- While considering my project ideas for Senior Thesis, I chose to view them as experiments instead of inventions. I know I won’t be creating something so cutting edge that it will land me on the cover of WIRED. My main goal is to take this time to reflect on everything I’ve done in IMM and how I’ve grown because of it. This leads to the strongest skills and interests I developed while taking classes:
– Strongest: 3D animation, design, photography
– Less strong but interested: programming, After Effects video editing
With these categories in mind, I’ve developed three potential project ideas.
- Animated Physics Simulation in Maya
This project involves learning Maya Bifrost, a physics engine that I’ve briefly worked with in Animation II, even though it never carried through to my final project. It would ideally be around 20 seconds or less of simulation experimenting with particles, liquid, smoke, and morphing states of matter.
2. Photo Series Book
One of my favorite courses I’ve taken was a photography class to fulfill a liberal learning requirement. I absolutely loved the idea of developing a themed photo series and communicating symbolism through the images. For my midterm, I developed my first photo series called “Dirty Pennies” where I found and photographed ten pennies with odd characteristics. I have considered taking this project a step further and publishing a book on the series, and add even more photos to the collection. Then I’d make a 3D photograph of each penny and create an exhibit where people can see a 360 view of all the pennies.
3. Interactive Spice Cabinet
So it’s probably no secret I love cooking at this point, and recently I’ve had some trouble finding the correct spices in my ever-growing spice cabinet. I came up with an idea to code a program where you can enter all the spices in your inventory so you always know what you have laying around. Whenever you cook something that calls for a floral or spicy flavor, the interactive spice rack with illuminate every spice that fits that specific profile. There could be custom settings too, for example if you make a meal and use the same spices every time for it, you can save them all to a group so next time you cook, it will be easy to find them all on the rack. For international cuisine, you can select a geographical region and there could be groups of spices that are frequently used in traditional cooking in that area that the chef can experiment with.