Sarah Cepeda - Final Project: Skateboard deck

 So this skateboard deck is one of those things where I started off with an idea I really like and through the power of experimentation, I made too many mistakes and ending with a secret love child I'm too ashamed to show. I have the finished product, but I tried some post-processing to fix it and ended up hating it. Anyway, here's the bit of this project I have to show for it.

For starters, I worked on the graphic for my concept in Illustrator which translated straight into Lightburn and Inkscape, the MakerSpace recommended programs. I got the printing done rather quickly as a result, but the 3D model proved to be a different beast. Anyway, here are the concept images: 

Here is the Illustrator SVG: 

And to be perfectly honest, I remade the Rhino file at least 8 times, I didn't bother saving the failed files (at some point I could no longer boolean difference the parts I needed to, so I would scrap and restart a new file with some minor technique variant). 

For the majority of Rhino techniques, I'd create planar surfaces from vector lines in Illustrator. From that, I extruded the skateboard deck 0.5", the branch and pollen dots 0.25" and the flowers 0.125". I would then boolean difference everything from the skateboard and at first I kept getting errors so then I did it in segments and found the problem parts and attempted to fix them. I scrapped many times during this point and had to edit the Illustrator file so many times. During my first attempt I did not notice I had issues during this part and used the bend tool as well as a center line straight through the skateboard and marked at even points on each side to snap the bend tool to it and make symmetrical bends. 

Unfortunately, after my most recent attempt at fixing the Illustrator file I noticed that I did not save a copy of the original so I could not properly reset my progress and really messed it up for 
Rhino. I basically gave up at this point so I apologize for not having anything to present from here. 

I do have the final renditions of it, but I made the mistake of experimentation and messed it up pretty badly, so I debated even turning it in. Ultimately I decided I better so here are my lackluster photos of this subpar finished skate deck. Somewhere along the lines my measurements got messed up (which I noticed during the lamp engravings, when I imported my files into lightburn and inkscape it would always change my units and measurements, but I don't know why I didn't catch it ). Anyway, it printed way too small on the board so I tried adding some details around it and sprucing it up, but I've got that "too much" gene and I basically horribly maimed it. Here is the collection of probably one of my most shameful submissions I've forced myself to submit to date: 

I don't know why I thought the stain would be light enough to still be visible, so that was my first mistake when I painted the raster engravings on the branch portions. My second mistake, I thought I could fill it in with glue to make it more visible (at this point I was desperate). And my third and final mistake, I wanted it to appear as a larger piece so I did my best to paint some petal like features onto it, but then ended up more like polka dots and I made way too many. 

If I had the change to remake this, I would most definitely have learned from my mistakes and planned my designs more accordingly. Unfortunately, because it is so one and done, money and time both being tight, I just had to roll with the punches and tank the losses. 

I also have an unforseen poor internet connection that has left me unable to even properly post this blog on time. 

Cristian Resendiz: Week 12 Pepakura Creature

 Concept: For my creature I wanted to combine one of my favorite animals with something that would believably aid in it's speed. After some brainstorming I made the conclusion that something that would create less drag would be the solution. One of the things some insects have are smooth exoskeletons, so I simply applied some aspects from those to create the final design. The smoothness of the wings and the head reduce drag, the back legs add extra grip, and the tail and arm fins aid in stabilization at high speeds.

Techniques: For my creature I used Blender to create the model. I started with various cubes and added some subdivision modifiers to smooth them out. Once I got the general positions I combined the objects together using boolean union and started sculpting them into shape. After I got the rough shape I wanted I then started to retopologize the model since such a high poly model could cause problems along the line. I sliced the model in half to make it easier to work on and would apply a mirror modifier later on to fix it. Next I used a shrinkwrap modifier and a plane to start the retopology. I went all around the model using various extrudes from the plane's vertex's and filling any holes with grid fill. After all that I went around the model fixing various issues and finally added one last subdivision modifier to smooth out the model.

Materials: I used an orange color to relate back to it's original animal, the cheetah. If I were to display this piece I would want to place it somewhere with natural lighting since the outdoors is where a cheetah would naturally be comfortable. The post processing involved using loctate super glue and tape to attach the pieces to one another. We debated various colors but in the end we choose to keep the color white and clean it up with paint on the edges to give it a more uniform look.

Final Project Brief

 

Design

We all looked at each others designs and came to the conclusion that we should use my design. There were a couple deciding factors that made it the most viable choice. Such as JieXing's design loosing too much detail in the reduction process. While it looked good in it's non-edited state once it was reduced to less polygons certain details would be lost, such as losing the horn it had, or the wings becoming a mess. And Jackie's model was still in the rough stages, needing more time to be done thus we weren't able to fully decide on Jackie's design. My design was the only one that read well when we reduced the polygons so that's why we went with it. Once we all agreed on the design we all took our own stab at making a layout it for pepakura and choose the best one. The design never had it's final name decided, we all simply referred to it as Chimera since we couldn't think of one at the time. If I were to give one though I would probably call it "Swift Tail".

Responsibilities

We split up the responsibilities into 2 parts, one would focus on getting the parts cut, and the others would assemble and add any post processing to the piece. I was in charge of getting the pieces cut since I was the only one able to go to the lab and get a membership at the time. It was very stressful time since the lab usually had someone at the cutter. And since not many had any experience with the machine it took way longer since everyone had to get their layout's adjusted. I took the materials and eventually got them cut over a couple of days. Once I finished cutting the materials we split the payment for the service 3-ways.

 

Process

 After finishing and handing off the pieces, JieXing and Jackie were tasked on constructing the model. The model itself had some issues being put together, as told by my teammates, the cardboard was not easy to work with. The pieces were so fragile at times yet quite tough, such as when folding certain pieces. Some pieces, even when we could see where they went in the files, confused us on how exactly they fit into place. Once it was finally done the we checked the model to make sure all the edges were together and added some paint to them so that the inside color wouldn't show. 

Some of the pro's in the way we decided the roles was that we were given time to do things in-between, such as work on other classes. The downside was that one could not progress unless the other had finished their part. And if something were to go wrong one would have to go fix it and report to the others when the fixed part was ready. That left the other's with little to do at times.

JieXing Yee: Week 12 Pepakura Creature

 

Concept

The concept for my creature is a cat with features from other animals merged together.

I used a sitting cat as a base, and then I added on bat wings, horse mane, fox ears,

a unicorn horn, mouse feet, a lion’s tail, with a fire as the tip of the tail.

I thought a chimera would be a cool idea to see in pepakura form.

Techniques

For my model, I mainly used Cylinders and Bend them to get it to the right shape. I also adjusted the Control Points manually to achieve the shapes I needed. I also used Cones for the claws, Capped Pipes for the tail, and a Cut Sphere for the lower body. I then used Twist for the horn as well. For the mane, ears, and wings, I created a surface with Control Point Curves, duplicated them, and then used Blend Surface to connect them together. Lastly, I also used BooleanUnion to merge every piece together.

Materials

In KeyShot, I used the Cardboard Paper for the model, and then changed the color to better fit my vision. I also used a Black Floor Gradient and Los Angeles Midday and Sunset for my environments, and adjusted them until I got the proper background I wanted. I also created a sphere and used Area Light 1200 Lumen Warm for its material, to cast shadows on the floor.

For post processing, we used Loctite super glue and tape to attach all the pieces together. After that, we painted all the seams white to give it a more uniform look.

GROUP

Design Choice

My group mates are Cristian and Jackie, and we picked Cristian’s design to go forward with. Cristian called this creature a Chimera, and we chose it because it was the most suitable for the project. My model was overly complicated and was losing a lot of detail from reducing the poly count, and Jackie had not finished her model when we were choosing one. Cristian’s Chimera was also symmetrical, which would be a lot easier to assemble due to being able to compare parts from each side. His Chimera also had a more integrated design than mine so I thought it was more interesting.

Responsibilities

Our responsibilities were divided into laser cutting and assembling. Cristian was responsible for getting the cardboard laser cut, and me and Jackie split the pieces to assemble. Jackie assembled the legs and underbody while I assembled the head, upper body, wings, and tail. After that, me and Jackie met up to put our halves together, and do post processing work on it. We also split the money costs 3-ways and paid equally for it. 

Process

This entire project was frustrating for me. First off, I didn’t know Rhino well enough to be able to create my model in a way I want to. After that, reducing the poly count on the model was also a mess, because details would be lost, and the faces were set up in an overly complicated manner that it was difficult to keep track of different faces. Next is the Pepakura, where there were times when the edges just did not make sense at all. Lastly, the assembly was the worst of it all. I’m not very good with my hands, and working with a material as easy to break as cardboard was difficult. Certain pieces would be too thin to bend, and some others would just break off completely if I accidentally put in too much strength. Overall, it was not a fun experience at all, but it was a great learning experience instead. 

Clay Purdy Week 12: Pepakura Creature

Concept: For my creature I combined a snow leopard and a horned owl to create an Owl Griffin. I like the beefy sturdy legs and thick tail that snow leopards have and wanted to incorporate that into my design. I also took inspiration from this old ceramic black panther sculpture my grandmother has in her house, I've always liked the fluidity of the piece and wanted to try and imitate it.

Techniques: I sculpted the model in Mudbox. I made the head, body, legs and tail separately, each starting out as spheres. I mirrored the front legs, then slightly altered one using the freeze tool to mask off areas on the part then the grab tool to change its pose, I did the same thing for the back legs. In Rhino, I boolean union-ed all the parts together then used the reduce mesh tool in Maya to fine tone the low poly look.

Materials: In Keyshot, I used a rough textured metal material. I used the curvature texture on top of that to add the highlights on the high points or "positive curves" of the model. I wanted to piece to looked like a buffed back, patinated bronze. I think the piece has a very brutalistic style to it, so I set it in an open, grey industrial wear house.

For our actual piece, my group chose Hunter's Duckaroo. We found that the piece had a clean design and came off as very displayable with its three points of contact base. We also found the piece to be really funny looking and thought it would be cool to see it on a large scale.

Hunter modeled the piece and both Zach and Hunter worked on getting ready for and running through the laser cutter. We all came together to assemble the separate larger pieces using loctite. I took those larger pieces home and worked on the larger assembly, post processing and surface application. 

During the building process, we filled the tail, feet and legs with expanding insulation foam to give the piece more stability. To finish the piece, I coated the entire thing in masking tape, starting with the edges then filling in the wholes. I did this to seal the cardboard and also create texture with the folds and wrinkles in the tape. Once the pieces were sealed, I coated them in a black spray on primer to prep the surface to be painted with acrylic paint and to seal it even further. After that, I applied a dark green base layer of paint and started to assemble the lager pieces into one. A challenge arose at this point with the larger pieces not quite fitting together perfectly. All the different little flaps being glued together just slightly off allowed for enough variance in shape on the larger scale creating gaps between pieces. I managed to cover the gaps using tape though. I used multiple layers of paint, varying in tint and hue, to give the surface more depth. To finish it off, I used metalic gold paint and a dry brush technique to hit the high points of the surfaces to give it a buffed, patinated bronze look.