<aside> 💡 Introduction
Both my grandfather and father are calligraphers. Influenced by my family's culture from a young age, I began studying calligraphy at the age of 5 and practiced for an hour every day. Calligraphy is something that relaxes me, like yoga, and it has also taught me patience and focus. There is a lot of interesting knowledge in calligraphy, such as the evolution of characters and the significance of ink and paper, which are deeply connected to Chinese culture. However, calligraphy has always been a niche activity, and for those who have not been exposed to it or foreigners, it can be intimidating. Although calligraphy is a symbol and representation of Chinese culture, it is often viewed superficially, without a true understanding of its meaning.
There are many reasons for this issue, such as the time-consuming nature of practicing calligraphy, the high threshold to achieve proficiency, and the need for years of accumulation to truly appreciate and understand it. Calligraphy works are usually given as gifts or high-end collectibles, and they are not frequently encountered in everyday life.
Therefore, I designed a series of 12 zodiac animal ornaments that combine 3D modeling, seal script, and AR technology. These ornaments not only vividly display seal script characters but also offer interactive features that make them ideal as gifts between friends.
This project consists of the following components:
My Chinese zodiac calligraphy works
Then, I drew sketches based on the shapes of different animals and tried to organically incorporate seal script characters into the animal designs.
Sketches of 3D design works for the twelve Chinese zodiac animals
I used Fusion360 to make those 3D models, and here is the full collection of 3D zodiacs.
A program made with Unity that can recognize model images and play videos introducing the evolution of characters
Project video
Project Document