Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Mid-Term Requirements

The goal of the mid-term is three-fold: to demonstrate your ability to integrate raster and vector grapchics and compose them across two boards, to represent this design process and organizing principles (centralized, distributed, and hybrid), and to emphasize the spatial development of your project through immersive perspectives and your section perspectives.

As this is a mid-term, it would be wise to review the previous assignments taking note of things you could improve on, and graphic tips that you have overlooked.

Submittal (Due Thursday, May 10th, at the beginning of your lab section)
  • Place a PDF of your final presentation in the Mid-Term folder in the course folder. Name the PDF file (e.g. mcabrinha_midterm.pdf).
  • Post a PNG or JPG of your final boards to your blog. (Be sure the file size isn't too big.)
  • Bring your completed prints to review room (TBD) at your lab time. (Note: We will be combining lab sections and will be pinning these up in a separate room for review).
NOTE: You can make test prints as they are inexpensive, and be sure to send them ahead of time so your prints are done in time. Being late is not the printers fault, expect a rush as there are 100+ of you.

Your boards must illustrate three kinds of information: simple diagrammatic drawings, orthographic views (plans/sections/elevations), and perspectival views.

Diagrammatic Drawings

Taken from Assignment Two, create simple clear graphics demonstrating centralized, distributed, and hybrid organization from your previous Sketch-Up files. Based on the graphic techniques we have covered since that assignment was due, you will create three new graphics one from each one of those files.

HINT: Keep these very simple. In presenting their general organization,
try an axonometric view (immersive perspectives are not appropriate here).

Orthographic Views

Your are to create new orthographic drawings from your final Sketch-Up model. You are required to have a minimum of THREE different orthographic views, one of them must be a plan view, and one must be an elevation view. Don't forget, "orthographic views" are created in Sketch-Up when the Camera view is set to Parallel Projection (this is not a rule to be broken).

Note: A plan view is simply a horizontal section, and therefore you simply use the section plane tool in Sketch-Up to create a plan view. Don't forget the live trace tool in Illustrator for plans as well as sections.

Perspectival Views

We have focused on two views: the sectional perspective view and an immersive interior perspective. Along with these two views, at minimum you should introduce either another immersive interior perspective or an exterior perspective. As you consider new views, keep in mind how they will fit within the overall graphic composition of your boards. For example, you could choose to highlight one larger raster / vector interior perspective with a series of smaller vector only perspectives. Be sure to include entourage, emphasizing the sense of depth through foreground, middle ground, and background - including a background that stops the eye from continuing on into infinity.


Evaluation: Composition, Craft, and Design (50 pts Total)

Composition (10 pts)
Refer to Design Requirements in Assignment 5.

Craft (25pts)
Lines are clean and crisp (through Vector format).
Raster images are not pixelated and any lines showing do not have the jaggies.
Layer Overlays are scaled to meet tightly at corners.
Entourage is layered into the graphics and is not pixelated.
Entourage gives a significant sense of place (entourage is as important as the view itself).
Lineweights are varied and appropriate to the graphic.

Design (15pts)
Clear sense of depth in the design demonstrated in the perspectives
Clear spatial continuity and variation in space sizes.
The sun has been used as a design tool to get light deep into spaces.




9 comments:

Sara said...

For my sectional perspective, the view is at ground level, and I was wondering if it would be worth it to change it (I'd have to redo everything) to make it 5' higher. If not, I'd only have minor changes to make...

arch222 said...

Sara-
Ultimately this is of course up to you. However, my hope is that you see that getting the basic raster / vector drawing is really pretty quick (I woud guess maybe half hour or so now that you know what you are doing). Entrourage can take considerable time - but both your background and your people should still work with a revised view.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone explain the diagram graphics a little more?

Kristen said...

Noelle-

Based on the instructions given for the midterm, you will be creating three diagrammatic images using your submission from Assignment 2. Mark recommends creating a new isometric view for each of the schemes- centralized, distributed, and hybrid rather than using immersive views, which wouldn't really be helpful.

Andy said...

This doesn't just pertain to the latest assignment, but to all of them. Is there any way that you could plainly say what you want in these assignments. The instructions are WAY too wordy and everyone is always so confused. If you could just say what you want, then it would help everyone. This class is confusing to everyone. And sorry if I sound rude about this, but I'm saying what everyone else is saying. I'm just saying it to the instructors. It's frustrating to get back assignment grades when we worked so hard on them and get crappy grades. It seems like it's impossible to please the instructors. Maybe it's because no one knows exactly how to.

Anonymous said...

I am tryin to upload my mid-term layout boards to the lab-network drive. It says to put them in the "mid-term" folder. I don't see this folder. Is it not up yet, or should I just put the file somewhere else?

arch222 said...

Thank you Colin - the folers are there now.

mandat said...

HERE'S A RAD TRICK if you want just part of an object to look a little more transparent than the rest:

1. With the pen tool, surround the area you want to look more transparent. (It should turn completely white. If it doesn't, it won't work.)

2. With your selection arrow, hold down shift and select the rest of the object that will still be opaque.

3. Under the "transparency" field on the tool bar, click "knockout group" until there's a check mark in the box.

4. Also click "opacity & mask define knockout shape" until there's a check mark in its box.

5. Play with the Opacity gauge--as the % gets smaller, both areas of the object will eventually become transparent.

For more help, go to the Illustrator Help Menu and type in "knockout group."

Kristen said...

Awesome Elise! Thanks!!