The Sky HIgh Hermitary Design and Process Book

The Sky High Hermitary

Design and

Fabrication Process

By Brian Norris

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Welcome to my Hermitary

I'm Brian Norris, thank

you for joining me

What I enjoy doing the most is making models

large and small. I like to look at nature as

inspiration along side culture from all around the

world. I like to look into the things that have been

forgotten by others. I come from a rural

background and have lived in an urban

environment for some time now. This has

inspired be to replicate what I am missing from

home, but not limited to that, replicate all forms

of nature where possible, to show people who

miss it sheer its beauty. And that’s what I want to

do here.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank everyone who was involved in making this project come through,

especially my lecturers Fiona Snow, Matthew Kennedy, John Buckley Ger Clancy, Julian

King and Clyde Doyle, you thought me everything I needed to know in order to take on

this project and projects in the future, both technically and mentally, as we hit difficult

times, assistance was always still available at any time of the week and with the best of

advice.

I would also like to thank Ali Kemel Ali, Ian Hannon and Cathleen Walsh for their

endless assistance during the year and for the best technical advice from the workshop.

And not to forget, I'd like to thank my family and friends for helping me get through this

year, especially during the difficult time that we encountered from March onwards. I'd

like to thank Sorcha O'Brien for her much needed help when researching hermits around

the world in my thesis.

Finally I'd like to congratulate my fellow peers for completing this difficult year,

working with you all over the past 4 years has been invaluable, I have learned something

from each one of you.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

The Concept

Design

Design Inspiration and Chinese Paintings

Concept Sketches

Unity Design Models

Plans

Contour Lines

Mountain Fabrication

Slicing Styrofoam

Stacking and Filling Gaps

Styrofoam Sculpting

Plastering

Texturing

Painting Rocks

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Populating the Mountain

Building The Cave and Gate

Making The Trees

The Campfire

Adding Vegetation

Making The Table and Bowls

Finished Piece

Digital Fabrication

Character Background

Fuse Editing

Garment Fabrication

Garment Texturing

Animation

Unity AR

Contact Information

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Introduction

I created a fictional Buddhist nun's home based on a mountain inspired by Huashan a

mountain found in the Shaanxi province, one of the five great mountains found in

China, this one with great religious significance. This Buddhist hermit is one of many

hidden hermits in our world. I wanted to show people that these people still exist.

Hermits used to be of a great importance in ancient China, but today some believe

they no longer exist, until American Journalist Bill Porter, also known as Red Pine,

proved they are still in the mountains.

I wanted to broaden the knowledge about hermits from the East to the West, about

people who both preserve culture and forge a change in our word, a commitment only

the most brave and the strong minded can endure.

In this project I created a diorama of a hermits home on a mountain A Buddhist nun.

She lives a very routined life, awake at 3 a.m, meditation for 3 hours, 6 a.m, some tea

and tsampa (breakfast), 8 a.m another 3 hour meditation session, a lunch and a break

at 11 a.m, come 3 p.m another 3 hours of meditation, 6 p.m tea time, 7 p.m a further 3

hours of meditation, 10 p.m its back to her meditation box, in their lotus position.

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Concept

This model is to be part of a larger exhibition, an exhibition showcasing hermits

environments all around the world, places that are inaccessible to the common

person.

In this particular model it showcases a Buddhist hermits home from Shaanxi

China. Based high in the mountain you will indulge in a visual and audio

experience on the mountain along with an AR animated story inspired by a monk

named Master Hsu-yun also known as Empty Cloud. As you scan the the mountain

with the tablet supplied you will be greeted with the sounds of the wind and trees

through your headset. As you look into the screen you will see a nun appear from

her cave and the animation will commence.

As the animation finishes, the screen on your tablet then turns into an interface

where you can focus the camera on a particular part of the mountain, such as the

cave, or the blossom tree and this would bring forward a box with a description

about the object scanned, with its symbolism and history in China. This interface

will be the tool to tell the viewer about the hermit Buddhists up in the mountains.

The same idea and flow would apply to all other regions in the exhibition.

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Design Inspiration:

Shen Zhou (15th Century Painter)

I was Inspired by an old Chinese Painter Shen Zhou

and his studies of Chinese landscapes and poets who

lived in the mountains, some of which were hermits.

These became a great inspiration to try capture

Chinese culture and the small landings high in the

mountains. Many hermits who loved in the

mountains of China were poets. They captured the

essence of the wilderness

around them, this also

assisted me with my design.

12th century Poet Stonehouse

is an example of this type of

hermit.

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Tenzin Palmo

Huashan

Mt Huahsan is found among the Qinling Mountains on

the Chungnan range outside Xian China. This mountain

is a sacred mountain to many religious Chinese people

it is said that only the brave and steady minded can

endure the task of living on the mountain, some old

masters are said to have survived only by eating the

sacred pine that grows on the mountain. The immortals

are said to have played chess atop the west peak of the

mountain, I also found the texture of this rock very

interesting and different, the colour glows and I think

this would be the perfect mountain to replicate as it is

by far the most interesting

Tenzin Palmo, formerly known as Diane Perry, is a

Tibetan Buddhist nun from England, who entered

seclusion in the 1970's to live in a cave 13,000 ft high

in the Himalayas, she stayed there for 12 years. Since

leaving her cave she has become one of the most

influential figures in Buddhism, fighting for womens

rights within the religion. Gender rights has

progressed since her time in the cave and people from

different religions seek Palmo for lessons and advice

on life. My character was inspired by Palmo, as before

reading about her I would have never even thought of

considering a nun as my protagonist.

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Concept Sketches

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In this phase of the project I looked at the

rock features in the ancient Chinese

paintings, which inspired me to add a ledge to

the edge of the cliff, some use these to look at

their vast view across the mountains and

meditate. I also looked at real life hermit huts

both inside and out of China. Some

monasteries and huts around the Chungnan

mountains have entrance gates to stop

unwelcomed visitors, be it people or wild

animals.


Trails and Passageways to some hermit huts

are dangerous and steep, some carve ledges

out of the rock other use planks of wood or

metal bars hammered into the cliff face. As

these mountains become more and more

popular with tourists, hermits want to make

it as difficult as possible to be reached, Bill

Porter reports climbing a slope of 70

degrees make slick by a spring and hanging

chains of about 30 meters.

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Unity Design Models

After setting out a few designs on paper I decided to visualize them in a 3D space and using

Unity was required. I set out 3 designs and settled on the latter. Using this technique of

visualizing space was essential to the design process as I would move on to using this model

as my reference for the physical build

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Plans

With use of the digital model

created I used the plan, elevation

and side view points to create

references for my physical build.

I drew A3 sized boxes over the

screenshots in AutoCAD and

printed them out sticking each

together.

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Contour Lines

In Unity I used the flatten terrain tool to highlight a ring around the mountain on

whatever height you set, I used a consistent hight adjustment and measured the distance

in real life using AutoCAD. I then drew around the rings highlighted in the screenshot

and layered them on top of each other to create a contour map I will then use this to

help me determine where to cut the sheets of styrofoam when making the base.

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Mountain Fabrication

Slicing the Styrofoam

Each contour in real life is 1.6m, so I needed to cut the strips of foam into 40mm

thicknesses. To do this I needed a 2x4 lath for barriers, some MDF for the base and a hot

wire to cut the contours evenly.

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Stacking and

Filling in the

Gaps

I then placed my contour map over the

piece of styrofoam and cut along the

line stacking one on top of the other.

I then used the shavings from the foam,

still intact, to fill in the steps of the

contours for an even inclining slope.

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Adding Sculpting Details Before

Plastering.

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Plastering

But first a layer of

Jesmonite and

Fiberglass

It was important make make sure the

stryrofoam was fully secure to eliminate

any cracking in the future. This was done

by painting Jesmonite over Fiberglass

Tissue

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Texturing

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Back to the Planning board....

Coming to this point I had some

obstruction in my process in terms of

what I could do with the time and

resources I had left as the college

closed.

Plan B

Plan B is to reduce the size of my

project physically and to eliminate AR,

digitally just have my character created.

For the remainder of this project I will

focus on the important aspects of the

mountain which is the cave and its

surrounding area.

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Painting Rocks

First I make sure the

plaster is primed and

then lay down the

base layers

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Adding Detail

I added some individual tones to parts

of the rock then applied some washes

before adding darker spots to deepen

the texture, finally I sprinkled some

finely sieved dirt over it all

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Building the Gate and Cave

Get the Doors Ready

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Making the Stones

I made some containers out of

foamex, marking the inside with

heights of stones found on old

walls.

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Building the Walls

I stacked the stones starting with larger

pieces at the bottom. Black paint was

Airbrushed on the inside of the cave to

darken the shadows.

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Painting Details

Applying primer first then adding some

washes to darken between the cracks of

the stones. After that I painted different

tones to each stone and washing browns,

greys and creams.

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Making the Trees

Huashan Pine

Huashan Pine (Pinus hwangshanensis),

is found among the peaks of the

Chungnan Mountains and are a sacred

tree among the mountains inhabitants.

I scavenged some twigs from a recently

knocked down tree and some moss from

a nearby river

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The Campfire

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Fuel for the

Campfire

The campfire was built

using found stones, the

sticks were collected from

a dead tree near by. The

sticks were burnt inside the

campfire for enhanced

realism

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Adding

Vegetation

Scavenging

Natural

Materials

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Food is on

the Table

To create the bowls I applied

some SuperSculpy onto a ball

head tool and the table was made

using 3 pieces of a 3mm balsa

stick and some plaster blocks left

over from building the walls

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Final Piece

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Character Background

This nun has been living atop of Mt Huashan for the past couple of decades, she says she

was called upon the mountain to become its protector. She lives a very simple life. Bags

of grain are brought up to her some weeks by her disciples that have decided to follow her

in recent years and every couple of years she gets a fresh set of robes to wear. Living a

routined life she is busy all day everyday, like most hermits she claims she is never bored

nor does she

or feels alone. The nun is from

outside the Shaanxi region

down in Tibet, she traveled

from her home so she could live

on this mountain as the masters

who came before her did.

Huashan can be a tough place

to live as the harsh rocky terrain

places in front of you many

vertical drops, but this keeps

her secluded and keeps any

distractions from her practice

far away.

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The Story

In this project the animation tells a story about the nun as she starts her day. She walks out

of her cave and places a cauldron atop her fire, the fire is a powerful agent to remove evil

spirits. She stands up, and with the winds whisting through the mountain, she looks beyond

the horizon, shading the sun from her eyes. Sitting in front of her is the stone she sits upon

each day to meditate She takes a step forward, walking towards the stone, water trickling

in the background from the stream nearby, the stream is a symbol of harmony and a flow

of balance. As she sits upon her rock she becomes one with the earth. As she crosses her

legs into the lotus position the wind begins to pick up and the cherry blossoms blow across

the mountain, a tree for poetics. The leaves fall off the trees around her, floating to the

ground. Seasons pass by as Winter comes and snow builds up. Footprints appear in the

snow, appears to be from the rare snow leopard that roams the mountain in secrecy. Spring

comes back around again and the leaves begin to grow. I flute and shrine can be heard in

the background bringing the nun back to her awakening as the environment around her

returns to its previous state. the nun stands back up and takes her cauldron with her back

into the cave.

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Fuse Modelling

Using Adobe Fuse I assembled my

character limb by limb. To add more

detail to her face I added some texture

such as her wrinkles. I also Broadened

her cheeks and made her face more hash

and worn as she has been living in the

wilderness for decades.

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Garment Fabrication

I created the Nuns Garment in Marvelous Designer. Firstly I

had to draw each piece of cloth in a 2D window then stitch it

together. The pieces of the clothing she wears are called

Antarvasa (skirt), Kushalaka (undergarment), Uttarsanga

(top) and Samghati (robe wrapped around her shoulders and

waist).

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Animation

Blender

In Blender I used Non Linear

Animation to mix together the

Animations I downloaded from

Mixamo. This was an easy process

to blend them together seamlessly.

To make the nun move along a path

I created a Nurb Path and

constraining the nun to that path. By

enabling her to animate and follow

the path, she will walk according to

the paths direction.

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Unity

By exporting both the animation

and the Nurb Path, it was possible

to replicate the animation created

in Blender by just applying it to a

timeline.

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Unity and Vuforia

Augumented Reality

Tracking

Creating AR apps was made possible

by using Vuforia Engine. I used two

ways of tracking, Ground Plane

Tracking and Model Tracking. Ground

Plane Tracking works by just pointing

your phone at a flat surface. While this

was effective, it wasn't as efficient in

keeping the nun stuck to a position as

the Model Targeting did. To enable

Model Targeting is possible I imported

a 3D scanned object into their Model

Target Generator and then into Unity

before developing the app.

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Building AR App

Here are a couple Examples of the AR

tracking discussed in the previous page,

at the top you can see an example of the

ground plane tracking and at the bottom

the Model Target Generator.

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Thank you for joining me once again, I hope you

come to visit what is to come next.

You can follow me on my next journey from my

Instagram

@Brian_Design_209

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Credits

Low poly trees downloaded from TurboSquid.com in Exhibition Concept Model

page 10 - Kitsuwaka

Low poly character downloaded from TurboSquid.com in Exhibition Concept

Model page 10 - Denys Almaral

iPad downloaded from SketchFab.com in Exhibition Concept Model page 10 -

iSteven

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