Brief

Unknown Territories// Terra Austalis Incoginita

*<Incognito> with ones’s identity concealed

//Content

The Great Unknown land of the South, Terra Australis Incognita, was the name given to a theoretical continent required by the classical Greek geographers, knowing that the Earth was spherical, to balance the landmass known to exist north of the equator. Our studio investigates lands to be mapped not by converntional cartography, but by digital exploration of lands in dimensions not yet established.

[Object] Join us in a radical exploraion of speculative futures where we will begin our journey by inspecting the scenes of the wild lands of Australia, their large scale environments, and extreme natural conditions:

  • Big rainforest, and its poisonous plants:Daintree,Tarkine
  • Big desert, home to a big rock: Uluru
  • Big natural forces such as bushfires and sandstorms and their unique orange glow
  • Big coral reefs, and their world’s most venomous creatures;Great Barrier Reef
  • Big landmarks, and the whimsical memories they create
  • Big cities, where the Matrix connects (Sydney)

Taking inspiration from the work of Jama Jurabaev, Seth Engstrom, Ralph McQauarrie, Weta Workshop, we will emphasise the creative process of digital environmet design. Moving beyond actual simultion as representation and towards lived in experience in their own right, we will focus on building, generating and exploring worlds that extrapolate the surreal qualities of the extreme Australian landscape. Drawing from the urban and natural landscapes, the generation of these worlds will be informed by layers of datascapes, and re-explored through speculative narratives of the not-too-distant future.

We will develop concept designs to build your narratives extrapolated from extraodianary natures. We will aim to explore the uncharted territories at the boundary of our phhysical world, and capture your visions via still, immersive, and animatted imagery.

Students will work in paris to research and build their spectulative environments utilising digital design techniques, tools and workflows. In this studio we will focus on the most powerful open-source 3d editor Blender 2.8, real -time renderuiing in Eevee, and generative deisgn with Python scripting. Stundents will also be introduces to video post-production techiniques(After Effects) to collate and document their work.

//Final Deliverables

Each team of 2 will be asked to output the following:

  • 400 words project description
  • Key inages 3-5
  • Short vide, showing either process or final animation or both
  • 3D model

//Pre-teaching Period

View online tutorial content for :After Effects, Rhino 3D

//Featured picture

  • Ralph McQuarries Star Wars
  • Weta Workshop, Blade Runner 2049
  • Tetrahromia,Plant Stills, Weta Workshop, Mortal Engines
  • Takashi Watabe, Ghost in the Shell
  • Hiromasa Ogura, Ghost in the Shell

//Watch List for Australia

Documentation-澳大利亚-跨越时间之地

BBC 人类星球

Outback Australis(2018)

//Watch List for Blender

Blender Showreel:
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fCrUjr1St4
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHGJv0_rxeo
Lectures:
● World Building – Ian Hubert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whPWKecazgM
● Blender Workflow for feature films – Jama Jurabaev:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpcKPJTmqSI

Link to Technical Content
Blender support and tutorials: https://www.blender.org/support/