All the projects that I worked on in term 1
Finally finished and printed my AutoCAD drawing.
I found that drawing out my gramophone head was easier on my computer at home than at university as my computer had a ‘Cone’ tool which is something that I couldn’t find on the AutoCAD at Uni. I could easily chose the diameter of my cone and the length, as well as rotate it easily to lie on its side.
Session 5, we were mainly left to out own devices as we now have to insert our own ‘Thrill of Love’ set design into the grand plan. I started work on the simple things today, like the box base and the tables as they are pretty basic shapes and therefore much easier to draw, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to draw out the Gramophone head that features so prominently in my design. I will be posing a Picture of the finished drawing soon.
Today we learnt about different paper sizes and how to scale the drawings to fit on the paper we wanted so that they would print correctly. Totie had already created the pages for us to use so that made out lives so much easier, and it will also help in the future as we can re use the same pages simply by making sure we have the box in the corner correct and up to date.
We then learnt how to group objects which will undoubtedly be useful if we are ever drawing objects with lots of individual lines and then we want to move the object al in one piece. Which funnily enough we then had to do. Totie had drawn up some people for us to use in our drawings to give an idea of scale. They were drawn using many individual lines so we then had to group the lines and transfer the drawing to out own work.
Nothing too complicated today, thank God!
Today we learnt how to construct a chair. I was unfortunately feeling under the weather and so was left to try and figure out how to make this on my own at home. I can honestly say I have never been more confused in my entire life. Although Totie’s step by step instructions were pretty clear AutoCAD was just not functioning how I wanted it to! After several hours of struggling I replied that I hadn’t turned on the Orthographic button! This instantly made life easier! And after another our of persistence I had created a beautiful chair. I then proceeded to lay out my chairs so that they would sit how I wanted them to in the Theatre.
Today we worked on out watery grand plan. We learnt how to add the dimensions to the walls that we drew last week. This was so much easier on AutoCad than on paper, by simply clicking the ‘Dimensions’ button and selecting each end of what we wanted measured, AutoCAD automatically worked out the length. Amazing!
The next thing to do was add the hanging bars of the Waverly building. We added another layer to our drawing. this enabled us to work on a different thing without fear of ruining what we had perviously drawn. This also means that if we don’t want to see the bars we can hide the layer with the lighting bars, this makes it easier for different designers to read the drawing without it becoming too cluttered. Drawing the bars wasn’t too much problem as there are 9 of them and they are all straight, however they aren’t all spaced the same distance apart so that meant that it took a little longer to draw them in than if they were all equally spaced out. However, Totie had previously drawn out a plan so this made it easy to follow her measurements.
We then moved on to drawing the section of the wavily building. By following the lines up from the plan we had already drawn this made it easy to get the measurements for the section. We then drew in the main entrance and the work shop door. This section view is to make it easier to see things from a side view.
Session 1:
Today I got taught the basics of AutoCad. I have already used a software similar before so the basics of AutoCad make sense to me but I can already tell its gonna be quite bit of work to complete this to a high standard.
Our first session mostly consisted of constructing the walls of the Waverly Building using the measurements we took last week.
Today I had my first Model Making session, directed by Totie Driver. We learnt basic model making techniques that would help prepare us for our model making task as part of this project. I learnt how to change the blade on my scalpel safely, how to convert measurements on a scale ruler, how to cut materials without damaging the important pieces as well as how to use masking tape to add effect to the model.
The featured photo above shows the window and wall I created using foam board and craft board, using masking tape to create the brick effect and then PVA as a sealant to strengthen the structure. The person in the window is a 1:25 scale person I made using craft board.
Extensive research was done into this project. I scoured the internet and library books for information on fashion in the 1950’s to make my costumes as historically accurate as possible.
When you start a design project based on a piece of written text, the best thing to do, of course, its to read the text thoroughly. I read the text through 3 times before I even began designing and then a further few times throughout the course of the project to check details and improve designs.
The first time I read the text I am just reading it to get and idea of the story and not making any solid decisions. However, whilst I’m doing that I take notes of the important things that stand out and draw myself a few quick sketches to help keep the information in my head. But the main point of this stage is to read the text and gain an understanding of it.
The second time I read it I write down the key moods and emotions at certain points and from that I construct lighting designs.
And the third time I fill in my Unitisation which encompasses set, costume, props and lighting requirements. This fully summarises my knowledge of the text and therefore helps me to structure my design.
After that I can begin to design and draw some of my ideas.
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