Ants at War

My final stamp takes a look into the theory of survival and how biodiversity is all the same. All species in the world are trying to survive the challenges life brings to them. Species will literally fight for this survival. This scene represents the fight is everywhere and humans are not exclusive to this struggle. The ants in the picture are showing us their determination to survive and that their purpose in life is the same as ours.

Human Extinction

Here is my finished stamp design for the project. The idea behind the design is mainly about human kind and that we are a big part of the biodiversity picture, not only do we need to protect and conserve others we need to do the same for are selves are our children. The picture depicts life after humans with the great symbol of human life the 'Statue of Liberty' lying at the bottom of the sea. It is trying to make us more aware to the seriousness of global warming not just to the species of the world but to us too. The dolphins in the scene represent the idea that life will go on even without us. We will be forgotten like many other spices who have preceded us and if we don't act on these issues now, we will end up existent.

Flower of Life

This is my final stamp design the idea behind this piece is that there is very human element to the paving slabs in the picture they represent the amount of building we are doing in the world and sometimes without a thought for the biodiversity and the amount of organisms that are being damaged because of this. The flower represents the beauty of biodiversity and what world is missing by building over it. The flower also shows that even through difficult times and environments it will attempt to live and keep its spices in existence.

Final Stage - Ant

Keeping with my dark atmospheric theme and going back to the idea of silhouettes i decided to put the other ants on the horizon.

I then saved the design as a PNG files which gave the image a white background which worked perfectly with the silhouettes of the ants.

Stage 3 - Ant

I have decided to go back and finish my original 3D ant I started weeks ago I have gained a few more skills since then so I might be able to do something with him. Originally I had the idea of covering him with a camouflage texture so I'm going to stick with that idea.

I started by searching the Internet for a nice camouflage texture, once I found this I added it to the Ant along with a bump map called 'skin' to give it a more natural a rough look. It was now a case of putting the ant into a scene and I started by recreating the floor from stamp 2 but I didn't add any Environment effects. I also changed the texture to 'GRYDIRT' which suited the scene perfectly. I also thought about putting more than one ant on the scene because I wanted it the give the impression of an army not just a single ant.


I wasn't happy with the way the ants looked in the scene so I changed the angle and put a spot light on it. This looked much better but I lost view of the other ants.

Final Stage - Stamp 2

Here I merged my three elements together, the Ocean Floor, the Dolphin and the Statue. I decided to put a couple of spot lights out to give the main two objects a bit more light.

Creating the Torch & Adding the Hand

1. I created a plane and placed a picture of the Statue of liberty's torch and hand over the top. I then used the line tool to draw around half of the image. Then by adding the Lathe Modifier my torch object was made. I gave the torch a Turbo smooth but unchecked the smooth result to give the torch a harder edged structural look.

2. It wasn't to important to get all the small details of the torch in because the torch is meant to look like its been at the bottom of the sea for years.

3. Connecting the hand to the torch was very tricky indeed and it took ages to get it right. Each finger had to be rotated and lowered to look as if it was gripping the torch.

4. Finally I added some textures to the Statue. Firstly I added a map called 'Redrust' to the Diffuser color then I added the same map as the bump map. This made the object look old rusty and decaying.

Creating the Hand

I'm going to try and recreate the hand and torch from the Statue of Liberty USA for my underwater scene.

1. First I created a box and made it 7 segments for the width and 3 segments for the length and 1 for the height. I then shaped one end inwards for the wrist and one in outwards for the fingers.

2. Next I selected 4 polygons at end of the box and used the 'extrude' to bring the fingers out making sure I stopped at the each put of the knuckle to add new segments to the fingers.

3. At this point I needed a reference to copy round so I found a picture of a hand and added it to plane and placed it directly behind the object.

4.Once the fingers wee complete I concentrated on the thumb which I extruded from the side of the hand and shaped it the best I could around the Reference map.

5.Finally I added some knuckles to the hand this was done selecting the Polygons where the knuckles should be and exuding and then scaling them to a realistic size. I have decided not to add finger nails as this much detail is not needed for my final picture.

Final Stage - Dolphin

The head tom me didn't look right so began to reshape it which became very frustrating because it never seemed to look right I should of used a reference picture from the start to trace. I finally stuck with the final shape. The final thing to do was to add a texture called 'Skin' to the bump map and my dolphin was complete.

Stage 3 - Dolphin

Here are some different views of my dolphin I am quite happy with the way it looks symmetrical but I'm sill not happy with the shape of the head I might have ago at reshaping it.

Stage 2 - Dolphin

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In Picture 1 I have added the Turbo smooth modifier to see a more detailed view of the dolphin. Next in Picture 2 I have used the slice tool to add extra vertices's to the tail so I could shape the fin.

The next stage was to add the eyes this was done by using the Bevel tool to create the eye sockets. To finish the eyes I then added a black colour to the poly's in the center of the sockets. This was easily done to using the Material editor.

Stage 1 - Dolphin

First I created a cylinder then in the modifier panel pressed the Calapse button while the end vertices's were highlighted.

Next I reshaped the cylinder so it thinned out at the tail end. I then selected the polygons where the fins will be then clicked on the Bevel settings button and changed the height and outline amount to the desired amount.

Next the tail needed forming. This was done by using the slice plane and the slice button to create some new vertices's. Then I selected the end of the shape and clicked on the Bevel settings again, this time I selected the 'By Polygon' setting which bevels each polygon individually I then changed the parameters accordingly.

Dolphins

There are 37 types of Dolphin and they all have different shaped noses. What one shall I copy? Or shall I design my own species as my scene is meant to be set way into the future? Here are some examples of Dolphins and the kind of shot I want to achieve.

Ocean Floor Finished

In the Advanced Effects I have added a new Projector map with the name 'Caustic' this has put some uneven black patches on my sea floor. Lastly I added a volume light within the Atmosphere and Effects scroll down. Here I changed the density and the strength of the light beams. I'm very happy how it has turned out.

Ocean Floor

I started off by creating a box with the lenghth segments 75 and the width 75, after that I added the 'Noise' modifier to the poly. Here I changed some of the parameters to give the sea floor base a bumpy uneven look. Next I opened up the material editor and added a bitmap to the diffuse and the Bump maps. I experimented with a few different maps but decided on a simple grainy sand texture called 'Sandshor'.

The sea floor looked o.k but the textures weren't very clear when rendered so I added the UVW Map Modifier and moved the U and V Tile counters up to 2. This made the textures finer and more 3dimensional it was a big difference when rendered.

The next step was to open up the Rendering Tab and go to 'Environment and effects'. Here I clicked on Add Atmosphere and chose the 'Fog' map. I also changed the colour here to a pale blue colour, which created the underwater feel to the scene.

The next stage was to create the light beams that shine through the water. Firstly I put a camera target in a good position over the top of the scene and changed the Spotlight Parameters: Hot spot & Fallout. Next I changed the Intensity/Colour Attenuation to a pale blue which made the light shinning through the water look duller.

Stamp 2 - Sketch

Here is a sketch of my next stamp I want to produce. This underwater scene shows the old and corroding hand and torch of the Statue of Liberty lying at the bottom of the ocean with Dolphins swimming around it (Yeah just like The Planet of the apes). My idea is that even after humans are long gone Biodiversity will survive. I think that by using the Dolphins as the animals circling the torch makes the scene very thought provoking.

I want the scene to look quite gloomy and dark but to have beams of light coming down from the ocean top. Also I want to use the silhouettes of the Dolphins. I like the silhouette idea because of the research i did on stamps earlier on is the semester. I'm not sure how or if it's possible for me to model this scene but I will give it a go.

Final Design - Flower & Background

The final part was to add the flower to the scene. The flower on its own didn't show up enough so I added a spot light and reduced the Hot spot Beam and the Fallout because I didn't want to overpower the other lighting effects. It also produced a nice shadow. The flower now has a mysterious look to it which I think works well.

I might change the size of the flower and the colour but i'm not sure yet.

Stage's 3 & 4 Moody Background

My scene now needed some lighting and atmosphere. I started by adding a Target spot Light to the concrete slabs. I was very happy with the way it looked when it was rendered. The background merge into the shadows well giving it a desolate feel.

The results are good but the scene still didn't look moody enough. It was very clean so I'm going to experiment with the Projector Map in the Advanced Effects within the Target Spot modifier.

After experimenting with a few filters I stuck with the Smoke filter which had the patchy feel i was looking for. I needed to edit the map in the Material editor first. First I swapped the black and white colours around because I didn't want the dark smoke effect to overpower the scene. Next I changed a few of the parameters to expand the pattern and to dull it a bit. These are very subtle changes but I think they enhance the slabs greatly.

This is the background scene finished and it is very close to what I was looking for.

Stage's 1 & 2 Moody Background

I have decided to to put a dark and moody scene surrounding my flower. My idea was to add a man made concrete pavement where the flower will sprout out from a crack in the stones.

First I created a simple box and shaped it into a slab shape. Then I added the concrete map to the with the Material Editor to the slab. I also added the same bitmap as a bump map to give the stone some texture.

I then produced instants of the the slabs and made a block of 8x8. Within this block I rotated a few of the slabs to give it a more natural and non uniformed look.