Jake Lenzen and Charles Person: Pepakura

For this project, we wanted to create a simple, polygonal piece that was easily recognizable as a queen. We used renaissance era hats as inspiration, and create the head based on that shape. The base of the model is an octagon, signifying the 8 ways a queen can move across the chess board.

Modeling was done by starting with an octagonal polygon, then extruding it upwards and adjusting the faces until the desired shape was completed. Attaching the top piece to the rest was difficult, as the base was a square. In the end, we used the 4-point planar create tool to create the desired surface, then joining the  pieces together.

As with my lamp post, I forgot that I wouldn't be able to get the needed pictures of the modeling process without Rhino, so I only have a picture of the finished project. I apologize for this lack of forethought.

Charles Person Lamp

For my lamp project I went through several design ideas, eventually settling on one derived from my flashlight model from the first project.  The model was scaled in two dimensions and tapered slightly to give it a new shape with a wider interior that would lend itself better to fitting a hand to change a bulb. when adding the contours to modify the model I wanted to emphasize the ridged pattern on the bottom, so I applied more vertical contours on the lower half. I also wanted to have an open front, which led to some problems on the printed prototype in conjuncture with slightly too small slots that made it difficult to assemble the model correctly. I also missed the flat base when unrolling the planes, necessitating some modification on the prototype to allow it to stand. Future iterations of the project would have the radial planes moved forward to better balance the structure.

Charles Person Waffle Structure

For this project I began thinking of natural structures, starting from honeycombs and ranging to things like tress, crystals and rock formations. After tempering my thought process with the desire to keep the structure simple both to avoid problems with complexity in the waffling process and outside influences I settled on seashell shapes. This brought the added bonus of some recent personal memories.

The main structures of the shape were formed made with simple shapes and Boolean difference. Polar array was for both the indents and holes. The details ended up even more lost in the waffle structure than I thought so for potential future iterations I'll need to go back in and deepen them and add contours around the holes to help them maintain their shape.

Charles Person Serial Slices

For my serial slices I revisited my sword model from my free model for the midterm. I was mainly interested in seeing how well the spiral would be communicated in stacked form, as it'd really just be depending on a half cut at the top to communicate it. For this version I omitted the side struts from the model, but if I were to revisit it I'd keep them in as I think it looses some of it's identity without them.

For the materials I was mostly trying to evoke the cardboard prototype and a potential wood iteration. I played around with a few metals and clear plastics but didn't really like how they came out, though I may in the future revisit the clear plastics and use different colored plastic.

Charles Person Midterm Laser Cuts

For inspiration for the laser cuts I began to think of representations of atoms, bones and constellations. Specifically the image of larger nodes connected by smaller lines to convey a greater image. So I decided to work with that and create a base node shape that could be interconnected.

The modelling techniques I made use of were curves and curve booleans. I worked with a few base node shapes but kept coming back to the circle as I thought it was the simplest and most effective at conveying what I wanted. In hindsight I'm thinking I maybe should have gone even simpler with my shapes, with maybe just a single node circle shape and a few connector shapes.

For the final assembly I tried drawing influence from a few different constellations but ended up settling on Orion's Belt. I liked the overall simplicity of it as well as how recognizable it is, along with a bit of a personal attachment as it's usually bright enough to be seen as I'm walking to and from night classes despite the light pollution.

Charles Person Midterm Free Model

My main inspiration was a previous art project I had made freshman year in highschool, where we had to hand model a piece, and my chosen piece was a sword embedded in a stone.  The imagery itself is of course common place, though my particular inspiration back then was the game Fable. For this revisit I went for a more enshrined image, more befitting the Legend of Zelda series.

For modelling I primarily worked with booleans, difference in particular to make the lines of the components line up better in the model, even if it won't be especially noticeable on the print. I also did some array work to create the grip on the hilt and the base. The spiral part of the base is a spiral pipe, sized to give it a particular coil I wanted.

For the materials on the render I ran with the idea of the sword being enshrined in place and went with an overall light color scheme. I chose to make the spiral a glass to give it an ethereal effect, especially working with the metallics around it. The rest of the base is composed of marble and gold, again to convey a sense of wealth, power, honor etc, the kind of things you'd see around a prized artifact.

Charles Person Midterm Flashlight

For this sleeve I went for a big clunky feel, something that could take a beating. In particular you can see this on the rim of the shade, which is up to a centimeter thick on the finished model. The grips along the side were also intended to help bulk it out visually.

The primary modelling techniques used for it were a combination of curve boolean and revolve for the base shape and grip. Next array polar and boolean difference were used to create the ring of indents along the bottom. And finally the cylinders used to create the indents were moved to the top of the flashlight to repeat the process on the top.

For the materials on the render I wanted to carry on the bulky and durable effect so I went with a hard plastic for the main body and a hard clear plastic for the grip.