Transdisciplinary brief Assessment

So for this assessment I haven't done a single blog post, this is largely because when I've been at school we've had exercises to work on, and then back at my apartment I don't have internet. But I have been doing some research and work on the assessment so I'll try to post as much of my process as I can.

First of all I considered a few possibilities for what discipline I could use. I considered Engineer, Teacher, Programmer, Electrician, and Acrobat. From those options I narrowed it down to either Engineer or Teacher.

Then I started to think about how I could translate some of their process into animation. I made a little chart to help out with that.

Dane said that presently the teaching idea was more interesting because the Engineer's process was very similar to the typical design process, but if I looked into engineering more it could have some interesting possibilities as well. He also said that I should refine the idea down from just 'engineer' to one of the sub-categories of engineering. I decided that it would be most interesting to look inti mechanical engineering.

I looked at what processes mechanical engineers use to design something and found the 'Engineering design process' which is the commonly accepted process by which engineers work.

The process goes like this:

Research

Conceptualization

Feasibility assessment

Establishing design requirements

Preliminary design

Detailed design

Production planning

Tool design

Those final two steps only apply to mass production, and since I won't be mass producing my animation I don't think I'll focus on that at all.

The rest of the process however should work for me, though parts of it have more to do with writing the actual brief than making the animation. So I decided that I would need more to go on than just the engineering design process.

Next I looked at how engineers tend to work. Traditionally engineers work in a very physical and tactile way. They build prototypes and models and they can see and feel whether or not it will work. They also have a very iterative process. They build a prototype, and adjust and change pieces, solving problems as they encounter them. Presently they also work a lot with computers for designing and previsualising concepts. This is called computer aided design, and largely focuses on 'solid modeling.' Solid modeling is different to normal 3D modeling as it focuses on realistic physical objects in a virtual space that can be simulated.

Mechanical engineers need to have a solid understanding of mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics, material science, structure, and electricity. For the type of work I want to create I think it would make sense to focus on mechanics and kinematics.

Engineering also requires precision. Using measurements of scale weight and force.

Based on all of this information I came up with the idea to create my animation physically using stop motion. I would build an iterative animation by animating individual elements that each had their own 'physical properties,'

For instance I may animate using some blue clay that had water-like properties, or with an object that could switch gavity. The properties of the objects would not have to match real world properties, they would just have to remain consistent throughout the iterations of animation.

I would then start to build the iterations of animation using theses elements with a Rube Goldberg style creation. Each element would react with the others to create something bigger.

I could use a computer to plan out some of these interactions but I want as much of the animation to take place in camera as possible.

I think that this idea works well as a way to encapsulate the ideas of Mechanical engineering. The process has the physicality and haptic feedback that engineers tend to work with, as well as making use of iterative design. The animation will require an understanding of physics and careful consideration of the forces in play. There is room for computer aided design and I will also have the opportunity to consider precision with the measurements of movement.

I think that to keep the animation from becoming too ridiculously complex I should aim to create 10-15 unique elements that will interact, and create 20-25 iterations of animation before creating the final piece.

And here is the brief.

There were a couple of previous versions but I saved over them so I don't really have them to show. But whatevs I guess.

So that's about it. Catcha next term