Stephen Jordan - Project 3: Relief Mapping

 Concept

    For our third project, I wanted to play with the inherent ideas presented by the Janus sculpture in the projection lab. Two faces or two people that share one brain, the nature of the brain as the control center of the body; constantly lighting up and firing on all cylinders. I went in thinking about the brain as the focal point of my display, relying on the faces as supporting players. 

Ultimately what I hope to get through is an element of turbulence to the display, a waxing and waning of harmony and disarray, eventually resolving itself in the brain and leaving the body.  

Techniques

    After importing the Janus model and its UV map,  I experimented with layers of materials and how they interacted with the shape of the sculpture, as well as how I could utilize the LED arrays to further support my imagery. 

I landed on materials that play as organic and psychedelic, which seemed fitting given the Brain as a conceptual cornerstone. Utilizing the Calico material as a base, I layered the Bioorganic Wall material over it and, using MadNoise on Multiply blending mode, cut through all of the layers to intermittently reveal the bare sculpture beneath, allowing the LED arrays to shine through at certain moments during the display. 

 

 I also use simpler materials at points during the display to emphasize storytelling aspects of the sculpture. SVG lines that outline the brain (traced in Illustrator using the Spatial Scan) change color and respond to the rest of the materials on display. To contrast the more pleasant and soft imagery, I used Mesh Warp on the Dunes material to create some funky zig zags. 

 A rainbow Plasma material unifies the faces and the brain at the beginning, later transcending the sculpture and painting the wall while I cue the Bioorganic Wall material to cycle its hue at the same moment. 

Interpretation 

I really enjoyed working with sculpture and thinking through the conceptual aspects of this display, especially the way the lights incorporated into the work, almost imitating a colorful lightning storm in the brain as if they were synapses firing. 

Technically, though, there are a lot of things I would like to work on, specifically cueing smoother transitions between scenes and tightening up my masking. I also think that my SVG linework was underutilized, as I didn't make use of the network of lines that make up the front faces of the brain.

Overall, I had a fun first experience mapping onto low-relief, but I think I could have activated the shape of the sculpture much more effectively and fine-tuned the flow of the animations.