Chloe Ferris: Semester Project

Project Overview

This project is a way to utilize and combine digital fabrication techniques with traditional hand
work. Aesthetically, it will be centered around the theme of natural elements, and how humans interact with these. A 3D sculpture of the source form is to be created, which will then be triangulated and knocked down into only the most necessary polygons, aiming to keep the count in the sub-1,000
range. Once the model is finalized, it can be unfolded in Pepakura and laid out in sheets to be
printed with a laser cutter. Initially, I would like to run smaller samples in single-ply cardboard or
thick card-stock to test out the model and see what it would look like fully assembled. At this point,
it would be decided if a framework of full-sized cut-out panels, covered in lacquered paper, would
be preferred, or if solid board panels would be more effective in driving the aesthetic of the form.

Project Proposal
Chloe Ferris: Digital Fabrication Independent Project Proposal

Inspirational References

Tomás Saraceno, Cloud City

Timothy Reynolds, Landscape Study

Gabby O'Connor, What Lies Beneath

Timothy Reynolds, Save the Arctic

Baltek Elsner, The Branch

Week 2 (8/31)
The main focus of this week was to form the project concept and create a framework for the semester. A project proposal was created (see: link above), which details the entire project. I laid out a tentative schedule in four-week segments for the semester, to provide a guideline to keep the project on track and completed on time, as well as provide slotted time in order to receive feedback and reiterate on multiple steps during the semester.

An large array of references were gathered, primarily including low-poly works from artists that I admire (see: photos above). I was particularly influenced by Gabby O'Conner and Baltek Elsner. O'Connor's work is more abstract, incorporating light and texture, but puts a great emphasis on form, which I admire. Elsner creates more recognizable forms out of cardboard, often infusing humor with the environment around the work. Both of these artists, as well as many others, will be the base inspiration for the project, from which I can springboard and strengthen my own work.

Next week, I will move into the creation phase. The primary focus will be the solidification of the project idea, as well as detailing the subject. Once that is done, I can move forward with the modeling phase of the project in order to prepare it for printing.

Week 3-4 (9/7-9/14)
When exploring references and sculptures from other artists, I became particularly inspired by the powerful way in which the stag moves during a fight (see: sculptures below). Their bodies rear up and lunge forward with their entire might in an attempt to subdue their combatant; while brutal at the core, this movement is also extremely graceful in its own way, riding the fine line between beauty and animosity. I feel that this encompasses the essence of the struggle that man has against nature, as well as his cooperation with it, something that I want to highlight in my work.

Fighting Stags, bronze sculpture, Michael Simpson

Elk Stags Fighting, outdoor exhibit, High Desert Museum in Central Oregon

I worked out my concept through physical sketches in order to get an idea of how the forms would work, and how the subject would be presented. Wildlife photography of primarily red deer was referenced, as well as traditional sculptures and paintings. Anatomical drawings were also referenced in order to build a stronger foundation for the pre-visualizations. This understanding of the skeletal structure is vital to inform the overall form of the final sculpture.

After exploring with concept sketches and anatomy, I was able to nail down a specific form that would fit my vision. At this point, I went into Maya and began building out a low-poly model base model of the stag. In order to make sure the anatomy was as accurate as I could possibly make it, I modeled the stag in a standing position, in order to check the scale and proportion against anatomical references. Moving forward, I'll be able to add a small set of joints to the model in order to pose it to match the envisioned final form.

Next week, I want to make any last adjustments or tweaks to the base model. Once I'm completely confident in the model, it can be then be moved into the pose that I want for the final piece. Test prints and material exploration can begin once posing is completed.

Week 5-6 (9/21-9/28)
I was out of town dealing with an illness week 5, so not quite as much progress made during that time.

The model is completely finished, and I am happy with the way it turned out. I took a long time in tweaking and altering the pose of the model, but I was able to settle on a composition that portrayed what I was looking for. The front end of the piece may be heavier than the back, but if it becomes a problem, there are plenty of ways to weight the back end in order for it to sit properly. I did originally kick out the back and make it larger to accommodate, but it weakened the composition, so I plan to try weighting the test model and seeing if that will work. If there are too many problems, I can always go back and move it slightly so it can balance on it's own.

I am currently half-way through unfolding the model in Pepakura. Once that is done, I'm going to print a ~1/6th scale test model in thin paper in order to check general proportions and see how the form works in a physical space. After that, the sheets can be sent off to be laser cut on single-ply cardboard.

Week 7 (10/5)
Reworking some parts of the geometry in order to better fold out on a flat sheet for construction.

Week 8 (10/12) 
Now that I was happy with the geometry, I worked through cutting up the model in Pepakura and laying out the faces flat. A lot of thought has to be put into this step, because this will determine how the final sculpture will be put together. I did not want to rush it, and made sure to go over every piece in detail. My goal was to cut the faces in a way that would make the assembly as simple and easy as possible. The construction plan will be to completely assemble the horns, head, and front legs separately. Then, I can attach the horns to the head, and build out the neck and chest. The legs will be attached at this point, and then I will work my way down the model, ending at the very bottom. This process will ensure that I always have room to reach inside the model to make attaching the pieces easier. Some of the larger pieces, such as in the topline and rock, needed to be broken up in order to fit onto a 48x24 space, but for the most part, the geometry is broken up into consecutive sections.

After laying out the cut sheet, I printed out a test sheet on plain printer paper at a ~1:6 scale. This was an important step, so that I could work out what the model would actually look like put together. Although it took up a decent block of time, I feel that it was very helpful, as it gave me a chance to work through the assembly process before working with more expensive materials. It was not meant to be anything final, so it was a very rough model, with some missing pieces that were too small to properly build at this scale. By building the maquette, though, I was able to find some areas that needed to be unfolded differently in order to be more easily put together. From this, I went back into Pepakura and re-cut and re-combined some edges in preparation for the large-scale model. Midterm presentations were this week, in which I presented my maquette and current progress and explained my goals for the finished sculpture.

Week 9 (10/19)
Waiting for prints to come back from the shop.

Week 10 (10/26)

This week, the prints were ready, and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. One piece from the first page needs to be printed, because a tab fold was labeled as a cut line, but other than that, everything seems to be there in good condition. I took the pile home and separated the pieces into stacks by their page number from my cut sheet, created labels for each face inside Pepakura, then wrote each label on painter's tape for all the parts. This process took a long time, but this allowed me to not have to print the numbers on the outside where they would be visible, which isn't what I wanted. Now that the grunt work is out of the way, I can focus solely on basic fabrication. With the little time left on Sunday, I was able to assemble a complete leg, so I am optimistic about the current time schedule goals.

Week 11-16 (11/2-12/7) 
Assembly.

Assembly Process
I started by piecing together the sculptures from the extremities inwards, to try and avoid potential issues with having to reach too far down into the sculpture. The antlers were the most time consuming; getting down towards the bottom of them, it started to become difficult to curl my hand inside in order to hold down the glued tabs to form a bond. I worked on both antlers at the same time, doing each corresponding piece for the right and the left one after another, to ensure they came out as symmetric as possible.

After the antlers, I formed the cup of the chin, and then worked upwards and around to form the cheek and jowls. I then separately folded both ears, to attach once the head was finished, since they connected to the first piece of the neck. This would make it easier to attach the antlers, as I would be able to attach them to the mask of the face (which is primarily flat), then attach the entire group to the cheek through the open hole in the neck.

Using this method, attaching the antlers to the face to form the head wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Most of the time consuming parts of this section came from trying to maneuver around the antlers without bending them, and building support structures for them to rest on when I needed to reach underneath the head. The large, continuous bottom piece of the neck was then attached straight down from the cheeks. At this time, I also began building out the portion of the legs from the knees down.

This is where I began running into more issues, and lost a lot of time in the process. For the most part, I had been building flat on the floor, since the pieces so far could easily lay down without damaging the pieces. Once I built out the neck and shoulders and connected the legs to them, though, I had to maneuver the sculpture around much more and keep it vertical, which pointed out some of the flaws in the antlers. Although very light weight, the antlers lean forward out from a very small joint on the head, and at this point in time, was very unstable. Any movement of the bust would cause the antlers to flop around and start to droop. I was also very nervous about having them lean against anything, because of how delicate the structure was, as it seemed like they might be able to rip off. To help remedy this, I took a detour and created an internal support structure for the antlers. Using a mixture of foam and bars of cardboard, I reinforced the base where the antlers met the head. After this, I stuck a bar under each of the antlers, and joined them together near the jowl. This middle section was then attached to the base of the neck, to help make sure they don't move around too much. The outer antlers still shift when moving the sculpture, but they are stable enough to endure wind and inspection without wilting.

Most of the struggle from this point on was simply the logistics of rotating the sculpture to apply the pieces without damaging any of the others. This was actually extremely difficult, and some pieces were unfortunately bent slightly in the process. There was also the issue of the geometry itself. With the larger panels, some angles were hard to reach, and some subtle twisting on the faces cause creases to form where the cardboard lost stability. In the future, it would be better to either cut the faces up into smaller pieces, have thicker material, or have the faces glued on top of support beams or something similar to help them keep shape. To attach all of these, I went slowly, and had the sculpture laid out between two chairs so I could crawl underneath it to work. I also used various pillows and other objects to stack and support the sculpture to avoid having to lay it down completely, forcing weight on the weaker areas such as the antlers and legs.

After finishing the basic fabrication, I went back and added a 2x3 stud down the middle length of the base, because the tension and lightness of the large cardboard sheets was causing the base to curl upwards off the ground. This base helped add stability, and keep the sculpture oriented correctly, without the base trying to collapse in on itself. As well, it should also help aide in maneuverability and transportation, to keep the base from snagging and to keep it from direct contact with the ground, where it had a tendency to shift. This is also the point where I added caps to the antlers, worked out any last issues, and reinforced the joining areas from the inside as much as possible.

Final Reflection
Overall, this project gave me much more trouble than I had previously anticipated. The 3D model had to be retopologized multiple times in order for it to be optimal for printing, the layout sheets had to be done twice, and during assembly, problems kept cropping up. It felt like I was never going to get this done, and right before finishing I realized that I had to completely rip out and reconstruct the base of the model, as my fix for the balancing issue wasn’t working. At this point, I was exhausted with the project and ready to get rid of it, but I’m glad I persevered.

I am extremely proud of the work that I have done this semester. It isn’t perfect by any means, and the sculpture itself has many flaws. There are areas where cardboard warped or creased from the angle and twisting of the face. Not everything lines up quite right, and there are some unsightly gaps. If done again, there are many things I would change; however, considering this is the first large-scale sculpture I’ve created, and only the second Pepakura work I’ve done (the first an extremely simple box shape), I feel that what I have made stands on it’s own as a legitimate piece of artwork. I was able to see through the project to the end with my vision still represented through every decision that was made in construction. The work takes demand of the space that it is in, and I am very happy with how the overall form presents.

This project has helped me grow tremendously as an artist. I have learned more from completing this piece than any other I have in the past, despite (or perhaps because of) the amount of struggle involved and the unprecedented problems that arose. Construction of such a large, sharp sculpture with such a thin, delicate material was a challenge of its own, though the end result is surely worth the trouble. This work speaks to who I am as a person, and even despite its physical flaws, I feel that the soul of the work shines through.

Going forward, I want to continue to explore and create beautiful and interesting forms. The world of digital fabrication is utterly fascinating to me, and all because I enrolled in the “3D printing class” on a whim last semester. Through this class, I have fostered both my work and myself as an artist, and I plan to continue as long as I am able.