Victoria Mayfield: Castle

Concept: The design for my castle began with the idea of a classic medieval castle. While I was researching different types of castles, I stumbled upon the idea of cakes shaped like castles. I liked the idea of having a castle that was clean and simple. This was my first experience ever using Rhino so I wanted to make sure my design was something I could successfully accomplish. I believe I was able to achieve this by using clean shapes and iconic details. 

Modeling: As I mentioned before, this was my first experience using Rhino so I definitely had my fair share of mishaps trying to use the vast amount of tools the software has to offer. A few of the tools that I found most useful in implementing my design included the cylinder tool, torus tool, box tool and cone tool. Once I was able to master curves I used that tool in order to create a pipe for my archways. These were the only geometric tools that I used with my castle. I found the polar array tool to be immensely effective in creating the window and railing details. Also the snap tools were helpful when it came to lining pieces of geometry up properly. 

Materials: When I first started looking at textures, I thought I wanted something that would appear rocky to go along with my medieval castle theme. However, I didn't like how the castle looked when I tried various rough textures that may emulate a rocky exterior. As far as the castle cake idea, none of the textures invoked the idea of soft cake icing either. I chose to go with glass because of how delicate it made the castle appear. The materials I chose more so reflected my theme in their colors.  I wanted to stay with darker colors to nod somewhat to an old world theme. The pop of red on the turrets was comparable to pops of color that one may find on a cake.

Ashley D Goodenough: Flashlight

Concept: The flashlight model was loosely based on Star Wars light saber designs. I didn’t use any particular reference to come up with my flashlight sleeve concept, but here is one that has some similar design aspects. I wanted the flashlight to feel like a heavy duty emergency flashlight that still had some visual interest (e.g. looked cool). 

Modeling: Techniques used to model the flashlight and sleeve included several polar arrays, Boolean Union and Difference, object snaps, trim, join, and explode. I used polar arrays in several spots around the sleeve to make the sleeve’s design feel continuous. In one case, it was an additive aspect, and in all others it was subtractive to cut holes into the grips.

Materials: These were fun to figure out for this design, since it needed some variety. In real life, this object would use a lot of different materials, so I wanted to mimic that. The flashlight itself is some anodized rough metal in a dark gray. The lens of the flashlight is an emissive material in a warm color. The top rim is a simple rough plastic. The grip sections of the sleeve are hard tire rubber in two different shades of green. The button is also hard rubber in dark gray. The base of the flashlight sleeve is steel diamond plate with the diamond pattern scaled way down.  Again, I wanted this thing to look heavy but snazzy.

Ashley D Goodenough: Duck

Concept: I expanded the rubber ducky model into a few different types of birds, and then decided I like the overall shape and balance of the puffin one I had come up with. I based my modeling and design of the puffin entirely on pictures of real puffins, but kept the little guy cartoony and simple. I think puffins have such an artistic, yet silly, look to them, with their color variety and their rounded bodies. After I had the puffin, I decided to turn it into a light-hearted lamp as my end product. It could be a child’s lamp for their bedroom, but that wasn’t the idea at the core of designing it.

Modeling: This involved a lot of organic deformation using control points and curves. I learned how to project curves onto surfaces, then use them to cut surfaces and bridge two objects. I also projected curves onto the puffin’s beak in order to create the varied color stripes puffins have on their beaks and bodies. Also used were Split, Join, Set, some cutting planes, and blend surfaces. I enjoyed testing the limits of using control points to deform an object. Also used were the basic Boolean union and difference commands, polar arrays, and snaps to build the rest of the lamp.

Materials: The materials used for the puffin lamp were supposed to feel child-like, but still good quality. It has a light wooden red oak base, a color that complements the rest of the design. The puffin is entirely hard plastic material, with high shine. The rest of the lamp is a painted material in varying colors, also with high shine. The light bulb is simply a frosted white glass. I would’ve used an emissive material for it, but didn’t realize I had that option until after I had finished all my renders. I did end up using an emissive material for my flashlight, though!