be at least as good as previous artworks, then to learn more about 3D than I have learnt before, other than software learning, will require me to create a better 3D image than I have completed in 3DS Max. I can then properly utilize Karen’s abundant knowledge when she tells me why my work is still rubbish. None of that will work if I am not pushing my boundaries.
Because of this I have ended up with a lot of different materials and polygons to sort out in my scene as a way of trying each thing. I haven’t spent much time on the textures themselves, I have mostly just set it all up with UV’s ,Shaders and Maps, and now is just a matter to play with my PSD’s. Trying to solve my tree mapping was really challenging. It interests me to create an image that is dystopian without being totally gloomy and all horror. I like the idea of my symbols to be found or discovered in the image rather than being in your face the moment its seen.
I still have a big hole to fill in the middle of my image, and haven’t started mapping the monster or A.I cables. My drone body is UV’d but not the rest. Havent even touched the ground yet. My lighting is there but lit up over bright in some areas while I work on it.
The class is thinking up some cool ideas for this.
I have been considering that there has been a war between two tech giants for A.I dominance at a point in time when society is totally reliant on one version of the software or the other. Today we see a little of this loyalty to certain operating systems, either apple or android for example. We are locked into our operating systems through subscriptions to varied services, relying on these services makes us part of the network, the more we use the services the more we are supposed to feel as though we belong in the google or apple family.
Both companies can come across as having a cultish feel, while things may seem happy and cheerful on the surface, there is occasionally a hint of something nefarious lurking. I am going to consider these companies values and how life would be living under their rule in the future, and express some of those in my image. This might not seem very dystopian, but I imagine it being extremely controlling as both companies strive to guide us through our daily lives as much as they possibly can.
A.I dominance is considered a key focus today for all the large tech companies, it is unknown at this point what that will ultimately mean regarding the power attained by the most successful of them. In my fictional world, our reliance on the largest of them after hundreds of years might potentially create a situation where the humans are unprepared for the loss of it. My image won’t be focused on that point in time, my concept is that if google and apple were leaders, and they battled it out at war while we were totally reliant on either of them and the system’s they have created, I think the result of that war could possibly create a dystopia, both in leadership and living conditions. I think it’s going to be a little hard to portray dystopia profoundly in this image, I guess it will depend on how you feel about google or apple ruling the world.
My first thoughts.
In this image the ruins are Google, the statues are Google bots, there will be algorithms carved in the wall. The Greyish blob, is a busted up old ‘Jony Ives, the 23rd’ designed WAR drone with apple logo. While not described here, the materiality aspect of my image will mostly come from the idea that both sides possibly lost, a long time ago. A.I lives on and is finding a life of its own, mimicking nature to survive. The vines of the tree, and the A.I snaking out of the old ruin as vine type things, start sort of blending together. All a bit odd yes, and not dystopian enough yet really, but that’s where its at.
For my layout, I have low camera looking across a slightly swampish pool of water. There’s an old war torn, high tech looking drone on our left, a tree of vines on our right, and ruins in front. Haven’t decided on my background yet. There is 20cm thick, shiny metal A.I cables running around the place. The drone has a power button on its nose the same as an apple power button. There is a couple of war guns attached, its wing is broken as is the left side of the nose. The tree vines snakes through the water over, under and through the drone, including quite close to cam. They also are seen in section 2, climbing on the ruins. While chaotic, the vines and A.I still have a particular flow across the image. The reflection of the vines and A.I cables on the water should add a little extra depth to the image without needing to cramp the image with them.
The ruins are typical sandstone and there is some war damage. Im still looking at the idea of whats on top of it but I need to consider scale in my image as well. We don’t know how big anything is. To fix that, on the ruins which are meant to be ginormous, I will be adding some very small doors and windows.
Part 2
Drone – I sketched the drone based on photos of an X-48 Military drone. I tried to imagine I was sketching like Jony Ives the 23rd, smoothing out the lines a bit. I then went over it again making the changes I needed to.
The texture might be something like this. While it is made of high tech alloys or titanium, it is still going to be very old and I will be including etchings of panels etc into the map. In patches we might see a small, subtle specular glow but not much. Dirt and moss layers will be laid over top.
Tree of vines – No sketch for this as it will be modelled last sort of organically, to match the cam view and contours of the ground. The material is dark brown vines, with dirt and grime, moss. Specular shading will be dull and patchy.
Water – The water will be very still and highly reflective. Very dark. Not sure about surface detail yet. The images below are sort of right, but haven’t found what I am after yet.
A.I Cables - Will be unsure until I work out the best way to model them. I don’t want it to be the same as normal steel cable like the images below, it will be more like a mechanical snake and will be dirty in places but new and scaly shiny.
Ruins – The ruins are futher away and I can be a little more relaxed about the detail but I am still unsure about how big the building will appear to be, so will wait until its modelled to decide. It will have a similar feel to the image below, the image on the right might end up being a better tone for this image though.
Part 1
I’m working on a giant A.I/Nature guy. I had a basic idea in my head about this character but was having trouble visualizing it so I used the animation training rig from my 3d animated body course to strike a pose. I then box modelled the shape and deleted the rig. I modelled the base to use as a live object, so that I could draw splines straight onto the model for the creation of vines and A.I cables. He is a badly modelled guy from any other view but it was good not having to worry about that, or scale, and just focus on making sure he looked good for the camera. I created the first layer of vines to give me the basic shape, focusing mostly on the A.I cables. The A.I cables will be a central part of my image if I’m able to create the texture the way I imagine it, so where they are placed will be important. There will be a lot more cables and vines, most of them will be much thinner.
Part 2
Here is my sketch. Its cool to see my plan for mise-en scene coming together, I have had my doubts, due to how awkward I think it will be to light the scene how I want it and uncertainty about how well I can model the character. If I can manage to keep the scene headed the way it is so far, I think it will work out well.
Part 3
Some lights will be ignoring nature if I am going to achieve what I’m thinking. I don’t know much about lighting in Maya yet, but I lit up my scene enough to test my concept and my lighting choices.
The centre of the ruins will be slightly brighter than it is now (not the background though). The drone will also be a bit lighter, but maybe independently as I don’t want to light up the foreground much more than it is. I will be hoping to keep the foreground dark, but not that dark that we can’t see most of the details. The character might also need its own lighting as it is going to be a challenge lighting him to show his form and minimise the blending of his different sections without making the scene overbright. I will probably want a light near the ground lighting up his left (image left) side unnaturally, to match the brightness that will be occurring in the centre of the image and on the ruins. I think I might also need a fill light behind him to accentuate some of his darker edges from the front.
