Bus Shelter

Software / Tools / Machines

Blender
Procedural Textures (Various)
Photoshop

The Process

The process I underwent was to research, reflect, innovate, and design a bus shelter that reflects Canadian Architecture, its characteristics, in addition to my creative addition. The bus shelter redesign aims to increase ridership, increase productivity, and shield passengers from inclement weather. My bus shelter redesign was meant to:

Have 4 sketches/proof of concepts.
Boost bus ridership.
Protect riders from harsh climate conditions.
Be appealing, efficient, innovative, and practical.

Riders will consider each of the following: safety, commodity, and appeal. To create a bus shelter that appeals to customers and gives them a good feeling, it is essential to properly target these goals. These a few points I wanted my

Young adults are statistically more likely to take public transport and thus use bus shelters. That said, due to societal norms, contemporary, futuristic, and technologically advanced designs would tremendously appeal to all age groups. That is why the structure is very simple and contains a smart display on one side for information.
Being visible is crucial. Thus, a glass or equivalent viewing mechanism is found in many bus shelters. For the majority of passengers, strategically adding glass into a bus shelter is essential. This is why the shelter consists of a lot of glass.
Creatively assimilating weather conditions not only benefit the overall health and structure of a bus shelter, but also induce a more comfortable experience for riders. Thus, using innovative designs to suppress weather conditions are beneficial to the designs' efficiency. This is why I had a sloped roof.

I started off by doing the research and thought process I mention above to design my sketched and proof of concepts. After critically thinking what could boost ridership and producing these concepts, I started by modelling it in Blender. As my first main introduction to blender, it was somewhat overwhelming and complex to understand. However, I managed to effectively use my model and bring it to life with procedurally generated textures, composition, and rendering. I did not have any noise reduction for this render, but procedural textures seemed to perform well under these circumstances so it would have been unnecessary.

Enjoyment

As a first introduction to Blender, I loved doing this project. To me, this project introduced me to computer graphics and do something that I once saw as impossible. As someone very interested and impressed by photorealism, I never believe I could achieve it with efficiency and knew nothing about where to start. Doing an entire project in blender from start to finish truly made me appreciate and understand how to produce an animation from start to finish. I deeply enjoyed designing this and getting to create something I was truly proud of.

Lessons learned

I learned so much through this project. Firstly, I learned so much about blender. Blender once seemed impossible to navigate and like a superpower to those who could, but with time I managed to create a project entirely on my own that I truly liked. Moreover, it taught about the amount of little things and details in design that the viewer might not see or pay attention to, but are very important and determining to the experience. Notions like the sidewalk and back brick wall texture in my final design showed me that putting detail in everything in my design is important, even if it isn't the focus of the showcase.

What I would change if I started over

If I did the project again, I would make different types of shelters. This would mean creating a small, walk-in, and building bus shelters with respective structures — as some bus shelters may not have a roof like others may not have isolating walls. Moreover, I would like to attempt a different colour palette and textures. I would equally try to add weather animations to showcase the shelter in different conditions; moreover, I would give me the opportunity to attempt physics and particles in a design and render.