Responsive Secret7: Chvrches Production

After making a mock up of our collaborative concept in Maya, I really liked the idea of creating an album cover in 3D and then rendering it as a design. I had looked at so many 3D artists who excel in this field, and I felt really inspired to have a go at making something in this medium, myself. 

I started off by making a cube in Maya, and then added lots of edge loops and began to sculpt the polygon into the shapes from my designs. This took me SO long, because I could not get the 'waves' to be symmetrical, or look balanced. I wanted the design to look perfect, without any completely obvious mistakes, so I spent a long time perfecting this, and then smoothing it so that it had curves as opposed to sharp edges.

Once I had a polygon that I was happy with, I duplicated it a few times and then lined them up so that they looked more full and 3D. I then picked colours from my colour palette that I had chosen previously, and went from dark to light. 

For my lighting in render, I experimented with this a lot because it was hard to make the scene look realistic but also exaggerated slightly. I chose 'sun and sky', and then in Photoshop, I altered the saturation and the levels, to make the colour stronger and more vivid, like in those that I had researched into and loved.

I practiced a lot with different shapes and compositions that I had thought out in my head and put on paper. I tried lots of visions that I could relate with the the lyrics, and a few of them I quite liked. I have never really made anything that is both 3D and 'obscure', so it was hard for me to understand if what I was making was worth submitting. I began to doubt this whole concept, especially because I haven't seen anyone in real life do it before, but I am experimenting and trying something new and adventurous, so if anything I did learn and experience something new. I have also learnt that you can use Maya for things other than animation, you can use it for mock ups, illustrations and concept design! 

And this is the design that I have submitted. It was defintely exciting to submit something than many people wouldn't have thought of, but also worrying because I am not sure what the judges will make of it. I have seen so many minimalistic covers that have won Secret 7", so I know it could be a contestant, but I am still worried about whether or not they will think it is adventurous enough.

Also, like my Penguin brief, I wanted to print my designs out and 'bind' them to their relevant product. I actually own a 7" single vinyl, so I used this as my reference. However because my printer was running out of ink, this experiment didn't go as well as the Penguin one, and I much preferred the digital mock up. I am glad I tried this though, because it did feel good to hold my design with a vinyl inside of it!