Tara Intyrath: Slots

Concept: I was in the middle of a heated discussion with my parents when the idea for this project came into mind. I wanted to create an image of unity but in the middle or inside of it all there's are parts that do not follow that unity and struggle as they try to break free trying to not be conformed.

Technique: For starters I wanted to use a fairly simple shape so I decided to make my root module of that of a triangle. To me a triangle is boring but is better than a square so in my ideals it is best suited for the concept I have towards this project. I continued the idea of basic shapes and used squares this time to make the slots. I used the curve boolean tool in the end to make the four different triangle designs. Its a very simple design or four different triangles.

Model: For my materials I decided to go with the eflute cardboard because of how thin it was. It was very easy to use and get things fitted together. I really like that it came out to be like a shape of a star with objects spilling or trying to force their way out. It fits with my idea because for me I have always been told to do things a certain way by my parents and that is the only way I will be successful. The star has always been a sort of motif of success for me.

 

Christopher Rickett : Slots

Concept:  I wanted to do something that was based off of triangles, because three sided objects are the some of the most stable structures. therefore all of my shapes are based off of this concept. also wanted to incorporate curved shapes within these straight edged shapes to give some more variety to them.

Technique: To create these shapes, I used the create polygon command to create a nine sided polygon curve. From there, I simply divided the shape up using lines and curve booleaned the shapes that I wanted from the root template. 

Result:  the end result was a series of incomplete modular units attached to one another in an a way that is reminiscent of molecular bonding. also it is constructed in such a way the it allows the viewer to fill in the gaps with their mind to complete the shapes.

Jung Choi: Slots Droplet

Concept: The concept I had in mind for this project was a water droplet hitting the surface of the water. With this concept, I decided to use a lot of round circular shapes in radiate outwards in a symmetrical pattern that gave off a slight feeling of an explosion.

Modeling Techniques: A lot of the slot making was done with the curve boolean tool as well as array polar to get the slots all the way around some of the shapes. For the long shapes, I used two circles then connected them with curves. After which I split the curves in order to trim out the pieces I do not want then joined the open curves together to make a closed curve. The hardest part was planning out the slots so that the top and bottom circles would fit the long slots. After I made the long pieces, I rotated them upwards to see where the slots and what angle they would need to go in order to fit.

Material: For the material I decided to use the eflute cardboard as I did not want it to be too bulky or big since it was supposed to be a water droplet. Thicker material would have made the pattern less noticeable and I believe would have taken away from the theme of the project unless I had made it significantly larger. 

Victoria Mayfield: Slots

Concept: The first few ideas I had for possible slot pieces were not as successful as I had hoped. I began with the idea of branches and leafs for a natural look, but the designs I created didn't work very well together. I then pulled inspiration from one of my favorite themes, steampunk. What better idea for modular slots than gears, which are designed to work together!

Modeling: I was able to use the Picture Frame tool to bring in reference images for different gears that I liked. I knew I wanted a few different types of gears that I would be able to incorporate into my design, since generally when you think of gears there are many different styles and sizes of gears all working together. After I used the circle tool to create the main bodies of the gears, I was then able to use the scale tool to get achieve the different sizes of gears I wanted. Then I used the polar array tool to create an array of rectangles that were .25 inches wide. I used the curve tool and the circle tool to create the different designs within each gear. After that I used the curve boolean tool to essentially cut out each slot from the gears.

Materials: For my material I decided to go with a 2-ply cardboard, as I wanted the gears to have a somewhat heavy appearance, and was concerned MDF would be too heavy for me to assemble the gears the way that I envisioned. Also, the material was light enough for me to get the height that I had intended with my original design. I really liked how you can see the corrugations on the edges of the gears since I used the 2-ply cardboard, I think it gives each gear more character. I would like to spray paint the gears in brass and copper tones to match with my steam punk theme before I glue all the gears together into their final form. 

Charlotte Guzman-Russell: Slots

Concept: For this project, I wanted to use things that were related to each other ans easily identifiable but very different in shape and silhouette. As such, I chose to use bees and the honeycombs they make. I assembled the slots by starting with the honeycombs as the base and then added the bees. While the structure may look different each time I assemble it, if I follow this pattern it looks like the honeycombs are being rebuilt and swarmed by the bees.

Technique: I found a simple bee silhouette and brought the image into Rhino and traced the outline and added the stripes to make it more distinguishable as a bee (as opposed to a fly) to generate curves. I also made a honeycomb shape in Photoshop and used the same process. I then made a small rectangle and used the split tool to cut out the shapes for the slots on the curves.

Materials: I used the 2-ply cardboard for this project because its easy to work with, inexpensive, and it's warm color and waffle-like inner structure reminds me of honey and beehives. If I were to make this on a larger scale I think it would also look good with a wood or metal material. Though because the subject matter involves a delicate system in nature, I would prefer to use a more natural material or possibly a material that wouldn't be harmful to bees.

Alec McKay: Slots

Concept: After looking through several animal silhouettes, I came across birds and decided that a flock of birds would be perfect for this type of process. From there, I tracked down one image with several silhouettes of the same type of bird, so that the different silhouettes would look like they go together. I also thought that birds lent themselves well to the incorporation of slots, because I was able to incorporate them into feathers or the beak, and they don't look too conspicuous.

Technique: I brought the images into Illustrator and generated curves from the silhouettes. After that, I brought them into Rhino and created rectangles that were exactly 0.06 inches wide. Then I arranged them around each bird piece and connected them to the silhouette curves with some trimming and joining. After cutting a couple test pieces, I reduced the size to 0.05 for a tighter grip between the pieces. I created a few different arrangements, with one being the more organized V shape and another being an attempt at a more chaotic swarm, but I thought the V shape worked the best with my pieces and looked the best.

Material: I decided to go with the E-Flute cardboard because I thought the birds would look best in a thin material, so they'd be more delicate. It was also the cheaper material, and I figured that if this came out well I could do another run with a nicer material at another time. The one regret that I had with this decision was that the cardboard isn't a very sturdy material so some parts of my pieces bent easily.

Christopher Clark: "Celestial" Slots

Design inspiration- My main source of inspiration was the sun, and celetial bodies in general. This comes across in how all my pieces are radial, outstretched with curves or points. This also comes across in my final build in how much the piece stretches out to make contact with all the sections of space.

Techniques Used- Interpolate curves gave me most all of my organic lines, with the help of the grid snap on to create a better controlled curve. Array polar of course helped to create all of the radial shapes that supported my concept. Boolean curves was also used to find the most varied and unexpected shapes.

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.

Roman Hunt: Midterm: Slot Cuts

For the slots assignment, I opted to use a clearly defined silhouette as the main piece type. I chose a shark because the shape was distinctive, appeared structurally solid, and offered a number of locations for notches. The extra space in the sheet was filled in with two secondary pieces; though not based on an existing design, they serve as connectors, opening up new possibilities when assembling.

The assembly process following the laser cutting was highly experimental. Between issues of stability and the sheer number of pieces at my disposal, I quickly discovered that a single object made from every was impractical. Ultimately, I created three different pieces using the slots.

Rhino screenshot of layout

Unassembled slots

Object A

 

Object B

Object C

 

Renae Patoskie Week 7: Slots

Following my 3D Printing Free Model project I wanted to continue exploring the Fibonacci Sequence, but with a more organic shape. To minimize rough edges I therefore only allowed my modular form a single slot that would not be visible once attached to the whole. My modular forms were designed with the intention of building outwards from the center piece in order to maintain clean outer lines.

I created my forms by deforming a circle into a petal or leaf-like form, to enhance the Fibonacci visual. On the basic form there are two difference slot placements, to add variety in the constructed design's capabilities. With the intent of using both the Fibonacci numbers 5, 8 and 13, I printed each part in those multiples with a few spares. This is also why my central shape is a octagon.

Illustrator outline of modular forms, with inner and outer cuts designated.

As I assembled each configuration, I could never settle for just one; similarly each assembly grew farther and farther from any likeness to Fibonacci. As the complexity of the design grew they did however become unstable due to the lack of intersecting slots. However I much prefer the versatility this left me open to, and should a true favorite present itself, there is always glue.

Design 1: Perspective View

Design 1: Arial View

Chloe Ferris: Week 6 Slots

For this project, I wanted to create an abstract sculpture out of the laser cut pieces to display in my apartment. I was very inspired by the idea of water and the flow of waves, so I focused my idea around that. I looked at many references of other's slot projects, along with sculptures of water, in order to solidify my idea. I created three different curved pieces, to show three different stages of a wave flowing, along with two smaller, simple curve pieces to act as connectors. I wanted the connectors to be more geometric and without cutout pieces, in order to provide a contrast to the waves and not draw attention from them.

Reference 1 - Stallman Studio

Reference 2 - Stephen Kishel

Reference 3 - Lubo

I created the pieces completely in Rhino, using curves. I used the 3-point curve tool to create the different wavey shapes, then placed the notches at different angles and combined them together to make one curve with the CurveBoolean tool. For the connectors, I used the arc tool to make two arcs (inside and outside), then connected the bottoms with a line. Then, I added notches, CurveBoolean'd them together, and filleted the bottom edges to keep with the curved design. I did not want any hard edges besides where the notches would be.

The Root Piece, and the Modified Designs

The 48 x 24 Layout

I had these laser cut on 2-ply cardboard, because I wanted the pieces to be a little thicker. When I brought in the file to the lab tech, he suggest I delete a couple of the pieces in order to keep the time down, so I cut out about 6 pieces from the original file. The whole cutting process took 15 minutes, but about half of the pieces had to be cut again with a razor blade, because the laser had not gone all the way through the board on one end (the lab tech said the bed on that side got too cold). I then took the pieces, arranged them how I wanted, and glued them together with Loctite glue. I did not use all of the pieces I cut, but I think it looks better that way.

Final Composition 1

Final Composition 2

Here is a breakdown of how my time was spent on this project:
Week 6: Idea formation, planning, creating forms in Rhino
Week 7: Finalizing forms, laser cutting, and physical assembly

Ed Whetstone: Project 4, Modular Slots (Sharks and Minnows)

This post has all updates for Project 5, Modular Slots.

See all posts below the fold!

Sean Johnson: Week 9 Slots

I approach this project with to intention of making a set of slots that I might be able to give my kids, should I have any down the road. That said, I didn't want any particularly sharp edges and I wanted to make sure I had plenty of small connector pieces as well.

I wanted to have a large variety of different pieces, and each of them to have at least some kind of symmetry. Each of the pieces was made using a series of curve booleans. I made sure to fillet all of the sharp edges and used polar arrays to arrage the slots on the ends of pieces.