More blocking out and new idea!

I've been doing some more blockinjg out and I am slowly but surely getting to grips with sketchup. Here is what I have so far

Whilst I was blocking in the vending machine section I realised that this would allow too much background to be seen so I came up with an idea.....Love hotel. In this area of Tokyo love hotels are really popular. Some of them are very obvious but most of them are fairly understated so I think I will have the love hotel ontop of the area I have allocated for the vending machines. I will have the entrance to the hotel next to the machines.
Here are some reference images that I have for the hotel.

The design of this building is fairly straightforward, but extremely typical of a love hotel. This is good because alot of this building will be modular and thus quicker to build.

Blocking out

I started to block my scene out in google Sketchup today, and here is what I have so far.

I am currently trying to get to grips with the sketchup software as I haven't used it properly before, but it does feel pretty intuitive. I think I would rather be creating the block out in 3ds max , but this is only because I feel much more comfortable in that software. I'm sure this feeling will go away, the more I used sketchup.
Before I go any further I need to look into demensions of the building that I am creating. This is important to do now as this blockout will be used as reference when I model the real thing.

Shop ideas

Here are some pictures that I will be using for reference for the shops etc in this scene.

After looking around on google street view I think that I may have actually found the location that is described in the book. Murakami has used artistic license in the scene, which is fine and allows me to be more creative as opposed to just modelling what I see.

I will label the images according to their labels on the floor plan.

Koma theatre
Arcade

Shop


Noodle shop


Food bar / club




Bar auge

(not sure yet)

I'm thinking of doing bar auge as a host / hostess bar.

Updated layout

Hello all,
This is just a quick one to show you my updated floor plan of the scene.
Ive included doors and pillars etc.
I think that I may have some of the designs for the shops etc almost finalised, but I haven't started any concept sketches for them yet. That will be in a couple of weeks when I have alloted 2 weeks for concept sketches.
I may do a couple of sketches for shops and things before this time, so that I can use those 2 weeks to focus mainly on Creating Frank's image.

Layout plan

Here is a quick plan of the are that I will be modeling.
Its not much but it gives me a good idea of where things will go.


I've not figured out dimensions yet but this is something for me to do tomorrow.

Officially started

I have now started my 3rd year project.

This year I will be doing two things, a 3d scene with trailer and a 6000 word dissertation.

for my 3d scene I will be re creating a scene from the Ryu Murakami novel "in the miso soup".
The scene will be set in a back alley of Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The scene will be set in the rain and it will have one of the main characters from the book, Frank, standing outside of an arcade. The reason for this is that in the book this scene is the first point where the main character, Kenji, starts to have doubts about whether Frank could be a killer or not. Frank is a white and stocky overweight American who is wearing a suit and has unusual skin, like he has synthetic skin or severe scars. I think that this scene will be good to capture the sense of unease that is prominent throughout the book. I decided that if it was set in the rain the lights from the arcade would be more dramatic and this would give better results for the scene. My idea for the trailer is to start behind Frank with quotes from the book appearing and disappearing, voicing kenji’s concern. I may have audio clips of a voice saying the quotes as well but I am not sure of this yet. The camera will zoom into frank from behind with a dramatic silhouette and it will then come around in from of Frank to show a murderous glare on his face. This is a reference from the book because Frank gets a deadly glare on his face and looks like he’s ready to murder. This is one of the main things that makes Kenji think that he is a Killer. The book is filled with tension and uncertainty and these are the emotions that I am hoping to re create in my scene.

For my dissertation I will be continuing my research from last year on "why people create bonds with fictional characters." This title may change depending on what research I can do. I may include why people create bonds with fictional environments as well but I'm not sure yet.

For my research I have got into contact with a guy in Japan called Patrick Galbraith ( of otaku2.com) and he spends his days dressed as Goku from Dragonball Z, and shows people around the popular "geek district" in Japan called Akihabara.

He has agreed to do an interview with me and hopefully this will give some good results. I am glad he has agreed to this becuase I would like to know more about him and why he does it.

This year should be fun and I hope you enjoy reading what I will be doing.

3rd year

Hey guys, I've left it waaaaaaaaay too long since I last posted on here.
I'm looking forward to starting the third year and I can't wait to get tucked in to the work.
I decided that I might as well make a generic asset that I know I will use so I am making a vending machine.
The reason for this is because I am making a scene from Kabukicho in Tokyo, Japan and they are VERY common there.

Here is what I have so far.



I want to start messing with high poly normals on lower poly models so I'm going to look into that. Hopefully we will be shown this in class when we go over mudbox.

at the moment I am on a rather high, 1,430 poly's but I haven't even started cleaning it up yet.
I don't think that this is that many considering that I am going for detail, but I'm sure that the comments on this thread will probably change my mind lol.

Speak to you soon.

Chico x