ScentX

# 1 01-05-2006 , 06:28 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2005

Location: Sweden

Posts: 56

Let me start by explaining why I made this. About two weeks ago we had a project in school where the object was to within four days develop somekind of invention or enhancement of an already existing product. During the first three days we would have time to work on our product, but on the fourth day we had to have a ready presentation of our product complete with a prototype of any form.

My group decided to make a fan that could be both used as a regular ceiling fan but also as an effective way to spread scents into your room. Almost immiediately we decided that I would do the prototype in Maya. We discussed how it should look so I would have something to work from and then the work began.

All of the work on the model, including texturing, lightning and a tiny bit of animation, took 2,5 hours and rendering 40h. With this I precisely made deadline and all was well

I did make one major fault though. Since the entire model is made of nurbs I should have set the render tesselation before rendering, but stupid as I was I forgot to do so. This is extra clear at one point very close up on the fan, but the audience didn't mind so it worked out all well.

Now if you managed to read through all of this, first of all THANK YOU , now tell me what you think of it. Perhaps you would have liked to have one?

Video:
https://media.putfile.com/ScentX---Demo (2.5MB)

Quote

# 2 01-05-2006 , 06:50 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2005

Location: Boston, MA

Posts: 2,314

great fan, but dont fans go faster? lol, thats the only "crit" i have, lol

Environment Artist @ Plastic Piranha
www.joopson.com

Quote

# 3 01-05-2006 , 06:58 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2005

Location: Sweden

Posts: 56

Now that's the true beauty of it. The idea was that the fan's speed could be increased and decreased by the user via a remote controll. For the presentation I wanted the fan to be a bit slower so it wouldn't be like a helicopter about to cut your head off. user added image

But as you say if used in real life it probably would be set to a higher speed.

Quote

# 4 06-05-2006 , 03:16 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jul 2004

Posts: 1,060

40 hrs for the rendering?! Doesn't look that complicated of a scene.

Looks good though. The blades appear as if they aren't tilted, when they should be.

I'm not a geek. I'm a nerd.

msn - g1842@hotmail.com
I'm up for a chat anytime.

Quote

# 5 06-05-2006 , 03:45 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2006

Location: Canada, British Columbia, Victoria

Posts: 289

Well, I just watched the video, and I agree with Gohan, 40 Hours? I like the smooth camera motion though(maybe speed up the camera a tad) and I also like the whatever-it-is in the middle of the fan(5 holes, one shiny ball, what could it mean?) it makes you think

Quote

# 6 06-05-2006 , 05:58 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2005

Location: Sweden

Posts: 56

Thanks for the comments guys. The 40 hours probably is a result of me having one to many reflective surfaces in the scene in combination with using mental ray. A good lesson for the future.

Now first of all the camera is supposed to move slowly. As this video was supposed to be used at a presention I had to have enough time to rather quickly go over the various aspects of the fan. Also the first six seconds or so are the same 37 frames repeated five times. As I was prepared for a somewhat long render time (though not as long as 40h) I had to be economic.

2nd I suppose the blades should've been tilted a bit to really work as a real fan, I simply forgot to do that.

Finally the ball in the middle is the container holding the essence that is spread through the wings. It was designed to blend in with the rest and look a bit stylish at the same time. The five things around it are spotlights that can be aimed as you like.

Again thanks for the comments and if anyone has more to say please do.

Quote