Griffin Korns: Week 11 Laser Engraving

Concept:
I originally wanted to do a raster engraving of the black/white image featured above, but due to some unforeseen issues with formatting, I decided to make it a crosshatched engraving instead, as I knew it could be done without issue. The car featured is a 2016 Mustang GT350 R.

Technique:
I took a wallpaper of mine and modified it in Photoshop to be black and white, and so that the shadows were extremely contrasting, and any excess color or lighter shadows were gone. I then took that image into Illustrator and drew curves around all of the different "tiers" of shadows, which made 4. I then took those curves into Rhino, and split planes with them, organizing each plane by shadow tier. Then I used the contour command to crosshatch each plane according to its shadow tier. I added an additional hatch for each tier of shadow, with the 4th tier having 4 hatches, and being darkest.

Materials:
I used a piece of regular plywood from Lowe's, and some glue to secure the feet of the stand.

Rebecca Genung: Week 11 Laser Engraving

For this project I wanted to do a heart. Heart abnormalities run rampant in my lineage: so much so that I, my mother, and my great-grandmother all have a extra, fully formed, and functioning valve. I also have a heart rate averaging 4 times higher than the healthy amount for someone of my build. I'm not unhealthy, it's just genetic. With that in mind: I will die of a heart attack one day relatively soon. To me, hearts don't represent emotion but rather the duality of life and death. My heart powers my body, but it will ultimately be the thing that kills it.

For my image, I drew a heart in vector in PhotoShop with the pen tool (shape mode). Then I imported the .PSD file to Illustrator and converted it to a .AI file. I wanted to imply the animation of a beating heart.

While I think cut metal would be the nicest looking,  I went with cardboard for financial reasons. While the lines were smooth, the cut has several puncture areas that stand out. I still like how it turned out though.

Michael Hosler- Laser Engraving Board

Concept- In keeping with my love for geometrical patterns, I decided to engrave one onto a Longboard. but slapping a geometric pattern in a circle is totally lame, so I started to chop it up and move pieces of it around and play with different sizes to see what I found most appealing. these were a few of my ideas, along with the original design:

Methods- In making the original design, I generated a few simple shapes and then used polar arrays to rotate and copy the shapes until I had a really interesting pattern. then I sliced it in half and played with sliding the halves further apart and mirroring them over the center of my reference layer. After cutting my first board, it grew legs and walked away so I was forced to start again. After I cut the second board, I applied just a single layer of blue stain to give it a slight blue tint, then used paint to fill in the pattern itself with a bright green hue. While wiping away the paint, I noticed that leaving just a little bit on the surface of the board blended really nicely with the stain, so I started wiping less paint off and trying to get the colors to really mesh. After the coloring was done and everything was dry, I applied grip tape to the top of the board to finish.

Draven Ashorn-Hejl: Box Project - Starlight

Concept: For the box project, after seeing people make boxes to use for things I decided I wanted to try that. One thing that's very common in the homes of my family are small light features, like candles and decorative lights. Also, the running theme in my family's homes tends to be rustic, western style decor. Thus, with this project I decided to make a box to serve as a light feature I could give to my family that would fit in with their decor, and to that end I went with an idea common in western stories: the celestial bodies, namely the Sun, Moon, and Stars.

Techniques: I used Box Maker to create the outer shape of the box panels, then imported that into Illustrator, where I added the Star shapes for inner cuts and added vector images of the Sun and Moon for raster engraving, and also cut a hole in the bottom to place an electric tea light to light the box.

Materials: I bought a sheet of plywood from Home Depot that was just barely smaller than the laser cutter window for the material for the box itself (out of which I got 5 boxes), and used the UTD Fab Lab's laser cutter to do the cutting and engraving of the panels. I then used superglue to ensure the boxes held together and added a small electric tea light for the illumination.

Draven Ashorn-Hejl: Laser Engraving Project - Skateboard

Concept: Ever since I was little playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on rented PlayStations I'd wanted my own custom skateboard like all the skaters had, with a cool design based on their personal branding. With this project I finally got to fulfill that wish and designed a board based on my personal branding that I've built up online. For a while I had trouble coming up with what to put on the board besides my branding (just like real skaters) and a hex grid (because hex grids are cool), but then it hit me: I could make a tableau listing my completed projects, so that when I had the board kicked up and in hand like a cool skater it would serve as a list of my accomplishments while proudly displaying the branding I had completed them under.

Technique: I used Illustrator to design the board, using layering, masking, and some numerical parameter tweaking to get everything just right and all fitting onto the board. All of the engraving done by the laser cutter was done raster style at maximum depth for a solid, deep engrave.

Materials: I bought one of the skateboards Professor Scott recommended because I trust his judgement, and used the laser cutter at the UTD Fab Lab to handle the engraving.

Victoria Mayfield: Elephant Engraving

Concept: When I first began brainstorming ideas for my laser engraving I wanted to do something that incorporated my love for modern art. After brainstorming and looking at reference ideas for modern art, I decided I also wanted to incorporate my favorite animal, the elephant! I also decided I wanted there to be contrast in each line stroke within the elephant shape, and with the shapes I wanted to surround my modern elephant. 

Modeling: I used a few modeling techniques to create this design, but mostly it was the curve tool. I was able to use the PictureFrame command to bring in my reference drawing of the elephant with geometric lines all across it. Then use the curve tool to outline the elephant body and the lines inside. I decided I wanted to create contrast within the body by having the interior geometric lines be different depths. This didn’t really pay off because the different depths are not as apparent as I had initially wanted. 

Materials: I used a .25 thick MDF plywood to engrave on. I wanted the piece to have some weight to it, which is why I chose the thicker cut. However, I also liked how the MDF reacts to the laser and leaves a somewhat burnt edge, but not black residue like with lower quality wood. Overall, I am pleased with the outcome. From here, I would like to use water colors to add a pop of color and to emphasize the elephant and the bubbles. I would like to leave the area around my elements bare, and put a lacquer on it to emphasize the wood grain.