My take on the traditional Valentine’s Day card
Ah Valentine’s day, when a young man’s fancy turns to – digital modeling. After the intense digital 3D modeling involved in the Affordable Housing Prototype (see previous postings), I turned to it again to make this year’s Valentine’s Day cards. Here are 3 videos and 2 still lifes.
I have included all of the videos I made this year. “(lmr val 2010 1.avi to 4.avi)” I think the last is my favorite. I get different ideas when trying to design something. I can never predict how an idea will take shape (one thing that makes it so fun), and I never know which idea will give the best results.
Top: This is an image I made for my sisters. I started thinking about doing something with “Sis”. I realized that Sis is symmetrical, if you mirror the last “s”. Yes, that’s how my mind works. I then started thinking about mirrors, and symmetrical letters, words and objects. I took half letters/words for my symmetrical message “wow sis! val day!”. I added Valentine’s Day objects and the requisite architect’s pencil. I set them all up on the table, in front of a mirror. Then our ever curious cat came by to see what I was doing.
Second from Top (video with cats): A video assembled from a very quick model. My animation software allows you to move around the model, but you can’t change the model. You can, however, hide parts of the model. This video reveals step-by-step a chorus of cats singing a Valentine’s greeting (“Happy Valentine’s Day, Bubbah!”) to Lisa, standing on a heart shaped stage.
Third from Top (Video with red cylinder): The idea was to start with a set of unrelated objects that would merge at the end into a heart. As with many computer projects, it took longer than I expected. Somehow the end result isn’t quite as interesting as the idea.
Fourth from the Top (video inside building): I started with a traditional Valentine’s object, Sweetheart candies made by NECCO**. The idea here was to start with a familiar object, viewed at an unfamiliar scale. You don’t recognize it at the start, but get a pleasant surprise of recognition about half-way through.
Bottom: A Valentine’s image that celebrates my dad. I wrote down some of the qualities that make him a great dad, typed them together to form a pattern and applied it to the word “Dad”. I stood “Dad” in front of a photo of my dad. Everything is large scaled and zooming in forced perspective.
A wonderful Valentine’s day full of love, romance and chocolate to my readers.
**Interesting (to me anyway) Factoid: NECCO is also the manufacturer of NECCO wafers, the pastel colored candy disks. Did you know that NECCO stands for New England Confectionary COmpany? (NECCO and Sweethearts are copyrighted by NECCO)