Anthony Lopez: Week 11 Deck Laser Engraving

CONCEPT

I took my original drawing which was the ASL spelling for “LOVE” and I scanned it with my phone using Adobe Scan. Then I inserted it into Adobe Capture which allowed me to alter the original design into a sophisticated pattern. Inspired by patterns revolving around repeating diamonds or stars I sought to create an elegant pattern that was clean and timeless.

TECHNIQUES

I imported the design into Illustrator and used image trace to get a product I could work with in Rhino. However when I imported that file into rhino the curves it gave me were way too close to each other for the main hexagon shapes. This meant that if I tried to laser cut it the curves would have overlapped with each other and it would not have been pretty. So I used the explode command to try and separate the curves of the hexagon so that instead of a curve and a stroke it would be just the curve. Unfortunately this did not work so I decided that I would trace the shapes manually. 

I then began to trace one hexagon and one star with the line command. Then for the ovals surrounding those two I used the curve command to trace the oval shapes. After that I copy/pasted the set of shapes and used the move tool to move them to the location represented in the original design. I used the hatch command to create the raster of the stars.

MATERIALS

The post processing consisted of painting the stars that were the rasters hatched into the deck. Each was painted different colors and I used acrylic paint.

Anthony Lopez: Week 8 MakerCase Lamp

CONCEPT

    The masks in the images provided inspired the design and colors of the lamp. The masks portrayed are 2D representations of masks in the style of those found in Lucha Libre, the term used for Mexican professional wrestling. They are meant to reflect the masks worn by the wrestlers or luchadores. The common design is a stroke surrounding the inner cuts such as the eyes, nose, and mouth. The colors are bright and colorful and I thought this would go well against the light MDF wood.

TECHNIQUE

    After drawing up and tracing the designs into Rhino, I used extrude curve to extrude the curves into 3D objects. After that I used boolean difference to identify the inner cuts and subtract them from the lamp. Inner cuts included the holes used at the bottom of the box, the eyes, nose and mouth of the masks. Next, I rotated the sides so that they stand up straight and I used the move command to attach the sides of the lamp together. Then, I used planar surface on the outer line of the mask so that I would be able to define the separate surfaces of the mask needed for assigning a color in KeyShot and painting later on. After creating a surface across the mask, I had to use split to select the surfaces that covered the inner cuts, such as the eye and mouth, and then delete them.

MATERIALS

    I downloaded a MDF material from the KeyShot cloud and applied it to the case and the individual surfaces so it would reflect the material I used. I then selected colors from the colors section and applied them to the surfaces needed. I checked a box saying “Blend Color” so that the color would blend with the MDF material and create a realistic rendition of the lamp. I chose a table for the environment because I imagine that would be the best place for the lamp. I made sure to keep in mind not only the lighting of the environment but the lighting from the lightbulb inside the lamp as well.