Alyssa Phillips: Prosthetic

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Prosthetic Powerpoint

Inspiration: I got my inspiration for my prosthetic design from what I remembered about studying smooth muscle tissue in anatomy class. It has this wavy look to it with random nuclei all about it. I named my prosthetic "undulex", based on the undulation of waves and the ending "lex" made me think of "flex". I slightly modified the foot, but I mainly focused on my texture for the main part of the prosthetic covering the pipe piece.

Technique: I went about building the main body of the prosthetic in a number of different ways, trying to figure out what the best was to go about doing it. I played with all kinds of curves, and manipulated them in various ways, from extrusion, to offsetting, trimming, lofting, and sweeping. I was finally able to get a curved polysurface that gave a subtle hint of a calf muscle along the backside, and I trimmed the top and bottom edges with curves in order to make the structure less stiff-looking. I used an extruded curve to remove the middle chunk of the foot piece, to give the model a more aerodynamic and modern look. I spent a lot of time getting my wavy texture right in order to flow it along the surface of the main leg shaft. I got the main components down, extruded them, and then copied the strip a number of times. I was then able to get it onto the surface, and ended up taking out the original surface underneath, so that all that was left was my wave-like structure.

Rendering/Materials: I stuck with plastics and metals, and a little but of axalta for my materials in keyshot. I would imagine the prosthetic to be very light, yet strong enough for everyday activities. Plastic is also slightly malleable, in order to get the prosthesis on and off. If it became a reality, the wave-like casing would attach to the pipe by a series of strong magnets that would connect from random sections of the inside of the casing to parts around the pipe. That way, if the user wanted to switch out the casing for another one, they could easily just pull it off and attach another.