Narrative Visual Perspective in Digital Media

The Multi-Layered Art unit was a four part project, in which I designed a 2D illustration inspired by my Worldbuilding unit in English, and created a 3D wood art piece from the illustration. I used Illustrator to create the 2D piece to cut the wood using a laser cutter. I used After Effects to compose a video for the Time-Lapse of the physical construction, and a 3D digital assembly video.

Stacked Wood Art – “Close Your Eyes”

This project is inspired from my individual worldbuilding project.

I first created a couple rough sketches of my design. I wanted to push the boundaries of 3D visuals, so I decided to create a fisheye perspective of one of the scenes from my world building. I also wanted to have people physically jut out of the wood art, so it didn’t look too flat. Each layer was printed on a separate layer, many of the 3D pieces that were sticking out, such as the legs, bags, benches, etc. were combined on separate layers since they were not connected to the border. To have a more of an understanding of how each layer was incorporated, please refer to my 3D Assembly video below.

After laser cutting the wood, I sanded and painted each piece, then assembled it. The results and time-lapse of my assembly process is below.

Assembly Videos

Artist Statement

The inspiration for this project came directly from my English World Building Project called “Close Your Eyes.” It is a criticism on office life and how modern work culture had is outdated and is now devolving the human mind because it inhibits creativity and intellectual freedom. This is a more softer and intimate scene portraying the main character daydreaming in one of his many bland everyday routines.

As for the process, I enjoy modeling, so producing a 2D concept into a physical build was very fun, I tried to add even more 3D elements by doing a fish-eye perspective and using different angles on the stacked wood so it didn’t look too rigid. I value the digital assembly production because it was a great opportunity to test out all my new skills in After Effects regarding lighting, shadows, 3D objects, animation, and more. Since this project was a synthesis of 2D and 3D, physical and digital, being able to use these programs effectively makes me more confident in producing more process videos like this for other projects in the future.