Model Making

Finally I have begun model  making, this is one of my favourite parts of the course and now I have everything designed I can get really stuck in to what I enjoy.

I have mentioned in previous posts that I am creating a 1:25 white card model of the whole exhibition and selecting four, 4x4m areas and creating them in colour to get across the textures and feel for them areas.

I used sketchup to print out all my plans at 1:25 and I am going to build my model up from that. It was scary seeing how big the plans where and I had a "slight" panic, but after some encouraging talks from tutors and coursemates I feel like I can do this!

I am working on the Liverpool area at the moment and I am very excited to be making a shop with the family name on. My Nan is going to love it!

A brick making technique that didn't work as well. I'm trying to create an antique brick effect and this technique of using milliput smoothed on didn't work at all.

I found putting lines of milliput on one at a time and working in to them gave a much better look and although time consuming gave the effect I was after.

I'm hoping once I start to paint the bricks they will look a lot better.

Reflection

I have been trying to work on my reflection area of the exhibition for a while now. This area of the exhibition has become really important, it will give an end to it and allow the visitors to really reflect on what they have been through.

I was originally going to have a room filled with photo frames, some with digital screens inside. The visitors would get their photograph taken at the beginning of the experience and at the end their faces would appear in the photo frame wall of visitors. This was to try and get across how many people survived and how many people didn't  make it on the long journeys.

After working it out though, the exhibition is designed to have 10 visitors in each group, staggered by 15 minute tours. That equals 40 visitors an hour and at least 320 a day. Meaning I would have to have a lot of photo frames around.

I really like the idea of including the photos of visitors and after a lot of thinking and mulling over I have came up with my final design. The final room is to be filled with hundreds of thin rope hanging from the ceiling to the floor. The majority of them will be blue, with the occasional red rope mixed through. Visitors will have their photograph taken on a polaroid at the beginning of the experience and asked to keep that in their bag of belongings when they arrive. When they reach the reflection area, they will be asked to take their picture and write a sentence that sums up their experience on the back. They would then pin it to a blue rope if they where an emigrant who survived and a red rope if they where an emigrant who didn't survive.

I want this to be something that the visitors can use to really reflect upon their visit, the ropes will be hanging so the visitors can move through them, touch them and look at the faces and sentances of the other visitors.

I created how I want it to look in sketchup and I'm really happy with the outcome.

Its the final countdown. Du du du du

There is 2 weeks left. I have so much to do and I am fingers crossed going to get it all done. I'm hoping to complete a 1:25 white card model of my whole exhibition... With four 4m x 4m areas in colour. I am determined to get this done and hopefully my huge list will help.

Two down, about 900 to go!

I'm on a boat!

It's finally getting there, after a long night of getting it to work and hours of making rope nets, it's finally getting there. HAPPY.

Getting Closer!

It's getting so close to hand in now and its really starting to hit home that *fingers crossed* I'm going to have a degree soon. With all the talks about the degree show and peoples plans for after Uni it's getting very scary.

I have been focusing on my sketchup model this week, I want as much of it complete by Monday so I can get on with model making. Once the model making begins the late nights and kick drinking will begin.

My sketchup model is really coming together now. I still need to work more on the textures, as I am not fully happy with them yet, but zone 2 is really starting to feel like a ship now. Here are some images of Zone 2, they are without the textures at the moment

The white zig zag area above is a new section to the exhibition I have added. It gives the visitors the opportunity to see how bad conditions where to begin with before any regulations where put in place. The sleeping area was originally 4-5ft, as this would be quite claustrophobic I have made it an optional section to the exhibition letting visitors choose themselves whether to go inside.

My newly designed bunk beds, the original set I designed where far too small and after making a white card model version of them I realised that it wouldnt work. The bunk beds also faced the other way and from more research I found ships avoided having bunk beds facing side ways, as this made sea sickness even worst.

 

This is the beginning of the eating area. None of the textures are in place at the moment and there is more items to be added. Chains where added to the tables and the beams to avoid tables constantly flipping when the ship got rocky. I am really happy as it is all starting to come together now. 

 

4 WEEKS TO GO!

ARGH! There is four weeks left until hand in. Panic and stress is something that is definitely present both at home and Uni. I am feeling positive with the vast amount of work I've given myself and I know in the end I will do it, its just really scary thinking I am in the last month of my degree... I'm going to have to be a grown up soon and enter the big bad world of employment. I'm so excited though and I have FINALLY come up with a design I like for Zone 3. I'm having a bit of trouble getting my ideas down on paper, but I'm determined to be ready to start making by Tuesday.

I've been making some little white card models for Zone 2 in Uni recently. They are basic, but it's something I like to do when I cant seem to get something drew out on paper, they help me see the areas better.

I have also been working on the shoes I was talking about too. This is something I dont want to focus too much time on, but I do want to develop a lot more.

VERY EARLY STAGES.

Update

I had a really positive tutorial today and feel confident enough to just go for it now with certain ideas. I was getting worried about whether there was certain things I could do, but I'm just going to do it now.

Working on a rough white card model at the moment of the top deck area.

Tomorrow I'll be attempting sea sickness shoes... I will explain more in a later post, but I am really excited about my project and I'm really going to push myself to do well now.

I also got a first for my last project, which is something I never thought I'd do, this has given me a bit more confidence and I'm really going to try and get stuck in to this project now.

THERE IS 5 WEEKS LEFT!

Sketchup update...

I have been working on filling the storage area and adding the bits of detail to Liverpool that will make it seem more realistic. I described it as looking more normal today, only to be told "if it looks normal it must look bad. So hopefully it is looking a little bit more 'realistic' now. Definitly not more normal.

Update

As I'm still at the museum, I am not doing as much work as I could be, I have been working a lot more on my sketchup work. Here is a few more pictures...

I'm back in Liverpool...

Very busy week, with visiting and working it has been a very stressful week. I had my first day in the museum which went really well! But I will blog about that when I am finished.

I am slowly getting there with putting my design into Sketchup.

As you can see I am very far away from being finished :( But I am slowly getting there, here is a close up of some of the areas getting closer to completion. A lot more development is needed still.

WORKWORKWORK

As you can see from the title its all work work work in the house at the moment. Everyone is really getting into our final projects and I am really enjoying getting stuck in!

At the moment I am focusing on Zone 1 of my exhibition. This area is the Liverpool section. This is the first place the visitor will see and I want it to feel as real as possible. Luckily with the amazing plans I received from the Liverpool Maritime Museum I have a lot of space to play around with. I can add walls and create any space I want. So I am just trying to sort through the different zones etc at the moment. Zone 1 will hopefully include;

1. A Liverpool street, filled with traders, emigrants and runners. (Runners were young men and boys who would trick emigrants into letting them carry their bags, then steal them and sell them back to them later for a price! Horrible!)

 

This is Bold St in the early 1900s. I love looking at old pictures and comparing with how the area looks today.

2. An emigrant lodging house. Some of them where horrible places. Before emigrants could board the ship, they would have to stay in Liverpool for around 10 days living in the lodging houses. This is another place the runners took advantage of, tricking emigrants into thinking the houses where lovely, when in fact most of the time they where horribly overcrowded and dirty, only realising once they had paid.

 3. The Dock, obviously I wont be able to recreate the whole dock within the exhibition, but the getting on board and chaos is something I really hope to get across. 

Below is a very early photo of Georges Dock in Liverpool. I love this photograph.

 I should really get back to it, I have a lot to do.