#2dtextures

Giorgia Menon

These are two of the models that I made for one of the characters that are going to be part of the final video output. I made them in Photoshop and I took inspiration from two Babylonian Gods so that they would go together with the theme of our project.

I certainly based the two characters on the images I found on the web, but I also re-imagined them according to my liking and to whatever style I thought would look best in the space that my group and I created. I loved the idea of imagining these two obscure and mysterious figures appearing from the hole in the ceiling, just staring down at us (the audience). The final effect was supposed to be kind of intimidating, but it was also supposed to be fascinating for the viewers. A hint of "magic" was added to them, contrary to the actual references, because of the overall theme that me and my team chose for this project. Since the statues that have been modeled by my group mates have similar stripes and shiny geometrical shapes on their bodies, I decided that they also needed to have them. One final but essential touch, in my opinion, was the addition of the grainy and decaying texture on top of the drawings. Since they would have already stood out from the rest of the environment (given that they are 2D assets in contrast with the 3D atmosphere surrounding them), I thought that adding a texture on top of them that resonated with the appearance of the buildings and walls around, would do the trick. Then of course, after seeing the image quality of the dome and the video resolution itself, I don't think they'll be very noticeable, but I'm still glad I thought about placing them in.

A final asset that I made during the past week is this wall texture, that was supposed to be applied to the internal walls of our main structure. However, the final video doesn't have this texture in it. Even with multiple tryouts and different formats, we thought that the final look was not really coherent with what we were going for. For some reason, it always looked to yellow, too wide, or too flat... so we finally decided to not include it in the final piece.

Overall, even though the role of a 2D artist in a project like this one was hard to spot an easy to miss, I believe I did my best to find ways to make myself useful for the team. Besides the pre-production, which was of course 2D since it consisted of storyboards, I tried to use my creativity to embed my 2D imagination into 3D pieces. Although not every single one of my pieces has been included in the final output, I believe this is one of the sides of working on a group project. Not everything is going to go your way and your ideas might not always match up with the imagination of your group mates. However, it's always good to try and bring your own proposal to the table... you never know, someone might like them! Therefore, I am satisfied of the role that I played in the creation of this video, even though I wish I could have helped with the 3D building a bit more. This is however not a regret, much more like a stimulating feeling that will definitely push me to delve more into the tridimensional world. I surely learned a lot from every single member of my group and had a great experience overall!

Image references:

Inspiredpencil.com. (2021). Babylonian Gods. [online] Available at: https://ar.inspiredpencil.com/pictures-2023/babylonian-gods [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].

John (2016). A Babylonian Sufferer Ponders the Gods. [online] Blogspot.com. Available at: https://benedante.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-babylonian-sufferer-ponders-gods.html [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].

Giorgia Menon

In order to have a better idea of the setting and actions that were going to play in the 2 minutes video, I took care of the storyboard. The movements are going to be very simple: the audience is simply going to be lifted up, first by floating in water and subsequently by a magical statue hand. We still need to properly take a look at the actual timing of all the actions, but we know that everything is going to be quite slow. Given the fact that the whole video is going to take place into a single place only, we need to time every little movement carefully so that the viewer doesn't get bored too easily.

I also thought to provide an external view of what is going to happen. However, talking about it with Saint, we figured that it might be better to include at least two "moving statues" on opposing sides of the scene so that the movement can be visible from all the POVs of the dome. This will not impact our workload too much, since we are going to use the same modelled 3D sketch of the statue that one of my groupmates already made in Blender and just readjust it a bit, to make it look like a different character.

These two different designs carved into the stone were made by me to be placed on the underwater walls that are present at the beginning of our sequence. I drew the compositions on Photoshop and merged them with already existing brick and wall textures from the Unreal Engine software. I tried using different wall patterns with the same drawing in order to achieve the best effect possible, but I think we are going to make the final decision once we place the water element on top of it. Just to be clear, the subjects of these drawings were originated by a bit of research with regards to the culture of the ancient Babylon, to keep the theme going throughout the whole video.

For this week, we also prepared a drafty and simple presentation, to show the rest of the class how much we progressed over the last week. I think this was a very nice way to "pressurize" us and to show our updates in front of classmates and professors, even new ones! Actually having to explain what the thought process is behind an idea and what the actual choices were toward a specific strategy can really help the group understand what the following steps might be and what the project is lacking. The constant confrontation made the whole assignment feel more professional and it gave us the motivation to push through the days and surpass our limits as a team.

Even though we made the first draft of presentation all together as a group, I volunteered to take care of the following versions after the first rehearsal. First of all, I love presentations because they allow my creativity to come through with new fonts and artistic styles, secondly, I wanted to take some "weight" off of the 3D guys' shoulders. I knew this was not really a priority, but I knew this little thing was not going to take any time away from my parts of the project and I knew it had to be taken care of. Moreover, I believe that the visual way that a team presents its work can be really important. Especially in a future a maybe more professional situation, the visuals present on the PowerPoint and the way that you express an idea can really make the difference in the perception of the idea and on the final win.

References:

Biblical Archaeology Society. (2020). Hanging Gardens of Babylon … in Assyrian Nineveh. [online] Available at: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/hanging-gardens-of-babylon-in-assyrian-nineveh/.

Cooper, T. (2008). British Museum exhibition exposes modern tragedy of Babylon. [online] Pinterest. Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/313000242834029765/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].

Sinclair, D.A. (2018). The Mesopotamian Blues: musings on Sumerian colour values. [online] Blogspot.com. Available at: https://artisticlicenseorwhyitrustnoone.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-mesopotamian-blues_21.html [Accessed 3 Feb. 2025].

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