Retro Device

I had a lot of ideas for this project. My first idea was to create a smartwatch in the Art Deco era. However, as I was doing research, sketches and mood board, I realised that this would not be possible to realise this idea in this period of time. So, I have decided that I will create a gym stair climber. To create the base that will move, I was inspired by the treadmill in the Art Deco era, as it was made by a small piece of wood on the role that was moving while someone was running. I was also inspired by the art deco architecture, a lot of geometry, symmetry, lines and gold for the design. The most significant piece on my 3d model was inspired by the mirrors from the Art deco era. I am pleased and proud of the design as I think it perfectly shows the art deco era. I wanted to exaggerate this era and create a wealthy model. When I had my plan for the design, I started to develop models in Maya.

In the beginning, everything was good, and as I had planned; however, the hard part started while modelling the treadmill that would make the triangles move. It was a challenging process for me as I was using Maya for the second time and did not know how to make the roll move. When I managed to animate the roll to move, I started to create triangles that I wanted to attach to the ncloth, which was my treadmill. I have spent hours doing this part and could not make them connect to make a movement for triangles. When I managed to attach the triangles, it was still in the same position as it was before, so I decided to create a new prism, then use numcurve, mash and then settle the distance between the prisms and their shape. This technique worked; I pasted that into my previous base of the 3d model. When I was happy with the results, I saved it and wanted to add some texture in Zbrush. It was my first time using a zbrush, and I loved how I could make my project look better, add texture, colour etc. I was experimenting with a program. However, something happened; probably, I clicked something, and I couldn’t save it. The same as in Maya, I could not upload it to Sketchfab with the animation, It only showed the model without the movement. That is why I filmed it and upload it to YouTube.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed doing this project even though in the end, I could not save it and make it as I wanted. I tried to save it in every format that was possible, and still was not working. I know I need to work on this program more to get more skills that I will be using in the next year. I am happy with the results; I think that my 3D model perfectly fits to the theme of the era that I have chosen, and using the idea of the actual treadmill that existed in this era to combine this into the gym stair climber made a success. I think that I should not use the ncloth for the treadmill, and that is why I had later issues with my model, and I should leave only the prisms that I have later created. I am not happy that I could not save my results from the ZBrush and Maya, but I think that this will be a lesson for a future.