INSPIRATION #2
Aaron M. Higgins
U539_Margaret Dolinsky
The following scene images are from a maya environment that I have created from a painting I once made. The painting was a surrealistic metaphor about feelings I once had for a woman and my love of painting. Overall, I guess it was about love at first sight. The meaning has changed somewhat with the medium in which I am now working, translating the concept into three dimentional space has made it more of a metaphor for desire. I am not sure how succcesful this metaphor is visually or interactively but I am pleased with the composition and look of the piece so far. The scene is still a bit surreal and is surrounded by highly reflective water from which a giant hand emerges. The hand represents the action of pursuing the object of desire, or simply, it represents the one who desires. Red spheres swing out and work their way around the hand representing the transference between the object of desire and the beholder (the hand). In the center of the red spheres is a larger greenish one which, in my renders, reflects the entire scene and could also be seen as a manifestation of deisre. Large columns (originally paintbrushes) rise and fall in a serpentine fashion creating an obstacle between the desired and the one who desires, they also serve as architecture much like the three sea shells behind the head. The head and hand were a challenge for me being that this was my first course in maya, but I am pleased with the results so far and wish to continue modeling them to be more anatomically correct. Although it is hard to tell on its present form eventually the head or face will be that of a woman. For the textures, I worked with images in photoshop to make them appear more like surfaces of paint with rich saturated color. With this particular scene; however, I believe there are models I can add to make the environment more interesting to a user/viewer in the CAVE environment. A path of stepping stones or floating objects to give them something to follow along with other models that help shape the metaphor I am working with would help my piece be more easy to comprehend and more enjoyable to experience. There is no destination in the environment per se, though I want the viewer to circle around and view it from different angles. I intend to further develope this piece and continue to model the hand and face.
