6th Artefact - User friendly programs for interior design

Home page of ikea space maker. This gives the customer an option of starting with a pre-set made room, starting their own room or looking at the tutorial to design a room. Imagine in the future CGI software was user-friendly like this.




Extremely user friendly showing customers a list of furniture they can use. Simply click and drag on to the scene




Final Design taking 2 minutes.



EVALUATION FOR 6th ARTEFACT

The development of 3D software has now reached a stage where designs can be created on a computer screen and now people can learn the software or be trained to be able to create designs themselves. Will there be interior design programs made to be extremely user friendly requiring no training?
I researched the internet for other methods of creating a virtual environment and I came across the ikea space maker program. This was a very easy program to use as I created a room by simply clicking the size of the room I wanted and dragging certain types of ikea furniture from their archive. I decorated the walls by simply clicking the wall and selecting from a wide range of wallpaper and colours what I wanted. There are categories of furniture for the user to choose from e.g. wardrobes, carpets etc and all I had to do was pick the furniture I want and click and drag on to my scene. The program also allowed me to move my object anywhere in the scene and rotate my object 90 degrees at a time so I can position the object correctly. There is also a step to step guide which took me 2 minutes to read explaining to me step by step how to use the program which makes the entire program extremely user friendly. As you can see this program was created to allow anyone without any training to create a room.
To conclude programs such as ikea space maker is designed for users with no training or computer skills to be able to create their own interior room. It is a basic program and the interactivty is limited but it still gets the job done. With the tutorial and the basic tools of dragging the object and placing it wherever you want on the scene provides a user-friendly interface that anyone with no prior 3D animation package experience can use.

5th Artefact - How fast can someone learn the software 3DS Max to create an interior environement?

Since the breakthrough of 3D the design industry has opened up doors for people with no drawing or techinical skill. People with a hunger for design can now become 3D artists which involves creating designs onto computer instead of paper. But can anyone become a 3D artist?

Over the easter holiday I wanted to put this theory to the test. I asked my Mum who has no 3D experience whatsoever to create an interior environment using 3DS Max without any supervision.
I will only train her for one day of the basic tools of modelling, texturing and lighting. I also wrote down a lsit of all the modelling tools along with their functions and basic tutorial of how to texture such as UVW mapping, and using bitmaps from the internet. This is how she got on.

I told her during the training that using splines to create any shape is the best way. This is her shape of her room.



Also I told her to convert the spline into a shape she needs to convert it into an editable poly where she can modify the shape.



Then with the guide that I gave her she managed to create good enough furniture to go with the room and she textured it well enough.



Finall the lighting, I told her during the training that to use a simple omni light with shadows.



To conclude my Mum has successfully created a living room without any supervision or any previous 3D experience in a day. So if my Mum can create this in a day imagine what she could with a month of training.

EVALUATION FOR 5th ARTEFACT

We have learnt that having CGI skills is a useful asset to have within the interior design industry. But can anyone become a 3D artist through training? And how much training does the person need? Over the Easter holiday I wanted to put this theory to the test. I asked my Mum who has no 3D experience whatsoever to create an interior environment using 3DS Max without any supervision. I will only train her for one day of the basic tools of modelling, texturing and lighting. I also wrote down a list of all the modelling tools along with their functions and basic tutorial of how to texture such as UVW mapping, and using bitmaps from the internet. In a day she managed to create a living room, fully textured with lights and shadows. The model was very basic such as the modelling was just pre-set shapes and the textures used were just copied on to the object without any editing. However my Mum without any 3D skill experience still produced a living room in one day with one day training.
This tells me that with the right training people can learn the basics of using CGI but with the right training, determination and passion for CGI that person can grow to become a professional 3D artist. For example that person is me as I have grown to know nothing about 3D to being able to create realistic and creative environments and with more training and learning and my hunger and passion to learn more I could only improve in my abilities.