Film, Animation and Machinima

Hi All,

Below are a few videos to inspire your animated sections this week:

1. This clip shows you some of the editing techniques used in feature films. Kill Bill was directed by Quentin Tarantino who worked for a long time in a video rental store (which became DVD rental stores and now Netflix) and developed an encyclopedic knowledge of popular films. This might explain why he uses so many editing techniques, and consequently why his scenes are useful to film students for demonstrating how each technique might be used.  It's wise to consider the point of view shown in your animated sections because, as you can see below, point of view can radically transform our appreciation of the space.



2. The making of the animated film The Third and The Seventh. This clip shows the different layers that go into creating a photo-realistic digitally created scene. The take away point here is that you should think about post processing your still images and even videos captured from Sketchup to give them more richness in terms of materials and atmosphere.



3. The game Red Faction Guerrilla is famous for its in game destruction. It's still a classic today. In this clip you'll hear one of the developers talking about the levels of material/structural realism and making the observation that their level designers are becoming "less and less a 3d structure artist and more and more an Architect". This says two things ... visual realism is increasingly supported by physical realism in virtual environments ... and, you might think about a career in designing Architecture in a virtual world.



4. Extending the notion of real time physics interactions, see the clip below by Nvidia. It shows their FleX system and asks you to imagine how you might use it in the future. The air flow around the sports car makes us think about air flows around and through buildings; a key ingredient for comfortable and sustainable Architecture. Obviously the applications for real time design in Civil Engineering are also very exciting.

Student Rep Meeting

Hi All,

As you might remember there was a student rep meeting during last weeks class.

It was pretty early on in the session so not a great deal to report, but below is a list of the issues raised and our responses to them (in no particular order):

1. It was noted that the Sketchup resources provided are a little basic, your reps asked for further resources to bridge the gap between their modeling capabilities and aspirations. 

The most popular Sketchup plugin that deals with designing complex curves and geometry is called Artisan Tools. Many students have used it in the past to great effect.

https://artisan4sketchup.com/  here is a pdf user guide and a link to some video tutorials

We'll publish more advanced tutorials as they come to hand ... or if you can recommend some please let us know in the comments below. 

2. Brief ambiguities were causing some confusion.

Our response here is that if anything is ambiguous run it past your tutor, and if they agree it could be interpreted in multiple ways then you are free to choose which way suits you. To help we will explicitly link the marking criteria to each specific task in EXP2. The student reps felt this will help to resolve the issue. 

We note that the Marking Criteria has been available from the beginning of Experiment 1 and will also be available from the beginning of EXP2 and EXP3. 

3. The student reps noted that the additional material (pdf / lecture / links to tutes on the blogs, etc) have been a useful and welcome resource during the studio session.

We will keep doing this; we added an ARCH1101 Pinterest page recently. If you have other suggestions for good was to get resources to you please let us know in the comments below.

With that in mind ... is anyone using https://ask.fm/?

Regards

Russell and Andrew 

Material Sections from previous students

Hi All,

Here are some Material Sections drawn by previous students:

Maryam Osman's blog

Hi All,

One of our tutors, Maryam Osman, has been posing some useful readings on her blog ... and a nice project by BIG Architects which shows their innovative approach to designing and communicating design through diagrams; here's another one from the website  DesignBoom

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Super Materials

Hi All,

If you'd like to get ahead for studio this week take a lok at this article on Super Materials:

http://gizmodo.com/beyond-graphene-6-supermaterials-that-could-change-our-1681845262

Russell and Andrew

ARCH1101 on Pinterest

Hi All,

For a curated set of links relevant to your studies in ARCH1101, take a look at ARCH1101 on Pinterest: http://pin.it/MfRRaWT

Feel free to follow if you like.

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Some Architecture Instagram accounts

Hi All,

We are firm believers in the old saying that "You are what you eat". In other words, if you spend time considering great architecture then some of it will sink in unconsciously and you'll become a better designer yourself.

So the key question becomes; where can I find examples of great architecture to consume!

One option, Instagram.

Below are a selection of Instagram feeds that aggregate images from all over the net. There are a few more good ones we'll point you towards in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you have any that you follow and can recommend, let us know in the comments section below.

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Today's task is up on the EXP1 Brief webpage

Hi All,

Today's task is up on the EXP1 Brief webpage, here:

 http://www.russelllowe.com/arch1101_2017/experiment1/brief/brief_exp1.htm

You'll see a link to a PDF file with a selection of stairs on that webpage as well, it's integral to the task, so take a look!

Regards

Russell and Andrew