For the 3D Asset module, we have been tasked to create a 3D asset that is influenced from the themes we have chosen for the Environment Design module to be the centre piece for our environment. The themes which I have chosen are fantasy and beauty.
To ensure that my 3D asset fits into my environment, I wanted to create a music box that was made from shells. The initial idea for the centre piece was the asset is a magical music box that had sunken from the human realm. I used many reference images to form a moodboard so I was able to visualise what I wanted to create.
My initial idea was to create a music box with some form of incorporation of shells; so to begin with, I decided to experiment with the different types of shells such as the conch and clam shells. I liked the idea of creating a music box, but due to some complications for my environment, I decided to change the asset to something more suitable for the new environment – a swamp.
The beginning concept for my asset needed to correlate to the swamp environment, so I thought about designing a book. In order for the asset to fit my chosen themes, I decided to make the book a spell book. The asset will be designed for a witch to use with pages detailing the incantation that she has to declare.
Design, Exploration and Rationale
As I have decided on what my asset is going to be, I needed to create a design for it. My inspiriation started with the grimoire in the TV show ‘Merlin’. I gathered reference images of the grimoire and other images to enable me to accurately create the 3D model. Originally, I decided to create an asset (music box) that was beautiful to fit the beauty sub-theme; with this new asset idea, I decided to experiment with the sub-theme so rather than having something that represented beauty, I wanted an asset that had a different form of beauty in it.
The concept I have for this asset is that the grimoire has a page that contains an incantation for the witch to turn beautiful. To ensure that the asset links together with my environment, I wanted to include ‘ingredients’ from the environment that could be used to concoct the spell which would then be included on the open pages of the grimoire.
Using the references images I gathered, I sketched out a couple ideas for the design of the book. I began with the design of the spine and experimented with different bindings, although majority of them are designed for a hardback book. Next, I did some research on sigils and the connotations of which demon would fit the theme; as the sub-theme is beauty, I wanted to pick a demon that was associated with beauty in some form. This lead me to finding “The Lesser Key of Solomon”, which is a grimoire on demonology (Wikipedia, n.d.). The grimoire lists the names of “The Seventy-Two Demons” that includes Asmodeus – the demon that “represents lust” (Wikipedia, n.d.).
Upon researching Asmodeus, I also found Lilith who has been described as “sexually wanton” (Wikipedia, n.d.). Between the two, I looked for their sigils and decided which one I liked best and which of the two fit the beauty sub-theme. Ultimately, I decided to use the pentagram for the symbol on the front cover, but since I liked the idea of using the sigils, I intend of using them on the pages that will be displayed.
To ensure that the narrative of the grimoire was comprehensible, I intend on including a title for the open-page. To keep things simple, I decided that the title should be ‘beauty’ but experimented with the old english translations. The font that I used is “Old London” by Dieter Steffmann (2006). During the design process of the title, I thought that the font was a little too plain so I decided to add a little detail of vines and flowers over the capital letter.
As for the asset is an open-page book, I wanted the page to be easy to understand. I decided to stick with the initial idea of having something from the environment to act as an ingredient for the spell. The ingredient I decided was lotus flowers as they are symbolic of rebirth and beauty; the symbolism of rebirth gave me the idea of another ingredient which was a child, because I liked the concept of taking the youth from a child and giving it to the spellcaster to stay beautiful and young.
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