Major Project: Project Red Dawn Art Of and Disc Art

The Art Of Project Red Dawn by Anthony Duke

Major Project: IMF Brochure and Technical Document

IMF Project Red Dawn Brochure by Anthony Duke

Major Project Technical Document by Anthony Duke

Major Project: Rover and Drill Turnarounds

Here are the turnarounds for my rover and drill models before compositing the final graphics and overlays in After Effects.

                        


                        

And now here are the turnarounds with the finishing touches.


                         


                         

And finally here is the composition which will accompany the IMF industry brochure which I am still working on as of this moment.

                        

Major Project: Rover Rigging and Texturing

I decided to rig the drill arm on the IMASR rover so it would be functional, the rig is pretty simple, however I ran in to an issue where the axis on one of the joints was reversed causing the arm to rotate in the wrong direction.

Fortunately the fix wasn't too difficult, I manually oriented the joint axis to face the right direction. Because I created the joints in the side orthographic view, I had to connect the joint Z axis with the Drill Arm X axis in order for it to rotate correctly, its a slight error but still functions properly. 

When I originally designed this rover I imagined that the main body would be smooth and sleek so that it would look clean and 'Sci-i-esk' but when I applied the texture it look very plane and boring so I decided to add a bump map to imply a panelling effect on the main body.

Major Project:Rover and Drill Progress

I am just about finished with modelling now and am now working on getting the textures painted and ready on both my models. I had to revise the design for my drill arm as in an engineering sense, the arm was useless and unable to mover properly. In order to do this I looked at digger arms and how they are designed with helped a lot with refining the arm.

I also took some test Ambient Occlusion renders of both models which still need tweaking slightly to get the shadows looking crisp. 

Major Project: Rover Modelling Progress

Continuing to make good progress on my rover model, I started working on creating the retractable arm and the main drill section.

Major Project: Rover Progress

A slightly belated update on my project after a few issues, but work is steady going as I am currently working on the models for the Mars rover and mining drill. I ran into a few issues when designing the track system on which the rover operated due to my lack of engineering knowledge, but after a bit of research I was able to put together a 3D model of the system, and am making steady progress with the rest of the model.

Major Project: Main Drill Design

I have been spending some time thinking about some of the problems which the drilling machinery may encounter due to working on Mars. I have attempted to come up with a design for the conveyor system which will transport the mined ice to a processing facility.

Also I have been working on the design of the main drill which would be used to mine the ice, there are still a few issues which need to be addressed such as debris flying away as it is drilled which I think I will have to create a system which encompasses the maid drilling area.

Major Project: Drill Research and Inspiration

The second area of research for my project is that of mining methods and drilling technology, which I will
combine with my research of space exploration vehicles such as the Mars rovers in order to create my designs.

The three main pieces of technology which I want to focus on designing are:

-IMASR 1 (Interstellar Mining and Surveying Rover) Which discovers Glaciers beneath the surface of mars.
-The subsurface Mining drill used to excavate the mineral rich ice
-The Conveyor system used to transport the mined ice.

To do this I have been researching the different forms of underground mining and the equipment used in the process. The most common form of mining in the world is coal mining, which is the number one source of energy in the world. There are many different processes of mining coal, but the main methods I am interested in for my project are 'Continuous Mining' 'and Long Wall Mining'.

The technology I have been looking at for the design of IMASR 1 is that of surface drilling machines. These machines are often used for sample mining to survey an area and search for valuable minerals to mine. They can be manned or remote controlled depending on the design of the machine, which makes it perfect for study for the IMASR.

              


             


            

Continuing with the research in underground mining, I have been looking at the different equipment used to safely mine materials underground in the most efficient way, which brought me to this video which was very useful.

           

I am very interested in continuous mining as this would be the most effective technique when considering mining a material such as ice. There is no need to mine ice on earth, and so there are no direct methods of doing so, a continuous haulage system would ensure that the ice would be transported to a temperature controlled area before it has time to melt.

A slandered continuous haulage system consists of conveyor units which link together to form one long maneuverable conveyor belt which can follow the mining drill, which means there is no need to halt mining while the ice is transported to the temperature controlled area. This system fitted with a large scale water cooling system would be able to transport the mined ice, and keep it cool whilst doing so.


          

Major Project: Rover Research

I decided to begin researching the previous Mars rovers and found some interesting videos and documentaries. I also decided to try a couple of sketches of the rovers to begin to get a feel of the way they were designed.

This documentary follows the team that created and controlled the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars, from the creation of the rovers to the moment they discovered evidence that water may have once existed on Mars.

                 

This short video shows how the Mars Laboratory Rover, Curiosity, was created and it journey to Mars.

               

And here are two animations that show the Spirit and Curiosity rovers on their mission to Mars.


                              


            

And finally here are my sketches of Spirit/Opportunity and Curiosity.

Major Project: Project Prologue

Major Project Initial Ideas by Anthony Duke

Major Project: Initial Project Idea

Something which I have always found interesting, and somehow satisfying, are large industrial machines. The sheer scale of some machines used in industrial mining are colossal, but also incredibly intricate and complex. Another thing which I find incredibly interesting is space exploration and the mysteries of out solar system and universe. In 2013 NASA's Curiosity rover discovered definitive evidence that water once existed on Mars and possible evidence that there may still be liquid water deep within the planet.

For this project, I had an idea to design industrial mining equipment which has been created to mine deep into the surface of Mars in search of further evidence of water. These machines would be based upon modern technology which has been redesigned to withstand the atmosphere on the surface of Mars, with technological advances.

The project would consist of a series of concept designs of the machines, and from these designs I will select 2-3 which I will push into 3D development resulting in fully rendered models.

Minor Project Submission

Yggdrasil Final by Anthony Duke

Yggdrasil: An Origin Story

Minor Project: Post-Christmas Post

Hope everyone had a relaxing and Merry Christmas, but now its back to the normal regime. Whilst I was back at home I was able to get a few bits done on my laptop, to keep progression up, in between eating and sleeping that is.

I was able to complete the second major setting for my animation, Niflheim, the realm of Ice, as well as some work on a few smaller transitions.

I have decided that I am going to animate the background to the animation separately and then composite the final pieces together, this should give the effect that the narrative is being told like a story, with the different scenes of the animation transitioning within each other as I originally envisioned.