Jenna Bastian & Renae Patoskie: Pepakura Project

My partner is Renae Patoskie. Our chess piece was based off the Knight. It has a horse head shape but with spiked mane and horns to resemble a dragon's head. So our piece is a Dragon Horse Knight. We made it look tough and bulky.

I modeled the head in Maya. I then duplicated it and deleted the bottom faces if we decided there not to be a bottom. The closed bottom head had 270 faces, and the open bottom had fewer than that. Renae worked on the pepakura part. She laid out the model pieces in the Pepakura program to be put into Rhino 3D. The model took up 4 sheets of cardboard.

We built the knight piece together, it took six hours. The final size of the dragon horse head is two and half feet. Over the summer we may work on it more.

Knight Piece in Rhino 3D

Knight Piece in Keyshot

Knight Piece Template in Rhino 3D

Knight Piece in my car

Knight Piece Model

Renae Patoskie Week 8: Serial Slices

For the Serial Slices project I was inspired by the texture possibilities.

This technique has been used to create ambiguous, resemble contour mapping, or simply visual textures. I wanted to apply this visual texture into a common place object.

My goal was to create a similar texture to the one featured in the figure on the left, while creating a visually pleasing bowl inspired by the figure on the right.

To create this model, I created a series of 6 curves using the sketch tool. I then aligned the three surface points so that the bowl would be sufficiently balanced. I then lofted between the curves to create the outside surface. I then duplicated the surface, offset it above the outside surface and then sheared off the excess to create a flat edge on the top using the trim tool. I then used sweep two rails to create a surface between the inner and outer surfaces.

Due to the non-uniform thin outlines, it took 3 sheets of 24"x 48" mdf to print this project.

Constructed bowl from the end.

Constructed Bowl from above

Jenna Bastian: Week 12 Fox Box

For this project, I used the BoxMaker generator to create a box template with dimensions 23 x 6 x 9 inches. The box is sized so I can store my manga in it. I made the height a bit taller for the ones that are sized differently (Dragon Ball and Star Wars manga). I decided to do an elegant, wind theme with a fox. 

I used the BoxMaker to create the sides of the box. I then went into Adobe Photoshop and used the pen tool to create the swirls and fox shapes, and exported those paths as an Adobe Illustrator file. Then I imported those into Rhino 3D. The blue parts will be cut out, and the red will be engraved onto the 1-ply cardboard. For the cover, I made a slot so I can fit and use a "key" made for the box to open it more easily. 

Assembling the fox box was quite simple. I applied super glue to the slots and fit it quickly to the other edges. I left the top lid unglued and fit the "handle" inside the middle. This will probably hold objects of low weight so the bottom won't fall off. I'm probably going to glue the cut out fox on the back of the box. 

Fox Box Template in Rhino3D

Fox Box complete #1

Fox Box complete #2

Fox Box complete #3

Jenna Bastian: Week 11 Lamp

I will be using a Japanese theme for the lamp project, and it is going to be based off the more traditional architecture. I modeled various designs in Maya and eventually combined two of them to create the final piece. A light yellow lamp shade will probably be put inside the interior of the lamp so the light bulb won't be too bright. It will have a warm color scheme (reds and yellows).

I modeled the lamp structure again in Rhino 3D with the correct dimensions. I used the Split function to cut out holes and slots from the planes and solids. I made sure the slices fit in one 24x48 sheet of plywood, before cutting out the slots. I created a circular lid for each level, which is where the light will be placed. Each lid has a different design. A slot was cut out from the bottom of the model for the wires.

I used .125 inch plywood for this model, the slots cut out were .126 inch wide. The plywood will be painted a glossy dark red and the light can be placed on any of the levels. I may buy either a white or yellow lamp shade material to be rolled up into a cylinder and placed inside to dim the light.

Lamp in Maya #1

Lamp Render in Maya #2

Lamp Slices in Rhino 3D

Lamp Template in Rhino 3D

Lamp Template on my floor

Lamp Complete!

Jenna Bastian: Week 10 Squirrel Waffles

For the Waffles project, I decided to do a squirrel. Squirrels are the mascots for all colleges, and they are like the freshmen college students.  Some squirrels switch trees (majors) since it was not quite for them or they had too much competition. They gather as much nuts (knowledge) as they can, but some forget where they put it. They are super fidgety, excited for adventure, and wary of the unknown.

I modeled a simple shape of a squirrel in Maya and imported it into Rhino 3D. I used Contours to create curves that cut through the object, I then took those curves to create the slices with PlanarSrf. After, I thickened the slices with ExtrudeSrf by .24 (2 ply cardboard thickness). I flipped some of the vertical slices so the rough side of the hardboard will show on either side of the squirrel.

In Keyshot I placed the squirrel waffle structure in front of the UTD campus, near the Visitor Center since it also has a waffle-like structure. I chose brown metal so it would not be too distracting and be natural in the environment. The second keyshot render is what it would look like as plywood or cardboard. For the actual model I used hardwood (with .125 inch thickness), with .14 inch slots. The finished squirrel model was wobbly due to the wide slots but, with the help from Professor Scott, we were able to make it stand with the use of tiny pieces of cardboard and super glue inside some of the extra slot space.

Squirrel in Rhino 3D

Squirrel Slices in Rhino 3D

Squirrel in Keyshot #1

Squirrel in Keyshot #2

Squirrel Model finished #1

Squirrel Model finished#2

Jenna Bastian Week 9: Serial Slices

Since the last couple projects were fire theme, I decided to do the serial slices project over water. My pet Dragon-Scaled Betta fish was my inspiration, I wanted to to capture his delicate swiftness. Fish live in water, so it fits the theme. I will be using thin material when putting the pieces together so it can better keep its shape. The sections will also help show his many scales and symbolize ripples or waves in water. 

I modeled the betta in Maya and then imported it into Rhino 3D. I followed Andrew Scott's tutorial videos to create the slices. I will be using 1 Ply cardboard (.13 thickness) for the material and perhaps paint it either white or blue (wave colors). The rods will go through the middle of the fish from the mouth to the back fin. Since there were so many slices, I used two templates to fit them all. This is going to be fairly large (16 inches long). 

In Keyshot, I kept the backgrounds simple. The first Keyshot render was a wood material to show what it would look like with cardboard (I may redo this with plywood later). The second is a blue metallic color since the color is water themed and is what I may paint it with. Assembling the betta's back fin was tricky. Since it is thin, it flops side to side but decided to keep it that way since it is a fish.

Betta in Maya

Original & Sliced Model in Rhino 3D

Betta Slices on Template in Rhino 3D

Betta in Keyshot 

Betta in Keyshot 

Finished Betta #1

Finished Betta #2

Jake Lenzen Week 8: Slots

Continuing on the theme of my last project, I wanted to create a model with ties to my favorite book series, The Wheel of Time. Each element of the construction is a reference to different elements of the books. The central tower represents the White Tower, whose occupants have steered the world in the direction of their choosing for centuries. The tear drop shapes represent the two sides of the One Power. Similar to Yin and Yang, there is a male and female side to the power, equal but different in all aspects. The dice were more specific, a reference to a particular character who, by his nature, influences the luck of happenings around him.

Technically the project was fairly simple. I created the vector file in Illustrator then imported it into Rhino. I decided after seeing other projects that I wanted something central for the rest of the project to revolve around. I took two silhouettes of the Tower and cut long notches through the center of each, one starting at the top going down to the middle, the other starting at the bottom. When put together, they create an X construction which can stand on its own. I was most happy with how this part of the project turned out.

Jenna Bastian Project 3: Nature Cuts

For the Laser Cutting project I decided to do a nature theme. I used two deer silhouettes and a tree branch silhouette from Google Images.  I wanted to show two different personalities of a deer. The standing deer shows strength, confidence, and stubbornness, while the running deer will symbolize fear, freedom, and possibly stupidity.

I followed Professor Scott's video tutorials to make this template. I created a path surrounding the silhouette on Adobe Photoshop and imported it into Rhino 3D. CurveBoolean was used to cut out path with the rectangular segments (which had a .13 thickness). I then used array to see how many deer I could fit onto the template. I had some space left over so I used tree branches to fill them up (I was going for flowers or leaves at first but thought the deer would look funny). I had to redo this process couple times since I resized the objects after using CurveBoolean and noticed that the cut out segments would be smaller than the cardboard itself. And then again since there were too many control points on the paths which would cause the laser to take a longer time. I used the pen tool to make the curve more simple, and cut off unnecessary branches from the tree.

I will arrange the deer in a symmetrical fashion and have the two deer alternate around the pattern. I will then add the tree branches to break the symmetry and add more variety to the object. I am going to leave the cardboard as it is, I probably won't paint it since brown is a nature-like color.

Images of the process (I will add the final project when it's done):

Here are the cardboard cutouts and them assembled. While assembling I learned that the cardboard can bend easily, especially at the antlers and tree branches. It took a couple tries so assembling took longer than expected. The deer are symmetrical but the antlers/tree branches make it not look so; it looks different from different points of view. Also I love the burnt cardboard smell, it's "Christmasy" which suits the theme in a way.

Jenna Bastian Project 2: Dragon

For this project, I decided to create a dragon. It could be a cool pen holder or a really snazzy paper weight. Again, like the past Rhino 3D models, I am going for a tough, elegant look.

I modeled the dragon in Maya and imported it into Rhino 3D. It was difficult for me since this is first time I have modeled a creature in Maya, the wings were the most difficult. I then added the eyes in Rhino by creating spheres and editing the control points to shape it into the eye sockets.

For KeyShot rendering, the brightness and contrast of the environment were increased. I used chrome for the body but changed it to a gold color; I liked how the wings were reflecting parts of the body in a weird way. I also added a red glass texture for the eyes so it would not be completely gold. I wanted it to look like a creature living in my previous Palace. 

Ghosted images from Rhino and KeyShot renders:

Ghosted in Rhino

Layered in Rhino

Keyshot Render #1

Keyshot Render #2

Here are the 3D printed images of the Dragon. I spray painted it with a silver chrome color (I couldn't find any gold chrome). It came out nice, and the texture was still noticeable.