Character, Place and Simulation
My archival object is a 3D motion graphics animation designed as a "Reflective Archive" of my learning journey throughout this course. It visually connects my weekly exercises and studio work, aiming to demonstrate growing cohesion and situate my practice within a wider field.
The inspiration for creating this archival object came from the desire to enjoy and have fun creating animations without taking them too seriously, creating a playful feel. It also included the ambition to retain a contemporary feel so I would say it's a combination of personal characteristics and professional tendencies.
I chose 3D animation as the medium to dynamically visualize my evolving practice and create engaging metaphors for each week's core learning. The narrative features eight distinct cubes, each symbolizing a weekly topic. These cubes transform in ways that visually echo the theme or process of that specific week before resolving into "posters" representing my outputs. These posters are then collected into a 3D folder, a direct metaphor for the archival process, providing a clear narrative thread through my coursework.
Key production decisions included crafting a purely visual animation, with detailed higher-order reflections, such as those in this document, presented separately. This approach allows the animation to be an immersive visual experience, while the nuanced analysis and critical reflection are articulated more comprehensively in writing. Practical adjustments to the animation's scope, such as omitting an initially planned final sequence involving a computer screen, were also made to ensure the timely completion of a polished core concept focusing on transformation and collection.
Software used: - Cinema 4D - After Effect - Premiere Pro - Octane Render
Year: 2025
Week 1 - Observation
In response to the week’s theme of observation, I created a CGI composition that added some fake objects inside the Melbourne Public Library’s La Trobe Reading Room. Using 3D modeling and camera tracking, I integrated three monkey heads into the scene to introduce an element of surrealism.
Week 2 - Tinkering
In response to the week’s theme of Tinkering, I created a 3D experiment that applies UV mapping and displacement techniques to a sphere, using Blender, AI-generated textures, and Photoshop.
Week 3 - Found Object
In response to the theme of Found Object, I created a 3D animated concept of a reimagined trash can using Photoshop, AI-generated imagery, and Blender. My goal was to explore how trash cans could be designed as more interactive, animated objects that metaphorically "consume" waste, incorporating elements like vacuum-like arms and a beak-like mouth inspired by Vietnamese penguin trash cans.
Week 4 - Discussion of Place
In response to the theme of discission of place, I created an interactive experience using Spline to explore cultural differences in crossing the street between Melbourne and Vietnam. Rather than focusing on place as a passive backdrop, I aimed to highlight how urban environments shape behavior and personal experiences. The interactive project recreates the feeling of crossing the street in Vietnam, contrasting the structured pedestrian rules in Melbourne with the more fluid and adaptive crossing culture in Vietnam.
By designing an interaction where players navigate a crosswalk and later transform into a zebra leading others, I demonstrated how street-crossing behaviors reflect cultural norms and individual experiences.
Week 5 - Object-Oriented Ontology
In response to the week’s theme of Object-Oriented Ontology, I created a short animation featuring three chairs of varying sizes and designs being pushed against a same desk, using 3D animation to explore how their physical forms determine their spatial interactions. The smallest chair fits smoothly beneath the desk, while the other two fail to do so: one is stopped abruptly by a drawer, the other by its high armrest which results in humorous yet telling collisions.
By animating these object-to-object encounters, I examined how materials negotiate space, resist, yield, and leave traces, all without reference to human use.
Week 7 - Time as Material
In response to the weekly theme of Time, I used 3D animation tools to simulate a looping event where a glowing sphere repeatedly falls onto and disturbs a flexible fabric surface, utilizing simple geometric forms, procedural motion, and visual contrast.
By showing the sphere repeatedly impacting the surface, causing vibrations without lasting rupture, and instantly resetting the cycle, I explored the concepts of cyclical or algorithmic time, the transient impact of events, and the potential for endless recurrence within a defined system.
Week 8 - Character, Place and Events
In response to the week’s theme of Character, Place and Event, I produced a short 3D animation approaching Anthropomorphic Concept, using Cinema4D to visualizes a chair’s “memory” through heat distortion and surface change, showing how physical impressions from repeated use shape its character over time.
By animating the chair’s surface slowly deforming, rather than assigning the chair simplistic human traits, I used material transformation: a softening seat, color shift, and subtle trembling to reflect the after-effect of prolonged contact with a human body. This turns the chair into a character shaped by events: by heat, weight, and the invisible residue of daily encounters.
Archival Object
