Michael Rodriguez: project 3 FlatFab model - The Crab.

 

Concept

               I began thinking about what I wanted to do for this project by looking over some of the provided examples in the flat lab planar studies Elearning page. I really liked Delaney Conroy’s conch shell design, and it inspired me to stick with an ocean theme. Seeing how she used some of her planes to construct the shell of the conch shell gave me the idea that the same idea could be applied to a crustacean type creature, and that train of thought made me want to design the oceans most popular crustacean, the crab.

 

Process

               I kept my process simple for this piece. I began by making a basic shape, then editing the points and curve manually until the shape was roughly symmetrical. I found that crabs have a conveniently symmetrical body, and I made this worked to my advantage by mirroring most of the pieces to make up the body of the crab and give it the familiar crustacean form that we are used to. Originally I wasn’t planning on adding the eyes, but I felt like I had to because without the stalky eyes the crab just feels like an ocean spider; and not a crab. In addition, one thing I found frustrating was the fact that the design is limited to how you connect pieces, which a leading issue for me in the design of the claws. Because of how I did the body, the first piece of the claw had to be a vertical piece, which made the connecting ligament a horizontal piece, which then connects to the vertical claw piece. I don’t like the shape of the horizontal piece that connects the arm/claw, but I’m not sure how I could’ve done it differently.

 

Materials

               I decided to give this piece a matte red material after experimenting with a couple of passes, mostly because I felt it was the most consistent throughout all of them, but also because it just completes the stereotypical crab look; with my design concept being just a crab, nothing less and nothing more, I figured that it would be best to not over due it with a complicated texture that doesn’t fit in all areas of the model. To go a bit further, this model should, in my opinion be laser cut into carboard or into a light wood. My reasoning for this is that because the claws are large, and the weight of the crab rests on its legs, the model is prone to falling over forward if printed in a heavy material such as metal or hardwood.

EDIT: the date says 12/16/20, this is meant to be 12/6/20, and is a typo, please disregard.