Today I took part in one of the organised visits to the facilities of the Advanced Textiles Research Group within the Bonington building on campus. Although I ended up not choosing the facilities (present) brief, I thought this could be useful to understand the technology slightly better, as well as to physically observe the garments and yarns.
I took quite a few photographs whilst on the short visit, and here a few of the more relevant, interesting of these images:
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| Antenna embroidered onto t-shirt |
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| Touch-buttons within fabric |
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| Steel glove - good example of knitted texture |
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| Heated fabric - heating within the yarn |
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| Antenna stitched onto military fabric |
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| LED chips integrated into yarn |
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| LED chips integrated into yarn |
The last two of this images are the ones that are the most relevant for my project, as I plan to advertise the potential of LED integration within yarns, for both decoration and display purposes. From observing the yarns in person, I noticed they are actually very thin, and the chips themselves were so small I couldn't even see them (literally the size of specs of dust). Therefore, I feel it would still be appropriate and accurate enough to use simpler fabric textures within my 3D design (diffuse & bump maps), rather than having to model a bulkier looking knitted product.
I also looked at the heated technology in some detail, as this is something I will focus on for the rugs/carpets within the interior space. I want to make it as a accurate as would be possible using the technology, so will probably make the texture of it have stripes of different coloured yarn where the heat would come from.
Similarly, I have a couple of touch sensitive fabric devices within my proposed advert, so looked at the potential touch fabrics we were shown, although this apparently has not currently 'kicked off' as much as the other technologies explored. I noticed this was a much thicker, more robust fabric than the other examples may have to be, so will try and show this within my 3D models and textures.
General Progress
Also, I have just about finished modelling the main parts of my interior space for the advert now, and will shortly start to texture these to the best of my ability, influenced by the images and findings from the ATRG visit, before lighting and camera placement/animation, etc.
Below are a few quick renders of the modelling so far, showing how I have slightly changed the layout since my first presentation. I may slightly increase the size of the room again, as it may still feel a little cramped when cameras are placed within the space.
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