A Journey of My Petty Persistence & Perseverance (+a TON of critical thinking)

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My quote of the day... "Through sheer will or through pure anger, I will figure this out."

    The problem was not with the project, I found it more really the lack of info I personally had on the program MeshMixer (and overall 3D object design). Yes, I forgot the lesson and yes I could've asked my professor how to do such and such, but I personally find that if I figure things out on my own I remember and learn way more competently (using the professor as a last resort when all is lost) because that's usually how I found my mind works best. And boy, was I on the verge. 

But first, let's get to the object I've chosen for the opus magnum that led to this series of unfortunate and very VERY annoying events (remind you that its self inflicted). The object and manifestation of freedom, Lady Liberty (in a giant mecha suit). 

The first question that comes to mind (one of many), how is Lady Liberty related to this project at all let alone Remix Culture? Sure its a mixture of two "objects" however, what is it's the purpose? 

My representation of the mixed object "Lady Liberty" combines the iconography of Liberty from the painting Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix with the armour suit of Iron man based on the Incredible Hulk's stature. Lady Liberty is the personification of freedom and liberty, while the suit is a creation of strength and absolute defence, designed to be equal if not more strength than that of the supersized radioactive Bruce Banner. Originally in the painting, Liberty is in rags taking arms with the people, having the whole painting being about freedom through any means, even death (aka very extreme patriotism). When placed in a giant suit built with absolute defence, the narrative changes to the relation of Liberty to the people to its ultimate strength over the oppressors. With remix culture, one seen throughout society now of days, this iconography becomes even more relatable as modern-day visuals (Iron man suit) can be viewed from the image, having its cultural significance influence the ideas that surround it. 

I decided to keep the background and scene as its iconography contrasts that of Liberty giving even more contrast and context to the situation. Furthermore, I added a copper/goldish texture to the scene making the entire object almost seem more monumental like statues of the commemoration of sorts. 

Choosing an Object

My group members, Kalem Paron & Melanie Reid recommended the object Lady Liberty, Cigarette rocket and Hand Goggles. I decided to use the Lady Liberty as the grand idea of it really enticed me compared to the others. The reason I avoided the other two was that they seemed a bit too easy in terms of workload and that didn't really sit right with me, like if I have a week to do something I kinda expect myself to do something that takes around 3 days or so.

Process

Now to the fun stuff, problems and challenges.

To begin, my plan was to recreate the form of Liberty from the 3d thumbnail from the last project, however, the original model of the Iron man suit in Tinkercad looked fine, its low-quality detail became more evident in MeshMixer. And with the higher capability of quality in MeshMixer, I thought of finding a better model of the suit.

Objects Used:

Links: Head, Body, People, Flag, Child Torso

The first problem begins with something very simple, removing the head. I personally forgot how to do so and spent a good 3 hours finding out how with a good 3/4 of those hours being procrastination. Numerous times I had to reduce suit just for my computers processing and then solidify the object. 

The photo below is a problem I somehow fixed by myself through clicking (specifically the sculpting tool). If looked closely at you can see a bunch of speckles, behold, a bunch of missing parts of the shell. By using the sculpting tool I sculpted over the missing portions then undo and somehow the missing portions came back. 

For a good about 5 hours I was questioning the merging mechanics of the program, I understood that the colours represent that it merged and that it was showing the different things afterwards but I still wanted to remove them. Eventually, I found out I was to hold space bar and from there change the view. 

The top view perspective was to create somewhat of a better composition, I remember seeing that a lot of comps had warped things in their final products, only showing visible stuff ie. this JJBA opening scene or the backdrops for MMORPGs. If I didn't the atmospheric depth would've been a bit weird I think.

There is a bunch more I would say but there's already a LOT of text I've written so I will end it here.

In conclusion, I will probably need to drink more coffee to be able to pay attention during class time to avoid this series of events from happening but overall learnt a lot about the workings of this program and can picture other ways I could manipulate its capabilities with more things other than the object I've created.