3D, Graphic Design

Assignment 01.01: 2D and 3D Introduction

Jason W. Howell
August 10, 2024

Goal

Develop a prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion of 2D design and soft­ware skills in a 3D vir­tual arti­fact and prod­uct space.

Objective

Cre­ate a 3D model for for print or screen dis­play, that will serve as an intro­duc­tion to under­stand­ing the mod­el­ing, col­or­ing, tex­tur­ing and light processes of typ­i­cal 3D mod­el­ing software.

Background

Assignment

The devel­op­ment of 3D mod­el­ing tools in 2D soft­ware, pri­mar­ily Adobe Illus­tra­tor, has changed the avail­abil­ity of mak­ing 3D envi­ron­ments. Most of these tools give the appear­ance of 3D in a 2D world (ie screen or print), but some lim­ited abil­ity to export 3D object file is also avail­able. Like­wise, the pro­lif­er­a­tion of tools that take exist­ing mod­els and allow for aes­thetic or cos­metic exper­i­men­ta­tion, has allowed design­ers and engi­neers to work col­lab­o­ra­tively to develop prod­ucts that meet the busi­ness and pro­mo­tional goals of goods and services.

Brain­storm sev­eral sim­ple 3D typo­graphic char­ac­ters or words, as if each let­ter was part of a series of sim­ple illus­tra­tions. Review type­faces and char­ac­ters, and then deter­mine the mate­ri­als, tex­tures and col­ors that would bring to con­cept to real­ity. Using the required tools, out­lined below, begin to cre­ate each form. Some may be bet­ter suited for some con­cepts than oth­ers. Be flex­i­ble and open to exper­i­men­ta­tion. Under­stand­ing to the prepara­tory, visual, struc­tural and func­tional aspect of 3D tools will expand the under­stand­ing of more elab­o­rate and pow­er­ful tools.

Part One

Using the Adobe Fire­fly V3: A Com­plete 3D Tuto­r­ial as a start­ing point, cre­ate any addi­tional sup­port files, and then gen­er­ate a visual images of the selected con­cept. The video demon­strates the con­cept that it is often nec­es­sary to cre­ate indi­vid­ual com­po­nent parts, that are then assem­bled into a larger struc­ture when deal­ing with AI (arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence). Again, the goal is to learn the tool, not take the eas­i­est way out, so use cre­ativ­ity and exper­i­men­ta­tion to develop some­thing rather than prompt­ing a total solution.

Save or export the result­ing work as a 1920 x 1920 px RGB image JPG file for submission.

Part Two

Using the infor­ma­tion con­tained in the Adobe Illus­tra­tor 3D tuto­ri­als, cre­ate a sec­ond illus­tra­tion in Adobe Illus­tra­tor exclu­sively. Think care­fully about using lay­ers, found art­work and var­i­ous styl­is­tic options in the soft­ware. Depend­ing upon the con­cept, addi­tional objects can be cre­ated to inter­act with the main forms. The pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less, but the focus is on the process, not so much on com­pli­cated con­cepts. Pay care­ful atten­tion to light­ing and shad­ows, as these are often the key to cre­at­ing a believ­able image.

Save or export the result­ing work as a 1920 x 1920 px RGB image JPG file for submission.

Part Three

Use Adobe Dimen­sion to cre­ate a sim­i­lar illus­tra­tion. The build­ing tools in Dimen­sion can be a lit­tle more tedious and less famil­iar, so being able to import exist­ing mod­els is help­ful. Illus­tra­tor also has the abil­ity to export OBJ mod­els if that process is more famil­iar, but the focus is on the author­ing area in Dimension.

Use Dimen­sion and any addi­tional soft­ware to cre­ate a ren­der­ing of the let­ter. The tools in Dimen­sion are sim­i­lar to those in illus­tra­tor when it comes to the color, mate­ri­als, tex­ture and light­ing. The author­ing envi­ron­ment, how­ever, is closer to that of a tra­di­tional 3D mod­el­ing appli­ca­tion. Use the han­dles and rings to make move­ment in the 3D plane eas­ier. Build and detail the scene in such a way to bring the nec­es­sary real­ism to the illus­tra­tion. Once com­plete, use the cam­eras to cre­ate the best view of the work. Save and export the final ren­der­ing as a 1920 x 1920 px RGB image JPG file for submission.

Col­lect all files and upload each to the appro­pri­ate D2L dropbox.

Assessment

  • The fol­low­ing rubric posted on D2L will deter­mine exer­cise score: Assign­ment Grading

Techniques

raster, images, lay­ers, 3D mod­el­ing, tex­tures, light­ing, exporting

Supplies

Adobe illus­tra­tor, Pho­to­shop, Dimen­sion, Cre­ative Cloud Account

Deadlines

As defined by cor­re­spond­ing cal­en­dar item, drop­box, dis­cus­sion or con­tent topic description.