Kings & Queens

This project is about creating a chess piece from a mood board created by me using movies or images of my choice. I will design my chess piece from the 3 words that describes the overall mood of my finished board.

Mood Board

My three words that shows and describe my Mood board are Edgy, Dark and Strong. It very much relates to the whole idea of the movie and as you can see from my mood board, it very much shows those words.

I chose to use 3 of the factions instead of all of them as I thought those three shows everything needed to be shown. It also matches the aesthetic I was going for.

Plot

The movie I have decided to go for is Divergent. The plot of divergent is that there are 5 factions that will determine what life a person would live for the rest of their life. Each factions has a role in the community as they have different values and belief they stand for. They must all go through a test and must pass to be part of a faction. Dauntless, those who feared nothing and kept their community safe. Abnegations, selfless being who puts everyone else above themselves. Erudite, known for their intelligence and later on known for their evil doings. Amity, mastered peace and harmony with the nature they lived in. Lastly, Candor, values honesty and order above anything else no matter what harm it brings.

And then there are the factionless, those who failed the test. Whatever faction they choose is absolute, no going back, no other choice but to pass the test or be treated as a lowlife.

However, there are those who are called divergent. People who don't fit in any group and their mind works in every different way, like the main character, Tris.

Ideas

This was my drafts and ideation.

I have chosen a design which shows obvious difference in level. I created a design that can show a reference from the movie. There are 5 factions and then the factionless, the big pillar in the middle is the divergent.

I wanted to play with different angles of the levels and I wanted to stick with having very sharp corners and edges just so it matched my 3 descriptive words from my mood board.

I also wanted to add something meaningful and relatable on the centre of the biggest pillar just so I can refer to the movie more. I was conflicted on whether to do the birds or the cracks. But for me, the cracks left more of an impression and I thought it looked a lot fiercer and more powerful than just the bird.

Final Design

This is the final design of my chess piece.

- Final front and Back view.

I have also made sure that there is a hole at the bottom as it was one of the requirement.

This is a close up on the cracks to show that they are coming out a little to give it more details.

Without the lines and edges, this is how the final design would look like.

Reflection

The final design has different levels as I wanted to shows the hierarchy in the movies and between the chess pieces. Our project is called Kings & Queens and I wanted to match that idea, therefore, I created a chess piece that would show the difference in levels and usefulness.

The cracking design in the middle refers to the movie when the main character decides to not just have one mind set but Instead resort to have different thinkings to solve the problems in different ways. The main the character chose dauntless as her faction but during the test someone realised that she solved the test very different from the others. That scene is where the glass cracking come from.

In chess pieces, even if you're the Queen, there is no guarantee you'll survive until the end of the game alone even if you're the most useful piece. I wanted to show that there is always flaws to those who seems perfect.

I really like the way this design turned out but if I choose a least favourite feature, it would probably be the levels. I think the cracks added a lot of details and it looks very good but it made the rest of the pillar look very simple and dull. Maybe if I had more time I could have added something or change something to make it looks a little more interesting.

I could have probably made the levels more obvious and could have made it more interesting if I changed some stuff or just a little bit of the design.

The most challenging part of this project would definitely be using a 3D program. I'm not used to making things 3D so it was very hard to create stuff and my knowledge was very limited. Since I didn't know much about 3D stuff, I feel like my design is lacking because of that. I could have made it better and more unique if I knew what I was doing.

Another difficult thing would also be the cracks in the middle as I had to draw each shape individually and then pull it out and then stick it on the pillar. It was very time consuming along with learning how the program worked, I was very short on time.