KIT207 - Self Study 1

Figure 1 - The $35,000 Christmas tree in Salamanca Square

This tree was installed in Salamanca Place as part of an effort by the Hobart City Council to give the city a new, trendy and modern look. Standing at 12m tall and cost $35,000 to construct, it attracted widespread criticism and ridicule from social media. Criticism focused on the price paid by taxpayers for an eyesore and the tendency to make unappealing sculptures and call them "modern art".

To model this, I created 10 cubes which I scaled into rectangular prisms, I then rotated and scaled the top face of each to create the spiral pattern. Modeling the star was simply a cube with poked faced and subdivided edges which I then extended out appropriately.

Figure 2 - 3D model of the tree

After making the tree, our next task was to import it and some other assets and create a small scene.

I started by trying to recreate the scene with some grass, path and tree assets

Figure 3 - early setting up of the scene

It was at this point I became enamoured by the hexagonal shape of the grass tiles and wanted to play more into that. So I created a tiny little level with tiles seperated by paths, like you might see in some whimsical sandbox or puzzle game.

Figure 4 - Silly little scene

Then I used an ai skybox generator to create a skybox to suit the scene:


Figure 4 - Skybox

I'm not entirely pleased with the style of the skybox, or how close everything looks, but changing it is out of my skillset. If I had more time I would like to make the scene appear more embedded in the world rather than seemingly floating on top of it and overlapping with sections of the skybox.