Yvonne Yu: Project 1 Spaceship

Inspiration:

Yoshi's Crafted World ship inspiration

    The concept of my project is based on the ship from the video game Yoshi's Crafted World. I drew inspiration from the cardboard texture and the rough-around-the-edges look of the Yoshies ship. I aimed to evoke the homemade effect by modeling objects such as pencils, plastic utensils, and a straw in my ship's design. Instead of creating a boat-like ship, I wanted to create a submarine inspired ship. I also chose to make the overall ship's design into the shape of a whale to produce a fun, toy-like quality.
 

Process:

    It took me a few tries to figure out what would be the best way to bring my idea to life. I initially attempted to use arcs and revolve them, but I had trouble joining the pieces together.

ghosted image

ghosted image with layers

     After many trials and errors, I found the ellipsoid tool to be the most efficient for creating the body of the ship. I used the InsertControlPoint command to add points I would then move and toggle to sculpt the ship into a whale shape. With another ellipsoid, I toggled the points to create a plastic knife shape. I used the Mirror command to reflect the shape and then joined them to form the tail. Using the cylinder tool, I created two tubes for the straw that would represent a periscope. I connected the two straw cylinders by creating alternating-sized circles, which I connected with the Loft command. I made a stubbier cylinder for the bottle cap door on top of the ship. Once I joined the loose parts with the main body, I created a long rectangle and used the PlanarSrf command to turn the rectangle into a surface. I duplicated the rectangle twice, formed a half hexagon shape, and then mirrored the shape to create the pencil body. Following the same steps with triangles, I created the tip of the pencil and used the Join command to join the surfaces together. I duplicated the pencil and attached them to the sides of the ship, acting as the arms of the ship's fins/wings. I used a paraboloid and another rectangle to create a broken spoon that would represent paddles at the ends of the fins/wings. I created another rectangle and toggled the points to look like pieces of tape holding the spoon and pencil together. Finally, I used spheres to add planets to the background of the composition.

Materials:

Keyshot image 1: front view

 

Keyshot image 2: birds eye view

Keyshot image 3: pedestrian view

    I played with various plastics for the spoons, knives, the straw, and the bottle cap. For the spoons and knives, I chose soft shiny grey plastic instead of a white plastic because I felt the highlights and shadows were more visible. I used soft shiny green plastic for the straw to add a bit more color to the ship while maintaining a smooth finish. I adjusted the transparency of the green plastic to make the straw look thinner and slightly more realistic. The bottle cap has a hard rough plastic red material to give a slightly matte effect like that of a water bottle cap. I adjusted the brightness of the red plastic to make the cap more reflective. I left the pencils as they were, since I felt the default layer color/material best fit the number two pencil look I was aiming for. To create more of an art-and-crafts feel, I gave the tape and the ship body a cloth weave beige material to contrast the shiny plastics. I imported a scan of crumpled paper and used it as a texture for the ship's body to create a rough paper mache effect. For the planets, I wanted to convey an underwater, space/sky look instead of deep outer space. I gave the planets a lens-coated material to create a bubble-like or water droplet effect. I added a bump texture to the planets and turned the roughness down to keep the reflective nature of the material, but kept enough to create a slightly rugged texture.

    I decided to use product lighting and I made minor adjustments to contrast and brightness to bring out the reflective highlights of the plastics. I chose a light blue background to make the ship look like it is floating in the sky and I felt that using a color background instead of an environment makes the ship pop out and brings out the warmer, neutral colors.