Module 2.
Flatness vs. Projection
Brief
In module two, we were assigned two elevational screenshots from ‘Super Mario World’, and attempted to project the two-dimensional constructions into a three-dimensional space, using hand-sketching skills and newly learnt digital representational techniques. We began to identify the differences in subjective view and objective view and break the barriers of our subjective representation through the application axonometric projections.
Inspiration
Both of my assigned elevations contain vast empty space above the ground, so I decided to focus on the layers beneath the earth. In order to emphasize the depth and incompleteness of the landscape, I came up with an idea of creating a waterfall between the gaps of the landscape. I have been to the Great Niagara Fall when I was young. The magnificent scenery of the great waterfall deeply astonished me, and the experience was firmly inscribed into my memory. Thus, I made up my mind to represent that experience using the form of pixels and blocks, where ‘Mario Pixel-fall’ derives its name.
Outlining
The initial step involves hand-sketching on a tracing pad using pencil, fine liners, T square and set square. By aligning the two elevations to the landscape and marking the positions of the objects on the contour of the landscape, an axonometric draft of the world is projected. After scanning the hand-sketched draft to Adobe Illustrator, the outlines of the world were traced using vector-based digital graphing techniques.
Color palette & building blocks
Colour palettes of the world are extracted from the original elevations. Using manipulating techniques of different geometries, building blocks are established to construct the world.
Color Fill
Final step involves coloring of the landscape. Texture and depth were indicated through the manipulation of rendering and shading. I attempted to keep the color of the world consistent by adjusting the gradient of the surfaces, which perfectly represents the three dimensional verticality on a flat painting.
Feedback
Following the feedback from my tutor, I broke up some of the geometries to minimise the stillness created by the rectangular bricks. Furthermore, I pushed and pulled some of the geometries on the edge of the landscape, which increases the fluidity of the scenery.
Reflection
Le Corbusier defines pictorial space as a space that can only be viewed from the frontal direction. From this perspective, a flat painting of a three-dimensional space always bounds the contour of an object to its frontal view, and always shares part of its edge with its nearby objects. In this way, the representation of a three-dimensional space on a plain graph has one continuous profile line. In this module, I tried to practice the notion of pictorial space by utilising the newly learnt axonometric projection in my work. Axonometric projection extents the vanishing points to infinity, which breaks the barrier of subjectivities in perspective representation. Meanwhile, scaler relationships between the objects are maintained, which keeps the landscape measurable and rational. The final Mario World combines the two-dimensional details from the elevations and my own imagination of a ‘pixel waterfall’ in the mid-ground.