WEEK 4

3. House 

4. Moving parts object, $23.18 on Shapeways

I also made these little boxes this week and printed them on the FormLabs & Makerbot to compare material types:

 

WEEK 3

1. Watched videos and created chair.

2. (Tried to make using solids and cage-edit, but ended up finishing with surfaces)

3.

4.

Shape 1: 

Solid concepts: $85.00

i.materialize: $16.90

Shapeways: $10.27

Shape 2:

Solid concepts: "needs review"

i.materialize: $17.25

Shapeways: $11.38

5. Still working on the house. My first step is outlining the major shapes, which I will next extrude.

 

WEEK 2

Opened accounts at Solid Concepts, Shapeways, and i.materialize.

I followed along with the flowing objects along a surface tutorial, and it pretty much blew my mind. I experimented with keeping the flowing shapes rigid and also letting them become morphed. I thought about different times you might want the flowing shapes to remain rigid or be skewed (for example, if you were making fish scales you might want them to warp along a surface to appear more organic, but if you were making chain mail armor you may want the shapes to remain rigid, as that is how the material would normally behave).

I followed along with the tutorial to create a water bottle of my own, traced from another water bottle image I found online:

 

I used different layers (image layer, first curve layer, and then model layer). I spent about 4 hours watching the tutorial, and pausing/recreating what he was doing so that I understood.  This tutorial was extremely helpful.

   Above are some screenshots of my process of making the box. I was inspired by the Japanese joinery book we looked at in class last week. In that book, I loved the idea of making the joinings an actual part of the design. With that goal in mind, I tried to think about what I could actually create with Rhino.  In the end, I tried to make a box with tabs that fit into triangle shaped slots so the finished box would have a triangle motif on the edges and the clasp.

The finished box did not look as nice as I had hoped. I ran into some trouble with making the openings for the tabs the right size. On the inside, they need to be folded to stay closed, so I need to find a better solution (One solution might be making the triangle slots smaller, and farther away from the sides so just the rectangular bit that juts out goes into the slot...)

I like the design concept though, and am really inspired by the Japanese joinery examples so I think I would like to continue exploring those ideas.

WEEK 1

Reading assignment: Based on these readings, choose two designs and prepare a critique on both. You can choose any example you wish, including from the list of designers in the Resources page.

Sharon Louden - Community

This piece uses a fulcrum armature -- balancing the larger blue rectangle with the smaller yellow rectangle -- and uses horizontals and verticals (the wavy lines) to add interest. The contrast between the organic wavy lines and the geometric boxes makes the piece feel lively. Some shapes appear to be transitions between the two -- for example, the grey box near the center has wavy edges, and the smaller orange rectangle near the center right has bulging edges, making it seem like a wavy line that is morphing into a box. This particular shape seems to indicate the possibility of movement from one state to another.

Zeren Badar - Sea World

This lighthearted collage makes use of the portrait armature, and an O armature to frame the center of interest. The symbol of the eye is repeated throughout the framing of the face, and within the face itself. The contrast between the fish and the woman is conceptual as well as visual, which provides the humorous foundation for the piece. The contrast between the light-reflecting skin of the fish and the matte skin of the woman reinforces the collage aesthetic.

Part 2: Choose three objects of your preference and build their outlines (projection, extract, mesh outline or else). Present at least three compositions in Rhino for the arrangement of these objects in 2D space, and briefly articulate your design decisions with reference to Roberts reading.

Foreground, middle, and background. Variance in size creates depth.

Horizontal armature and balance of size, balance of negative and filled space

Aligning the figures based on the L-armature.

 Part 3: Keep the same perspective as earlier, but replace the three outlines with three simple abstract shapes of your own design. Articulate your design decisions with reference to Wong reading.

 Repetition of direction (page 51).

Contrasting direction (Page 107)

Repetition of shape (page 51)

Part 4: Choose 3D product of your preference (shoe; clock; glasses; car; stereo system) and model it with splines 3D. Use the Osnap tool and add dimensions on the drawing.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kay8ldjshm8lp0u/vVv9SgjIJs