ATEC-FAB UTDallas : Elias Perez: Week 10 Cardboard Ball

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Elias Perez: Week 10 Cardboard Ball

Concept:

The concept I had in mind for this project was to create a large jack-o-lantern helmet in the spirit of Halloween. I knew that I wanted it to fit on the persons head and that I didn't want a perfectly spherical pumpkin but rather one with many crooked edges to give off a sense of eeriness or madness almost like a Tim Burton style film. The color palette I used was based off of Vainglory's character Petal's Halloween cosmetic as I felt the purple and green complemented each other and made them pop creating an eerie feeling.

Petal Halloween Skin - Reference

Finished Product of Jack O Lantern

Technique:

The Jack-O-Lantern was modeled in Maya by extruding the faces of basic polygons as well as by moving the vertices inward to create the crooked shape that I was hoping for. To help keep the polygonal shape I would set up sub divisions in Maya so that it would be easier to cut the edge loops once I got into Pepakura. After the modeling process in Maya I changed the .ma file to an OBJ file and imported it into Rhino where I changed the file into NURBS so that I could further lower the amount of polygons. I then imported the file into Pepakura where I cut the edge loops to unroll the mesh. From here I put the vector file into Rhino where I prepped the lay out for laser cutting. The helmet is made from eflute cardboard and was put together using Loctite Super Glue, the candle and the helmet were made as separate objects and glue together after both objects were painted.

Jack-O-Lantern Pepakura File

Jack-O-Lantern Rhino File Lay Out

Materials:

The materials used for the Jack-O-Lantern Helmet were eflute cardboard, Loctite super glue, and Apple Barrel Gloss Acrylic paint for a smoother shine and color that pops. The assembly began before the painting but the candle and head were both done at separate parts. To better fit the polygonal flame on top of its candle base I cut multiple slits and glued around both objects to help it stay upright and did then glued the candle to the head after completion.

Cardboard Ball:

As requested I attended the cardboard ball and saw quite a few interesting projects that other people had done and was absolutely astounded by what could be done with laser cutting and 3D printing. I took a few photos of the event with others and their costumes.