Jesus Javier Vela: Week 9 Laser Cutting

Vertical View

Concept

     Thinking of the recurring wave of organically shaped buildings around the world, I decided to build an architectonic piece. Like Capital Gate tower, I wanted the side of my piece to contour diagonally towards the ground. Three pillars make the piece free-standing while other smaller pillars add support between sections of the piece.

Approximate Rendering of Blend Operation

Techniques

     Flatfab, a 2D to 3D fabrication design software was used to make the piece. I first drew the top-most section. Then I attached a support pillar to it. I used the revolve operation to create the other two support pillars. Next, I added the bottom-most section to the opposite end of the first support pillar. I had to make sure this section interconnected the all three pillars. Using a blend operation, ten more sections were generated (twelve sections, total). Once the piece was down, I downloaded the flattened slab geometry as a .obg file. I formatted the file in Rhino, extended lines to intersections, transforming text into objects, and reviewing that the dimensions were accurate. Unfortunately, I didn't save the .txt file, so the piece was lost. Hence, a .obj file could not be generated to render in Keyshot.

Formatting in Rhino

Materials

     Before I sent the piece for laser printing, I made two prototypes. First, I printed the file using copy paper. The thinness of the material made it impossible for the piece to be free-standing. Next, I made a prototype using card-stock. The material was thicker, so the piece was able to stand on its side. When I finally laser printed the file using cardboard, the piece was able to stand vertically as well as horizontally.

Horizontal View

Jesus Javier Vela: Week 12 Laser Engraved Skateboard Deck

Original Photo

Concept

     While this project's first direction moved towards developing an abstract image, it eventually modulated towards realism as opportunities for visual interpretation became apparent. The final concept was recreating a photo of my friend attempting to look at her phone while wearing an over-sized panda head. Emphasis was placed on the panda head as well as the phone because they establish the visual conflict of the piece.

Layers on Adobe Illustrator

Techniques

     The design was developed using Adobe Illustrator. A photo of my taking was minimized with a three-color image trace. While some areas of the image were reduced to few lines, others were sustained by a field of blotches fighting for space. The image was then extended into objects and ungrouped. The objects were easily selected by similar color and sorted into layers designated by engraving weight. After playing around with the design, the final weights were raster, medium, and deep.

Laser Engraved Skateboard

Materials

     I used a blank 7.5" skateboard deck for the engraving at the Machine Shop. Given that the surface of the canvas was not entirely flat, certain areas of the board were engraved deeper than others. I am still pleased with the results, but the unintended consequence did undermine some of my effort to create depth in the design by adjusting the engraving weight relative to the distance of objects in the image.

Jesus Javier Vela: Project 2 Week 11 Polyhedra

Illuminated Polyhedra

Concept

     Given the semi dome-shaped appearance of the Half Truncated Icosidodecahedron helped envision the sun as a motif in this piece. Shapes were borrowed from past vector graphics I have designed, so it was interesting to re-purpose icons. This piece can be observed as an enclosed space where light enters through openings, and it can also be perceived as a lamp that projects symbols in the environment.

Formatting on Adobe Illustrator

Techniques

     Adobe Illustrator was used to develop the format of the polyhedra. Lines were sorted into layers designating guides, outer cuts, and inner cuts. Because some shapes in the polyhedra were not aligned to neither the X or Y axis, reference lines between shapes' anchors were used for alignment. Making the inner cuts required creating a dotted stroke path as well as simplifying the path.

Front View

Back View

Materials

     The piece was laser printing onto cardboard. the piece was able to stand vertically as well as horizontally. Assembling it required folding the inner cuts then glues the edges together using super glue. In the future, I will consider painting the polyhedra in a metallic color. The color could hint at architecture like the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The color is also industrial, so perceiving the object as a lamp will be feasible.

Anna Phengsakmueang: Week 9 Laser Cutting

Concept

As a representation of nature, I based the general structure of the project off of a deer. To reflect the organic shapes that are found within nature, I made the parts of the structure to be more curved rather than sharp. To also balance out the structure, I ensured that the antlers were not to big but were still easily distinguishable to be that of a deer's.

Techniques

FlatFab Deer Creation

Using FlatFab, I began with the general face shape of the deer from the side using the X-axis perspective. Then I started to add more shapes along using the Z-axis perspective to add more dimension to the head of the deer. The added shapes were of the shape of a deer head if one were facing its eyes. The shapes were smaller in the front than the back, to add the realistic dimensions of an actual deer. After the head was created, I began with the neck and body using the same process. However, I did not position the head high enough, so the legs were made smaller in proportion to the rest of the body. Throughout the process of creating the deer, I used the guide tool to help make both sides of each part symmetrical. This tool made it effective when creating the antlers for the head. To finish up, I made sure that each part was connected to another, at least halfway, so that they could attach in a physical format. Once the deer figure was created, I imported the file into Rhino to adjust the cuts and add each aspect of the deer into layers for laser cutting. To adjust the cuts of where the pieces would connect with one another, I duplicated the cut and dragged it past the original while keeping it straight along the edges. This way, the pieces would be properly cut so that they would fit with one another more easily.

Rhino File for Laser Cutting

Materials

KeyShot

The material used to make the deer was a twenty-four inch by forty-eight inch piece of E-Flute cardboard that was 0.06 inch thick, which I sent to the Machine Shop on campus for laser cutting. While rendering it in KeyShot, I chose to use wood materials for the structure of the deer. For the different sections of the parts, I chose a different shade for each piece to add contrast to the subject.

Charlie Chang: Week 13 Laser Scanning

Concept

Our concept for this was uncertain at first, then my partner Marissa Hernandez found a little heart toy and we went with that. The heart was simple enough of a shape that it would not take too much for the scanner to pick up on the details.

Heart object

Techniques

We went into the 3D studio, and originally, the heart had wings attached to with with white duct tape. This had difficulty scanning, so we removed them, and added dots to the surface to make alignment easier. We single scanned the heart from four sides, using standard quality. Then, we pieced the cans together, because unfortunately for us, the 360 scan was not very compatible with our object and the way it was painted and taped. After scanning, we went into Rapid Works and followed along with he videos that helped us create meshes and fill holes in. Then we saved the file and opened Keyshot to assign materials. After the Keyshot images were rendered into TIFF files. We chose a dimmer environmental picture, because we preferred how the light bounced off the metallic surface of the heart. Marissa Photoshopped layers and more in depth renders onto the image.

Rapid Works image

Materials

The materials used in this project were the toy heart Marissa provided, as well as the Scanning program, Rapid Works, Keyshot, and Photoshop. 

Final Rendered Image

We then returned to revise our project, and individualize them. We were given feedback that said to size up our models, and have one of them be closer to the foreground.

Revised Render

I chose to use a black rough Metal hexagonal mesh shape of 10mm. I went back in and added light through the holes in which the building peeks through. I also added a shadow more immediately below the shape, as opposed to too off to the side as we had it before.

Jack Purcell: Week 12 - Laser Engraved Skateboard

Concept: I wanted to create a skateboard that represented me. I thought I could accomplish this by incorporating a pseudo 3D element and my personal logo. I chose a 3D grid pattern illusion to represent the 3D aspects of my life as I want to go into the 3D industry  myself. I also Incorporated my personal logo and modified it to be viewed from any angle. I felt it would be important to represent myself with this skateboard as skateboards tend to represent their owner in some way.


Processes: I created the repeating pattern in Illustrator using the pathfinder tools and grouping to maintain a constant distance between the elements. I also centered my logo and measured where the trucks would be when attached and placed blank spaces to the trucks would lay flat. In my design I made the pattern larger than the edge so that way the board wouldn't have to be perfectly centered on the laser. Instead of using the laser at the machine shop I used the laser at the Dallas Makerspace and was able to get a much darker engraving that was able to utilize more of the board.

Materials: The board was finished with some kind of coating that vaporized when on the laser and left soot and sticky residue. A trick I learned when laser engraving something awhile back was that those Magic Eraser cleaning products work wonders on the soot left by the laser. If I had to make this board again I would want to create an inlay with a darker wood and seal the board with a thick resistant resin.

Jack Purcell: Week 13 - Laser Scanning

Concept:  For my scanning project I wanted to scan in something meaningful to me. I scanned a miniature Terracotta warrior that my great grandfather had given me. I thought that this would be perfect as not only would it preserve a piece of history, but also the fact this was a smaller version of the much larger warriors and that I could scale it up to its full size digitally.

Processes: I used the NextEngine 3D scanner to create the initial scans of the objects and aligned them in the NextEngine software. I then fused the models together in RapidWorks and exported a very high resolution mesh and a nurbs patch file. Because there were people waiting behind me to use the scanner I opted to lower the resolution of the mesh later in Blender.

Materials: I chose to represent the Terracotta Warrior with a low poly and brass aesthetic because I feel it would bring a modern element and show the fact that it was digitally scanned while also having the look and timeless feel of a brass statue.

Marissa Hernandez: week 12 Laser scanning

concept: I was not entirely sure what I wanted to scan at first. I then came across this little heart, even though it was red I was able to paint it white.  I thought this would be a neat and easy design since it gave me a basic shape to build off of.

heart object

Techniques: To start off the process I painted the white heart so that the Next Engine scanner would be able to read it. I then place blue dots all over the model so I could easily pin point the alignment when needed in Rapid works. We had to single scan each side and then piece it together, because the whole 360 scan was not really in our favor. Once I was done scanning it I moved the model into rapid works and polished it so it did not have holes from the dots with the sandpaper tool. I then finalized it with Key shot. I added a dim lighting due to the dim environment for UTD setting.

model in Rapidworks

Materials: For my materials I used a copper pink material for the whole heart. For the lighting I used a dim environment sunset,so that it could match the finalized environment well.

model rendered in UTD environment

Marissa Hernandez: week 10 Laser engraving

concept: My inspiration came from the love of both foxes and roses individually. I always love to create something that I would like to see hanging on my wall or just appealing to me overall. I decided to combine roses and foxes together somehow. I thought it would be interesting to have an interesting design to have roses cut through the foxes and that way they intertwined together.

illustrator format

Techniques: For this project I created a laser cut file strictly through illustrator by using the curve tool to draw out the lines seen. I drew them according to shallow cuts and deep cuts separated by layers. I chose to do the foxes and line going through as deep cuts to make them stand out more since there were more roses than foxes. Then I drew the roses as shallow engraving and as you can see they came out with a bit of shading due too this and then circular and repeating way they were drawn.

full design

close up 

full skateboard with design

Materials: I bought a blank skateboard off of Amazon and used this as my canvas.

Charlie Chang: Week 12 Laser Engraving

Concept

I wanted to make a board with a Swiss cheese plant design. I like the look of the leaves, and the holes within them. 

Monstera Deliciosa aka Swiss cheese plant

I thought the leaves would add a minimalistic touch to the board. Monstera leaves are a little "basic", but their look was perfect for the image I had in my head.

Techniques

I took some pictures off of Google and put them into Illustrator. Then, I used the curve tool to trace along the edges of the leaves. I did not use the pen tool because I felt that it would take too long to perfect the shapes, especially since the curve tool was perfect for the curvature of the leaves themselves. I did three pictures total, and duplicated them so that I could place three on each side of my board. I made holes into one type of the leaves so that there was variety. I then assigned layers to my lines. I ended up making the outer leaf lines the shallow depth, and the holes a deeper depth, which I now believe to be a mistake. I was not 100% pleased with the outcome of my engraving, but due to time and money, I did what I could. 

Illustrator

Materials

The materials used for this were a skateboard deck and the laser engraver. I bought the deck off of Amazon and from there it was mostly all Illustrator and then the Machine Shop. 

One side of the board

Second side of the board

As I stated earlier, I was not totally pleased with my finished piece, but trial and error added to my understanding of how engraving works. If I were to redo or add to this piece, I would make the outlines deeper, or even go as far as to use the laser to carve out or burn the inner parts of the leaves, and leave the holes to be more shallow as a contrast.

Charlie Chang: Week 11 Polyhedra

Concept

I wanted to create a design that would made a good lamp. I wanted the cutouts to be reflected on walls with the light from within. I followed the video tutorials the professor posted, and decided to make it my own from then on. 

Techniques

Rhino shot of Truncated Octahedron

I downloaded a PDF of the truncated octahedron file and followed along with the videos provided. When the section about making cutouts played, I made my own designs and chose star shapes. I used an 8 sided star polygon tool, and a 6 sided star polygon tool. I used polar array to add repeated circles to the larger star shapes. I had to size them all down, unfortunately, due to having made them larger than the flaps, which would have affected my model negatively.

Materials

Finished Product

The material for this project was e-flute cardboard. It was cut with a laser from the Machine Shop on campus. Not many other materials were used, but if I were to add to this project, I would provide a light bulb or string lights to place inside.

Marissa Hernandez: week 11 polyhedra

concept: I started off by looking through the site given to us to find which one I would like to make something out of. I came across this model of the Great Dodecahedron and it drew me to it because I like the fact that these looked like stars all over the model. I thought I could add neat designs to the stars to make them look like shooting stars, but when I got the model I had different plans.

rhino file

Techniques: I used Rhino to turn the paths into proper settings for laser cuttings. The outside lines consisted of outer cuts coded in a magenta layer. The reference layer was cyan to measure out the proper width for my cardboard. The inner cut consists of blue, dotted lines to make it able to fold when it comes out of the laser cutter. Then once I got it I changed my mind and folded it the complete opposite way instead of inwards to outwards. This made it look more like a rigid sphere, so I worked a different route. Using the whiteness of the cardboard, I accentuated it with a black outline of certain sides to abstractly show the negative sides.

Materials: For the materials  I only used the source of the library of different polyhedras to choose from. I then used the cardboard for the design to be cut out of.

polyhedra overall

one side of  polyhedra

Jack Purcell: Week 11 - Polyhedra

Concept: I knew that I wanted to incorporate geometric designs into my Polyhedra as Polyhedra are based on geometric designs themselves. I also wanted it to incorporate some kind of natural element and in the end I found out that the natural design of spiderwebs compliment the hexagons of my chosen Polyhedra. I also wanted to incorporate another element into my project, and I chose light and turned it into a lamp.

Process: First I imported the Polyhedra PDF into Rhino and separated it into the different layers to be laser cut. I then took that into Illustrator so that I could create the patterns. I created a hole so that I could attach a light fixture and turn it into a lamp. When I originally sent it in to be laser cut I was told it had some problem. I then took it back into Rhino and reassigned the layers, then there was no problem and the file was cut.

Materials: While this project was made with cardboard I would like to make another version out of wood and not have it fold together. I would also like to include a diffusion sheet behind the panels so that the light is evenly diffused.

Charlie Chang Week 9-11: Laser Cutting

Concept

I wanted to make an animalistic sculpture for this project. I felt inspired by curved shapes, without many hard edges. Birds were the main animal I was trying to emulate in my design, but I also felt like manatees crept into the finished look of the piece. 

FlatFab design

FlatFab design

Techniques

The process for this laser cutting project started in FlatFab, where I began by making random shapes, and found that a large planar shape I had created resembled a bird. I then created crests along the back, like a spine, and a large tail feather/ fin shape towards the end. I created two planks to hold up the main structure. I also went back and copied a second main plane, to create depth.

Next, I went into Illustrator and converted it to a flat sliced document, which I then transferred to Rhino. In Rhino, I sliced all the points that were crude and not near the edges. I would later find out that as I was grouping my shapes and sizing them on the template, that I missed two of the slices. This would later cause an issue with the actual sculpture. Then I put my information on it and sent it to the laser cutter. 

Layered View

Layered View 2

Rhino Flat

Materials

Keyshot View

Keyshot View 2

For the Keyshot render, I chose to make my model out of different glass materials. I liked the transparency of the material, and felt that it added a sophisticated look to such a strange sculpture.

I chose to use the Red, Yellow, and Orange Solid Glass materials from Keyshot. When choosing backgrounds, I went with a desert road, because I felt it had the look I wanted when looking through the sculpture. The other environments detracted from the piece, but with the tree in the far back of the desert road, the model wad the focus. I obviously do not think that a real  version of my sculpture would be placed in a desert, but for the sake of showing it off with the limited environment options Keyshot had, I figured deserts would show the translucency of the model off well.

Finished Product