DES100-Kings & Queens

--Design and 3D print a custom “chess piece” in the aesthetic of a film that has inspired you as a designer.

THE AVENGERS - from Marvel Universe

From 2008's Iron Man 1 to 2019's Avengers 4, 11 years and 22 films make up the majestic Marvel Universe. The breathtaking sights, the moments of unexpected humour, the lovely love and affection, and everyone in the Avengers' feeling of obligation to safeguard the world...everything in the films touched me. Solemn and stirring coexist with tenderness, majestic and humorous. This is the Avengers. What makes such an impression to me is because every single sequence was well thought out; there was a cause and must have a consequence in the end; there was not a single second of extra, and I could sense the tremendous effort they put in both on stage and behind the scenes.

The Avengers: Endgame is a meditation on time - it tells us that we should cherish the moments we have on this earth with our loved ones. As Tony Stark says, "No amount of money can buy a second time." After the Thanos’ finger snap, the original Avengers revisit the sites of their past adventures in order to collect the Infinity Stones before the exterminator does, in a "time heist". Along the way, they confront important figures from their past and even their former selves.

To begin the project, I have watched the film again and googled some analysis of each character in the Marvel Universe, which makes me have a deep understanding of the movie. After that, I have searched for considerable pictures that were relevant to these films on Pinterest to build up my mood board. In addition, I identified three keywords from these films: Science fiction, Emotional, Soldier.

MOOD BOARD

Belief

Science fiction

Kind-hearted

Unity

Stirring

Justice

Responsibility

Preserve

Trust

Emotional

Powerful

Soldier

Responsibility

Robert Downey (the character of Tony Stark) once said in an interview:" The last suit he has isn't even designed for him be able to survive using it. This first suit is all about, will this get me, my ego, and my precious physical frame out of this cave I'm in and into the desert where maybe the cavalry can come get me. The last one is not designed to be able to do its job and have you make it past it." If the first Iron man costume was created to save lives, Tony Stark knew while he was designing the final Iron man suit that he had to choose between achieving responsibility and surviving in peace. Tony ultimately chose to sacrifice himself in order to complete the objective. It's not just Iron Man, everyone in The Avengers is discharging their responsibility to protect the world because they know the world is fragile.

Emtional

When the Captain of America was at his weakest, his friend Bucky helped him. When he realised that Bucky had became the villain, he didn't kill him, instead waiting for him to restore his sanity. Because they promised each other:" I'm with you till the end of the line,pal."

Even though the Captain of America and Iron Man have had their share of feuds, they're still fighting together in the final Avengers film.

Black Window used to be a spy, she has no family and donesn't even know where she come from. It was the Avengers give her security because the Avengers are her famiy.

Friendships, love, and family...All of the emtional touched me. It's the coming together of a slew of emotions that brings the Avengers together.

Soldier

Without hesitation, Pater Parker joined the ranks of the world's defenders in the face of the Thanos' assault. He has never chosen to back down in the face of endless perils. The fact that Captain America is 100 years old, Thor is 1500 years old, and Spider-Man is only 15. The phrase "with great power comes great responsibility" has allowed him to prove time and again that he is a soldier in action. Iron man's fighting suit, Thor's godlike abilities, and the Captain America's flesh...Even if there are many enemies, I will kill you as long as I have one breath left. This is a soldier.

According to keywords, I started to consider how to do my concept sketching. For the appearance of chess, I will emphasise the word "soldier because everyone in the Avengers has the toughness of a soldier's willpower. This is also the uniqueness of my chess pieces.

With three keywords in my mind, I generated a wide range of ideas and sketched them out.

sketch ideations

Once I had generated my concepts, I started to build a 3D model in rhino.

The irregularly shaped yet very sci-fi magical staff is the design I ultimately chose and has the Avengers logo inlaid into the base which is better reflect their collective spirit. It is a cool design that also expresses the spirit of heroism: even when the forces of evil are strong, soldiers are dedicated to keeping the world peaceful and the planet safe.

Although a great deal of research went into this project, I believe that the personality and spirit of each character and themes of the film are still not sufficiently explored. However, I tried my best in the limited time to overcome the issue of how to use the rhino and managed to build my first model, even though it's just a simple one, which I am really pleased with. The emotion and production of this film are incredibly detailed, which is why it has attracted such a large audience. A significant amount of these things lead me to conclude that the devil is in the details. During the process of using rhino to build the model, I realised that it is a challenging task to learn any software, but don't be hurried; keep learning to achieve quantitative change to qualitative change.