Sunday, October 3, 2021

Logan Latham: Week 4 Project 2 Serial Sliced Sculpture

 




Concept

When the project was assigned, I decided to make some type of terrain. Since I opted to make a pond, I determined that resin would be ideal to represent the water. The inspiration for my pond design came from my research of images of different real ponds and existing models of ponds. After the base idea for my pond, I expounded the concept to include foliage more foreign in color and shape than one would find in nature.

 




Techniques

The model was originally built in Maya. Initially a plane was used to essentially make the bottom shape of the pond by grabbing the vertex to move the outer layer into the shape. I extruded the outer edge of the plane and scaled it flat. I used extrude curve to make the 3D boxing model with an indention in one side which was not uniform like the other sides. I merged vertex to create a seamless model. The rectangular shaped box maintained one corner as 90 degrees with the intent to set it on a shelf. The other two sides were tapered off to allow the terrain to flow like water. An indention was added to the bottom for the light source below the pond. I exported the Maya file to Rhino and serial sliced the design using contour. The layers were created and the design was mapped out for cutting at the machine shop. A smooth model was made to use in Keyshot.

 




Materials

In Keyshot, I tried to use grass, but it was similar to real grass and compared to the size of my model, it towered over it. Then I decided to use a fabric that simulated several fibers which, on the scale I am working, looked similar to blades of grass.

First, I glued the top half of my wooden cutouts together. Then I used a mixture of plaster and glue to cover them. Next, I painted the plaster with a mixture of glue and paint and then while wet I covered it with dirt that I dug and sifted to obtain a finer consistency appropriate to the scale of the model. After letting it sit and dry for a while, I painted the dirt inside of the pond area with UV resin. This was to prevent the dirt from floating into the resin when poured and stop air bubbles from escaping into the resin. I superglued a silicone mold to under the pond area in the upper half of the model and thoroughly sealed it with plaster around the edges of the mold. The original intent was to remove the mold, but I decided to leave it under the pond because the frosted bottom gave the appearance of a murky depth. Next, I mixed up resin and added different blues and greens to achieve the shade I desired before pouring. I formed the bottom layers of the wood and attached them to the top portion of the model with superglue and dowels. Then added plaster over this to ensure it was seamless with the top. A mixture glue, paint, and dirt covered the plaster. Model glue was sprayed in sections and then green flocking was sprinkled over the glue to mimic grass. To simulate strange or alien like plants, I used plastic aquarium plants that were separated and re-assembled in new design clusters. A strand of LED lights were added underneath the pond for illumination.





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