First rendering of chosen design

After a lot of debating of which design of my sketches to go for, I finally decided on these designs:

I decided to go for these designs because I love how the main use of the cutlery is part of the animal design itself instead of being a separate part. The cutting part of the knife on the crocodile are similar to its teeth, the curve of the spoon resembles the tongue of a frog and the points of the for resemble the ears and horns of a giraffe. So I thought it was a fun way for children to enjoy their meal times by looking forward to using their animal shaped cutlery.

Also I decided to start working on my Amazon tree frog spoon. I wanted to take on the challenge of making this spoon because I wanted to see how far my ability of creating this kind of shape was going to be difficult but I didn't want to go plain and boring. Creating the frog shape did prove to be a challenge as there was a lot of scaling, rotating and extruding to do to form the body, legs, toes and head. I also changed the colour of the frog and tongue by using the material editor, selecting the layers that I wanted and using the colours of a tree frog and pinkness of a frogs tongue to bring my design forward. Since my first attempt of creating the cursviness of the spoon was a hard task for me to do, I managed to follow through on organizing the vectors to create that perfect shape, or close to what I wanted it to be. I am very pleased with the outcome of my spoon because even though there are many things I would change, I took on a challenge of creating a hard shape on 3D Max and did the best I could do. Here are a few screen shots of different view points and a final rendering of the spoon:

Unfortunately, while I was rendering, the blue colour at the sides of the frog turned up black.

Sketch Ideas and Working with Cutlery

These are the designs that I have been working on over the past month. They are all of the possible options that I have considered for the theme of my cutlery. Even though there a very little features of the cutlery itself, the animal shapes and designs have helped developed my final set immensely. I have enjoyed working through the variety of designs that I am able to work with and looking forward creating my unique 3D model on 3D Max to see what the outcome is like. Here are a few of my sketch designs:

In our tutorial class, we started on working on how to create a spoon. I found this task to be quite difficult because it involved a lot of scaling, extruding and moving vectors to make sure everything was in proportion. Getting the shape of the spoon itself wasn't as bad, because I was used to working with extruding and scaling shapes to fit the form of what I wanted, but whenever it came to using the front port to balance and place all of the vector points in order to give the spoon the curve that it needed it was difficult for me to proceed on. So I decided to leave the main prep work to whenever I would be working on my actual spoon for the cutlery set. Here are some screen shots of me working on the spoon:

Manikin Building

Today we had a speed drawing assignment. This test involved the class drawing from a random object and from which ever perspective they were sitting in we had to draw in certain amounts of time. I liked this session because it helped with my speed in making drawings and loosen up which could come handy in rough work sketching.

In our second class we began working on our anthropometric manikin drawings on 3D Max. We were meant to section and separate each individual part of the body, move the pivot points to each of the main moving point of the body, scale and then attach the body together to form as one. I found it difficult though to scale the body to my measurements since there wasn't an online tutorial to follow through for extra help. So I compromised with what I knew and was able to do and rotated and connected to form as one body. Here are some screen shots of the manikin:

Working with Scale

Today our class was preparing for an anthropometrics manikin. So we were split up into groups to help measure each other, and to help me create a life-size model of myself on 3D Max. I really enjoyed this exercise because it was fun, I loved the social interaction and I was looking forward to the tutorial that followed for making it since it was something different.

After in our second class we then started to work on our second water bottle. I found the tutorial easy to follow along to since we already had a first attempt at making the shape only the different was we used a different method of using polygons of making the form of the bottle and there was no screw cap detail, but we still had to scale and extrude the top of the bottle. Here is a final rendering of my second bottle:

I'm not too pleased with the final outcome of this bottle because I think the shape could have been sculpted better with using the scale and the size of each sections of the bottle looks slightly off. After many attempts to try and render the shape and the top of the bottle this was made to the best of what I could do.

Exploring further into 3D MAX

Today we were introduced to working with polygons and splines slightly further to manipulate then to making a flat line object into a 3D shape with hollow centres. We first started off by working with simple shapes such as cubes and changing the dynamics with using modifiers such as turbo smooth or shell to help define the shape more which included using edge, ring, connect and scale for adjusting. And by using the techniques from the building tutorial I was able to create a hollow centre in one of the cubes which came in helpful for the next tutorials. Here is a rendered image of the first process of shapes:

Next we started working on creating a wine glass, this technique I enjoyed doing because using the modifiers, we were able to form a flat line layer into 3D shape. Apart from the amount of time it took by measuring out the shape of the wine glass itself, it took quite a bit of time to add the extra detail which was the curves by using the vectors, beziers and corner settings. To finish it off, we then added a lathe modifier to circulate the line drawing into 3D. Here are some screen shots and a final rendering of my wine glass:

Finally we then started to work on our first 3D water bottle. Working on this bottle was slightly more difficult t work on compared to the other tutorials. Working through building the shape was easy enough to follow by using a lot of extruding, scaling and layers, but whenever it came to constructing the screw cap detail, that's whenever it started to get tricky. I had to create this screw cap detail separately, and then attach it to the bottle. But attaching the helix, scaling and moving the vectors it took a lot of time to make sure it was precise. But overall I am very pleased with the outcome with the first bottle. Here is a rendering of the bottle:

Better Understanding

Today we had to produce power point presentations to help introduce ideas to anyone who was struggling with understanding the project, and to identify the qualities, features and design we needed for creating our individual cutlery set. These presentations helped inspire me and motivate me so try out unique and different designs for my animal based cutlery.


 In our second class we were given the task of creating the shape of a building. Usually I would be nervous about working on 3D Max during a tutorial because each 3D shape consists of new measurement, techniques and layers which is slightly intimidating. But being able to create a mobile phone on my laptop without a teachers helped me have a bit more confidence. The only issue with this shape was making sure the measurements were correct and I couldn't figure out how to attach a roof on the top but apart from that extruding the top layer and then adding the windows and doors helped bring the house to life. These are some screen prints and my final rendering of my building:

Starting out on 3DS MAX

For our first official tutorial on 3D Max, we were asked to create a mobile phone. I was a bit sceptical at first for the fact that I knew that 3D Max was a very technical and difficult software to use, so I assume the worst of not being able to adjust to following the tutorial properly. But when we started to proceed into the tutorial, I managed to keep up and understood what I needed to do. Unfortunately I was using the original class room computers for this first tutorial so during the process of creating the 3D phone the software crashed and it was too far along into the class that I just took notes and decided to finish it at home, which I did by installing 3DS Max 2014 onto my laptop. I was able to successfully create a mobile phone on my own laptop. There are some screen shots and my final rendering of the mobile phone:

Creative thinking and Development

We begun our first class by being split up into groups into the category that we were wanting to focus our cutlery project on. There were different types of idea strategies to help us develop our ideas for what we wanted to do. So we decided to use the fish tail technique because as a group we thought that any other technique was either slightly difficult or too ordinary. So this helped us combine our ideas, brought us new ideas such as tips, qualities, features, colours, sizes and solutions to the problem of meal times with children. This is a example of what we came up with:

I also decided to research and the measurements for what is required for making cutlery.
Spoons: Dessert 18cm
 Teaspoon 14cm
 Knives: Butter knife 16cm
 Forks: Regular Fork 18cm
 This will help me with the measurements I need for creating the cutlery later on in the project.

Introduction to Cutlery Module

Today, we were given a project to chose and design from a range of different types of cutlery. Our options were between technological and sophisticated cutlery, new cutlery for Heston's Blumenthal’s 'Fat Duck' restaurant, children's cutlery, cutlery for the aging population or transport cutlery for on the go. I decided to go for the children's cutlery because I thought that working with that type of style would be more beneficial to me for designing and working with on 3D Max. So to start off my research, I looked up some images to help motivate me and inspire me for my project.

This is the Mood board that I designed and the images for what I thought would help me with ideas.

The images that I have selected, I believed that they were very unique and creative ideas. It shows a variety of how children can use, enjoy and have fun with these sets of cutlery. It even has styles for uni-sex, boys or girls and the variety is endless. But these are just suggestions from what I am wanting to design. What caught my eye was for how the cutlery can look similar to human or animal figures, able mix and match instead of being bored with the same plain set. The sets can also represent as useful tools such as screw drivers, machinery or garden accessories which can help motivate children to work with these items for real. This is the theme board that I designed and the images that I chose to help inspire me for my animal themed cutlery.

The images that I have selected are the ones that I thought were stronger in the sense of helping me develop my designs for my project. I decided to go for an animal theme because I thought it seemed more creative, exciting and fun for kids, since most of the population of children love animals. The different materials used such as silver, wood or plastic help children become more aware of the different forms and species of animals which brings a learning curve into it. These funky designs can provide children a more efficient way of eating by teaching them to have more enjoyment and pleasure with meal times from using cutlery which encourage them and doesn't distract them.