King Wang Wong: Laser Engraving Project

Concept:

For this project I wanted to make a small piece of home decor. I chose a piece of wood instead of a skateboard for this project. I chose to use the Chinese character for home: 家. 

Process:

I used the Pen Tool in Illustrator to draw out the outlines for the character. After that I imported the file to Rhino for final adjustments. I used a mix of shallow and medium engravings so the finished product will have more variety in the overall composition. 

Materials:

I used a small plank of craft wood to engrave my project on. The bottom space is mean to allow one to attach a small photo. 

King Wang Wong: 3D Scanning Project

Concept:

I scanned a sculpture that I carved for this project. I chose to use a polygon count of about 500 because I like the blocky look.

Process:

I scanned this in NextEngine. Since my sculpture is not very detailed, I used one 360 degree scan and two single scans to accomplish this. After trimming and aligning my model, I used Rapid Works to clean up my model and optimize the polygons. Then I brought the model to Keyshot and rendered out some pictures. I used photos that I took in Hong Kong because I thought they would be interesting backgrounds for my model. I used match perspective to get the model to look correct in the background and I edited the color of the lights so the model could fit into the background better. 

Renders:

Jacob Hunwick Week 13: Laser Scanning

Concept: For my 3D scan I wanted to collect data from an object that would be nearly impossible to create from modeling. So, I chose a small shell I found on the shore of Lake Huron in Michigan.

Materials: Hard translucent plastic. I chose hard translucent white plastic as my beauty layer to make the shell look similar to its natural texture

Process: First, I scanned in the shell and corrected/aligned the scans, and fused them in rapid works. Next, I took into the model into rhino and chopped off the bottom quarter of the model in order to fuse the large hole that is intrinsically in the shell. This made it necessary to lie the shell opening side down.

Jacob Hunwick Week 12: Laser Engraved Skateboard

Concept: For my skateboard, I utilized an old design concept I created and converted it to a .3dm format from a pdf. This design is part of a 3 board series I created for my skateboard company Twin Boards Inc.. The two larger boards consist of large triangular shapes filled by small consecutive lines. The arrangement and shape of these forms is meant to resemble a tall cliff face. This being the smallest board, it is a playful mash up of the geometric shapes, and a playful organic figure.

Materials: Baltic Birch Wood, screen printing ink.

Process: First, I hand designed the board on blueprint paper, and created a wood press with my brother for our company. We then created about 12 prototype boards of this style. Next, I stained the deck with Jacobean stain. After this particular board sat in my garage for a few weeks, I decided to use it for this project and had this design laser engraved into the deck. Next, I coated the board in polyurethane with 2 coats sanding with fine sandpaper in between coats

Lastly, as my brother and I also screen print shirts, I took white printing ink and use a squeegee to pull the ink into the engraved gaps.

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.

Andrew Rowan Week 13: 3D Scanning

Clay Object

Concept: The inspiration for this piece was a lighthouse. I wanted to take this idea and make it extremely organic as well as being able to see the spiraling stairs from the exterior. I made divots in the surface to suggest windows.

Technique: To make the original I used oven bake clay and molded that into the form. Then I set up my object using Scan Studio and did a 360 degree scan. I then used the drag and drop dots to align all the scans, refined the alignment and saved the file. Using Rapidworks I fused the scans together into a polygonal mesh. I then used the polish tools to clean up my model. When my object fused I had quite a few spot where the mesh had inverted itself and form "caves" under the outside mesh. After cleaning those out and smoothing the surface moved to the solidify tab and put a uniform surface over the mesh. I export that as an .iges file. I opened that file in Rhino closed one hole in the surface. I saved that as a .3dm file and moved it into Keyshot where I set up my render. I rendered that shot in passes and moved the layers into Photoshop where I made the final adjustments to my Render.

Final Render

Material: I used anodized titanium polished green for this project. I used titanium because of it's durability and, like a lighthouse, it can weather many storms.

Marvin Robinson: Laser Scan

Concept: I used a piece by Andrew F. Scott and placed the piece in an  office environment. 


Processes: The process of scanning was quite and was difficult to follow but I manage to scan a piece that fells like it belongs in its proper environment. The color of the texture and the environment and the mask did not match . The mask in fact the mask was warmer so a quick color correction reduce the warm contrast into a cool contrast.

Materials: The software use for texturing was Photoshop and Keyshot adding color of gold and with a bumpy asphalt like feel to the surface.

Jonathan Holt: Week 13 Laser Scanning

Concept: For my laser scan I chose to scan the T47 Airspeeder from a board game called Star Wars Legion. I wanted to use this scan to 3D print multiple and use them as crashed terrain. It was a highly detailed piece.

Star Wars Legion T47 Airspeeder

Techniques: Luckily this object already had a matte finish so I didn't need to spray it or paint it before hand. All I needed to do was add dots with dry erase markers to help line up the alignments. I had to take multiple 360 scans from different angles in scan studios to get all the crevices of the ship. Lots of scans needed to be thrown out because the ship is so thin that it didn't want to pick up the edges.

Airspeeder Rendered by Passing

Materials: I gave it a not too shiny metallic material to match what it has in the movies. I then went in during my rendering in passes and added paint to where it belongs. I wanted to make it look like some jerk could park between the spaces on the roof of a parking garage.

Jonathan Holt: Week 12 Laser Engraved Skateboard Deck

Concept: I wanted to choose a design I would actually like to have on a skateboard. I decided to go with an altered logo of one of my favorite franchises, Jurassic Park, as well as the two T-rexs from the second move.

Illustrator file

Techniques: I did everything in Illustrator, I grabbed an image and edited it to get rid of any unnecessary spaces that wouldn't transfer well. Then I chose a T-rex picture from Jurassic Park and mirrored it on both sides to fill negative space. I then put the image in black and white and rasterized the image.

Finished board

Materials: We used a blank skateboard deck for this project with a wood finish, however my skating on a traditional skateboard sucks. I may end up putting it on a longboard since that is more my speed.

Andrew Rowan Week 12: Laser Engraved Skateboard

Concept: My inspiration for this piece was lightning. Specifically the way it arcs and splits of into various branches. I designed a branching lightning piece using a grid. I wanted to emphasize how it branches so there is a section at the top where it is a single line. There was some kind of glitch in Sketchbook between the selection tool and the fill command that resulted in unexpected gradients inside the branching structure. I actually like the gradient it produced so I kept it but removed some of the filled areas throughout the design.

Techniques: I used Autodesk Sketchbook to design the original artwork. I then put that into the Illustrator laser cut template as a raster image and took it to the machine shop.

Material: The media is a natural finish wood skateboard deck.

Anna Phengsakmueang: Week 12 Laser Engraved Skateboard Deck

Concept

To draw upon the aspect of nature into my design, I chose to use lotuses as the borders for the ends of the board. I also wanted to include a bit of a personal touch to the board by incorporating my spirit animal, the wolf onto the board by using a tribal art style to illustrate the wolf. To really emphasize the concept of a reflection of myself within the board, I chose to also put my signature into the design as well.

Technique

Rhino File

Using the Illustrator template, I rotated the skateboard shape at a ninety degree angle to make it easier to begin my design. Then, I used the curvature pen tool to draw out the lotus petals and leaves. After finishing one lotus design, I copied and pasted it into other areas of the skateboard template. Then I added curvlinear accents to the middle lotuses on both ends to achieve a visual balance. After the end designs were done, I began to work on the wolf which was made with many curves. I wanted to ensure there was an implied texture of the wolf's fur, so I added a bit of detail to the area of the neck to the body. To add a bit more balance to the negative space around the wolf, I drew a circular moon to the right of the wolf. For a finishing touch, I added my signature with a star shape in the curves. After the design was complete, I ensured that each aspect of the design was layered correctly and colored according to the type of engraving that I desired. Additionally, I checked the stroke width to be 0.001 so that the design would be all vectors rather than rastered.

Materials

I used a blank 7.5" skateboard deck for the engraving at the Machine Shop. Unfortunately, some parts of the design were unable to be engraved onto the board because the board itself was not flat, therefore the laser was unable to reach and engrave into the ends of the board. It also made some of the lines in the design for the edge lotuses a bit thicker and there was a bit of soot on one of the ends of the board. Some of the designs in the center was also a bit cut off, meaning that I may have sized the reference of the board a bit too large, but it was only by a millimeter or so.

Anna Phengsakmueang Week 13: Laser Scanning

Concept

object to be scanned

For the laser scanning, my partner and I chose to scan a ceramic piggy bank. It was a bit of a risk since there was a bit of gloss on the pig which would have been a bit difficult to scan as well as the black markings which may have been interpreted as indents.

Technique
In the 3D Studio we used the NextEngine 3D scanner to scan the ceramic piggy bank. We used the three-hundred-sixty degree settings to scan the object from the side and top view. After the scans were complete, we trimmed off the parts of the scan that consisted of the turn table and the parts of the scanner. After trimming, we aligned the scans so that the data appeared consistent. Then, we imported it into RapidWorks for further editing of the scan. Since there were some rough patches and a few holes and indents in the scan, it was smoothed out using RapidWorks. After the editing was done in RapidWorks, it was then imported into KeyShot for rendering.

Materials

rendered

Within KeyShot, I chose to use a 24K gold material for the piggy bank and a scenic shot of a part of UTD. Using the "adjust to backplate" controls in Keyshot, I tried to rotate and position the piggy bank to adjust it to the blackplate to make it appear as if it was in the picture. I adjusted the light settings to make the piggy bank appear more unified in its setting as if it was always placed there.

Zane Alberts: Week 13 Laser Scanning

Zane Alberts: Week 13 Laser Scanning

Concept:  I decided that I wanted to use something cute for my scanning project. I chose a small deer plush that a friend very dear to me gifted (no pun intended).

Processes: I used the scanner in the 3-D studio to transfer the form of the deer into the computer, taking quite a while and using many layered bodies. After I finished rendering the scanned model, I sent it to Rapidworks and combined them to form a usable deer that could be placed in scenarios and presented to people who could potentially spend money on it. After transferring it to Keyshot, I placed the deer in a suitable environment and rendered the whole thing before giving a the whole image a better sense of situation and realism.


Materials: I chose a green gem for the deer statue, slightly see through in the less dense areas. I found it very pretty and added a tangibility to the less than smooth texture of the deer's body, giving the piece a rough hewn and natural look, befitting a young deer.

Zane Alberts: Week 13 Laser Engraving

Zane Alberts: Week 13 Laser Engraving

Concept: I decided to choose a design close to my heart. I have always been a fan of the Harry Potter books, and one of the more recognizable symbols representing the series has been the mark of the Deathly Hallows. If you aren't aware of it, it's a simple design of a triangle encompassing a circle and a vertical line, each embodying a powerful magical artifact. It is this shape that marks the centerpiece of my skateboard engraving. In addition, I added the name of the symbol above it, separated by flames. Below are some abstract designs and shapes I felt filled the space well.

Techniques: I created a series of shapes using the simple shape tools in Illustrator, aligning them to the center of the skateboard using the ruler tool. After getting the symbol of the deathly hallows completed, I made the text using the tool of the same name. Following this, I started on the challenging task of making the flames. This was done with the pencil function, and took several tries to get the flames to a point where I was happy with them. At this point I added a few abstract shapes to help tie the piece together, and transferred it over to Rhino to get my design ready for engraving. 

Materials: A wooden skateboard deck I bought from Amazon, and the fine laser engraving tools at our on campus machine shop.

Week 12 3D Scanned Model

Concept 

Unfortunately, my partner, Quinn Sherer, and I went through quite a few failed scans until we learned what types of objects scan better and what types the scanner doesn't like. Finally, the object that ended up working for us best was this fake little potted succulent. 

scanned object-fake succulent

Technique


We took 2 scans of the succulent, both vertical and horizontal. We then trimmed any excess parts of the scan platform out. Next, we ran some alignments within the two scan families, and then aligned the two families with each other. This part was extremely difficult because we realized we didn't put any kind of markings on the object that would help us align the object. We should've done so, however we didn't want to ruin the object (since my roommate intended to use it afterwards). 

We somehow managed to align the object well enough, but it still had quite a few issues, so we imported it into RapidWorks, and fixed the holes, and did several fusing steps, including using the Mesh Buildup Wizard.
Afterwards, we polished and smoothed parts of the object, but were dissatisfied with the result. We later used the decimate command to reduce the poly-face count to about 7.5k. We liked this effect because it hid some of the texture imperfections, and it gave a cool sculptural look that would be believable as a sculpture.

Materials

In Keyshot, we assigned it a pistachio glossy painted glass material. I rendered the layers in passes and played with each of the layers in Photoshop to get the desired effect. We chose a green color to match UTD's eco green. 

3D Scanned Cactus-Rendered in Passes

Next, I imported the UTD photo of the plinth pond and aligned it to the ground. I placed the object in the center of the pond, as if it was a fountain sculpture or bird bath. It was difficult to make it look believable, but I added a shadow that matched the shadows of the objects in the photo, and added a strong reflection in the water. I used both Keyshot and Photoshop for both renderings.

3D Scanned Cactus in an Architectural Setting at UTD

Overall, I am happy with the way the object scanned, and I think it looks pretty realistic, and I like that the color matches the school's green. 

Revised Rendering

Here, I revised my rendering by making a better cropping of the photo, increasing the size of the object, and making part of the object look like it was submerged under water. I struggled with that last part the most, but I think that overall, it does look a bit more realistic. I think that for as difficult of an approach I took to placing my rendering in an architectural context, it is done well. 

Week 12 Laser Engraving Skateboard Deck - Twinkle Shah

Concept

My concept is based on a raster illustration I created for a poetry book that I co-wrote and illustrated, called Catharsis. This illustration is of a bee going "home" into his hive, which is on a branch. This was the illustration for the first chapter, titled "storge." Storge is the Greek word for familial love. In the poetry book, it is described as an "at home" feeling. I thought this illustration would look great as an engraving and it happened to fit the dimensions of the engravable space of the skateboard deck well. 

storge - illustration from catharsis. 

Technique

I decided to turn the raster-based illustration that I created using the brush tool in Photoshop, into a vector drawing in Illustrator. I used the image trace command and changed all the components into vectors, and then made the stroke 0.01 in. I ended up having to delete the layers that contained all the roses and rose buds, because they were problematic with the image trace command, probably since they were too detailed. The image trace command was tedious to deal with, but I was finally able to make it work, and I changed the colors of the strokes to get a bit of variance in the depth of the engravings. 
 

Illustrator file for laser engraving

Materials

The illustration was engraved onto the middle of a white skateboard deck. Overall, I am quite happy with the result, and I am excited to try new laser engraving projects. 

Laser engraved skateboard deck

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.

Charlene van Zyl: Week 12 Laser Scan

Concept:
I teamed up with Kaylie for the 3D scanning process. When we met up, she'd brought in two shells, and we decided to scan the more complex one because it could make for a visually interesting sculpture.

Techniques:
We started off with a 360 scan of the shell lying flat, agreeing that the shell's hole might not scan correctly. A few areas of the shells didn't scan well, so we decided to scan the shell standing up and align both of the scans to make it accurate. When we were finished scanning, we moved the file to RapidWorks, using the Mesh Buildup Wizard to fix and fill in the holes, as well as optimize the overall surface. Once we'd deleted some objects that were floating off the shell's surface, we exported it from RapidWorks to be edited in Rhino. Once I had the file in Rhino, I deleted a few odd shapes protruding from the shell's surface in order for it to look less abstract and more like a typical shell. I then brought the file into Keyshot. I lined up my model with the background with perspective matching and moved the light sources to match the setting. I rendered it in k pass layers, and used adjustment layers in Photoshop to refine the rendered model.

Materials:
With how natural the model looks, I decided to use a rough pine material for the shell, since that also makes it appear like a piece of driftwood. I used the photo of the dorms as my backdrop because I really liked the lighting in that photo, and thought it would be interesting to replicate that lighting on my model.

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.

Charlene van Zyl: Week 12 Laser Engraving

Concept:
From early on in the project, I knew I wanted to incorporate bees in the laser engraving. I first envisioned a tiling pattern that would go across the skateboard, but decided later on that I wanted to use a typical art piece rather than a pattern.

Technique:
I found this bee illustration by Vexels that was free for non-commercial use with credit, and knew that it would look amazing on a skateboard deck. I brought the image into the Illustrator template file, used image trace to vectorize it, and deleted what I didn't need. I then sent the file off to the machine shop to be engraved.

Materials:
I used a wooden skateboard deck I bought on Amazon for this project.