Explorations was a project meant to be very open, and self driven. There were only a few requirements, we were supposed to choose a new tool, or program and make a project out of it. I chose to use the 3D effects tool on Illustrator which I had never used before. My project was to create a movie poster about a Star Wars book that I read. I decided to do it about the Star Wars book because it gave me the ability to practice the 21st century skill of creativity. I had to be creative with this project because I am basing my designs off of a book, and while there was a lot of visual description about the characters and the places, and fan made artwork. I had to use my imagination on a lot of the designs to illustrate what I pictured in my mind when I was reading the book.

I chose to use the 3D tool on Illustrator to make a project because I have really love Illustrator. I love Illustrator because it gives you the ability to create cool designs and drawings, just like drawing on a piece of paper accept I can’t draw at all. However, I can use Illustrator. I chose to make my project about a Star Wars book because I am a huge Star Wars nerd and I have loved Star Wars all of my life, but I also didn’t want to be tempted to take ideas from existing movie posters. I though a Star Wars book was a good compromise between the two. I also chose to make a poster about Star Wars that I didn’t have to design a face, because I have tried before and I haven’t quite mastered the ability to make a realistic looking face on Illustrator. I also new that my help would be limited on this project because it has been during shelter in place. So part of the reason I picked this book was because Darth Revan, the main character of the book, wears a mask.

Process

Throughout this project I designed many illustrations on Illustrator, and once I finished designing them I applied a 3D effect to them.

After a lot of trial and error, I figured out how to make objects look 3D and not completely weird. I found the key was to subtly change the perspective or the orientation of the object. I found to make a realistic looking 3D design I couldn’t go beyond 15 degrees in any one direction.

I also found that making an object with detailing on it 3D, can make it look really weird.(Show picture) This is because the 3D tool basically extended the 2D object at a certain angle to make it look like there are 3 Dimensions to it. The same way you would draw a cube on paper. (Show picture) So when the shape becomes 3D you can see the extended part that makes it look 3D, but the detailing is also extended and sometimes doesn’t look right, sometimes it looks like it is popping out of the image too much like this photo.  

One of the strangest effects I got was when I was applying a 3D effect to the sith temple which looks like this.

However, when I applied an effect I got a weird elongated circular effect that looks like this.

Final Product

My final product was a movie poster about a Star Wars book that I read. The book was titled Revan after the main character in the story. I designed a Luminous Jedi temple on the left, and a Dark Sith temple on the left. Then I put my design of Revan in the middle to show how he is torn between the light and the dark.

Infographic

During this project we also made an infographic meant to help teach people about the skill we were learning. In my infographic I chose to teach my audience to not make the same mistakes that I did with the 3D effect tool.

Explorations Video

After we finished all of the work for this unit we made a celebration video, to celebrate being done with the project and the school year. The celebration video is meant to have use teach the rest of the class what we learned over the project.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KuVvnEiiliQTDp9X12-cpyKHqm5PYYNT/view?usp=sharing