Personal Project: Heart Attack

This blog post is unrelated to any class work that will be assessed and graded, this is a personal project I have been working on in my spare time. Since Christmas is approaching I found myself wondering what gifts I should give to my friends and family. I thought it would be interesting if I were to bring to life one of my objects created in this class, I ended up choosing my "Heart Attack" design from the thingiverse mashup project. I did this because I thought the design had lots of character and humour to it and would make a great gift.

I ended up visiting a 3D printing lab on the ACAD campus, which Bryan Cera, my OBDF professor introduced me to. The staff were more than happy to help me in printing my design. The total printing time was around four or more hours, but the final product was extremely detail. The actual size of the printed model was around 4.5 inches wide and 3 to 4 inches tall, the perfect size for on a desk.

Overall I am extremely happy with the final product as it came out exactly as I had wanted. I look forward to working with 3D printers again in the future for personal projects.

Final 3D model

Will add pictures of the actual model later today as I do not currently have access to a camera

3D Object: Hybrid Design + FDM Print Part 2

In continuation of my previous post and the progress of mine and Austin's final hybrid object I am happy to say that the final product was a complete success. The model we ended up using for our final 3D print was my third hybrid model concept, view previous post for reference.

Me and Austin decided that it was both an interesting form and idea that combined the elegant and smooth surface of his pottery and the sharp robotic forms of my cross like shape. We both agreed that the final shape looked as if it were a piece of pottery that had began to morph into a robotic shape, and the shape that we had made was catching this shape mid transformation.

Once we had created our final shape all we had left to do was take it to the 3D printer and bring our object to life, although we regrettably had a few hiccups during our printing. Initial when we came into the printing lab the 3D printer had been pre-loaded with a grey filament, the plastic extruded from the nozzle of the three dimensional printer. Me and Austin had decided on a semi transparent filament because we thought it would add to the overall look and feel of our shape by giving it an even more bizarre appearance. So we took out the grey filament and loaded in the transparent one, once we had done that we began to print our shape. However we noticed that no filament was being extruded. The reason for this was that there is a small piece of the 3D printer which pulls the filament downward and toward the nozzle, but what was happening was this small piece was just fraying the filament and clogging up the machine. This was quickly fixed once me and Austin had problem solve a little, apparently other groups who used the clear filament ran into the same issue.

Once this small problem had been corrected we proceeded with printing our object, and had no further problems.

To view the printing process look at the images below:

This images shows what it looks like once you have loaded in your

desired shape into the 3D printing software. 

 

Before the actual shape is printed the printer creates a boarder around the printing area. Also the first three or so layers of  a printed model are filled in, meaning that the inside is filled with filament in order to create a solid base for the rest of the model to be built upon.

As you can see the model is slowly but surely being made, one layer as a time.

Our final product took around an hour and a half to be fully printed, the reason it took so long was because me and Austin made two instead of one large model. The final product was around six inches tall and sin and a half inches wide. To view the final product see the below images:

  

View from the top to show that the shape is hollow

I found this project to be one of my personal favourites from this class as it truly demonstrated how you can make an image in a three dimensional software, like Rhinoceros 5, and bring it into reality in a fully touchable and tangible form. This project tested all of my knowledge I had gained from each project and lecture in this class. I look forward to not only working with 3D printers in the future, but I also look forward to having another OBDF class. I have found this to not only be one of the most fun but also one of the most useful classes I have ever had.  

On an unrelated note I will have another blog post coming soon that will detail a small project I have been doing outside of class. For anyone who has been following my blog, my next post will be related to a "heart attack."

3D Object: Hybrid Design + FDM Print Part 1

For the last project of my OBDF 110 class we were tasked with combining two self supported objects together, but we were not supposed to combine two of our own objects. We had to combine one of own and one of our partners. The final shape still had to be a self supported object, but it had to contain elements of each persons original design. I was partnered with Austin who had generated many pottery like objects that had very beautifully rounded and smooth surfaces, to view Austin's blog follow the link: http://acaddesignaustinr.blogspot.ca

Interestingly his concepts and ideas were almost the complete opposite of mine, which were mostly very sharp and straight objects. This combination of two differing conceptual ideas lead to a very interesting final objects. Both me and Austin chose our personal favourite three objects that each of us had created, we then exchanged the files for each others objects and we began combining them to create a final object which we would later print.

The second part to this blog will detail the process to creating the final 3D object as well as the object itself.

This is what Austin's top three objects were. As you can see they are very organic in nature.

 

Where as mine are very angular, with odd and inorganic forms.

Here are what my three prototypes looked like in Rhinoceros 5, keep in mind that these objects are still in the prototyping phase and are subject to change.

Concept 1

Concept 2

Concept 3

3D Printed Object: Concept Generation

This week in class we were shown to the world of three-dimensional printing, more specifically 3D printed objects that are self supporting. For those who don't know three-dimensional printing is the process of slicing a design/object into hundreds if not thousands of layers, depending on the size of the design, and have those layers all be made on a 3D printer that uses melted plastic to stack up all of these layers. Most printed objects are made using supports that are removed after the design is printed, this is because if they did not have supports the design would collapse. Self supported 3D objects are made without the use of support, hence where the name comes from.  

We were tasked with generating no less than ten concepts on Rhinoceros 5, to view my concepts see the images below. I wanted to experiment lots with all of my concepts for this project, I made sure that all of my designs looked completely different from each other. I chose to have some concepts be very clean and organized, while others are lopsided and uneven. Keep in mind that these are concepts that were made very quickly, and as such most of them have slight flaws and are most likely subject to change in the future. In future posts I will have more professional and finished products.  

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Papercraft Objects:Final Design and Schematic

For our last week on this particular Papercraft Project we had to finalize our Papercraft objects. Prior to this being assigned to us our class critiqued one another’s work, we discussed the elements we thought worked and did not work within someone’s design. There were lots of positive comments about my project, such as others enjoying the intricate pattern I have across the majority of my piece. The one thing that both I and the class agreed on was the crab legs I had given my second prototype seemed out of place, to be honest this is an extremely fair and true observation. Although I like the crab legs I had created I don’t think they work with the design that I was going for, they could possibly work on another project that I do later on but they don’t work for this assignment.

One other small critique I received was that the legs seemed too small, if you view my first and second prototype they are smaller than my actual shape. This creates a harsh and sharp transition between the body and legs, this was a simple fix however. I simply increased the legs size and immediately the piece looked better, not only was there no longer a sudden transition from body to legs, but now the piece looked much more organic and like it could actually be a living thing. Since I was reworking my leg design I decided to incorporate a crab element to pay homage to my initial idea of crab legs, what I ended up doing was giving my creature crab claws that can actually move. I accomplished this by using small aluminium tubing to act as a rivet so to speak. I cut two small pieces of it tubing and bent their rims outward. After I had put the tubing through both claw pieces I hammered the rims of the tubes so that they would become flattened and keep the claws in place. These rivets slightly violate the purpose of a “Papercraft” assignment, but they add an interesting element to my piece.

For this project we were not only tasked with creating our final and polished objects, but we also had to create schematics for our shapes. These schematics include the flattened form of our shape that has been covered with patterns and designs, it also include multiple three-dimensional views of what our design looks like when it is in its cut and folded form. To get these three-dimensional views we had to go onto Rhinoceros 5 and refer back to the original shape we made. Once we had loaded our shapes we simply had to use the command “Make2D,” which would take a screenshot, so to speak, of your shape from your current view. Once we had taken multiple screenshots of our shapes from different angles we then put those angles onto our schematics. This would allow someone who was constructing your shape to refer back to these images to see if they are constructing it correctly. The purpose of the schematic was so that someone could print out our designs from their home and make it themselves.

I found this project to be one of the most fun so far in my 3D Object Design class. This project alone taught me how to use Adobe Illustrator and Rhinoceros 5, two programs which I had never even touched before. It also showed me how many prototypes and concepts someone can go through before reaching their final polished product. Although I have only shown three papercut designs in my blog posts I had created dozens, which were never used. I also learnt how important it is to do research before attempting to create something, in my case it was researching what a sea urchin without its protective spines looked like. Although this sounds simple it was a much more complex task than that. I examined how large the small circular patterns on the urchins shell were depending on where they were positioned on the sea urchins shell. I also looked at what colors or shade of color they would be depending on where they were in relation to the center of the urchin. This project truly taught me how much time and effort goes into something that looks relatively simple, but in truth is an extremely complex design with hours of thought and hard work put into it.

One final statement I would like to make is that I feel as though with this project I had created an actual creature that evolved over time. Its first form being a plain white shape that later became a sea creature, which was a mix of a crab and a sea urchin. And finally it became a large, clawed and beautifully patterned little beast. I am extremely happy with the, so to speak, evolution of my design. 

See the images below to view the entire project from start to finish. 

Prototype 1

Prototype 2

Reference Images Used

Final Project Schematics

Top

Bottom/Legs

Final Project

Claw and its range of movement

 Bottom

 Top

 Evolution of Design Comparison

Papercraft Objects: Second Phase

This week we were tasked with refining our papercraft prototypes by fixing any issues we had with our initial designs, giving our prototypes a protective vinyl cover, and giving them a design/texture that was created on Adobe Illustrator. The design could be anything we chose. I found that in my initial prototype that it was hard to completely seal my shape because I had to tape very small edges together in areas that were too small for my fingers to fit. To correct this problem in my second version I chose to create a small area at the bottom of my object (this can be seen in the image of my pattern, the cut out area is the small white hexagon) which would be cut out so that I could still reach the interior of my shape in order to fully seal it and make it one solid piece.

The design of my second prototype was inspired by, once again, a sea urchin that has lost all of its spines. Sea urchin that have lost their protective spines will often have a beautifully coloured shell underneath, these shells can have a wide variety of colours that can be anything from a light pink to a dark green. For my design I chose to use purples, and very light pinks and oranges. I tried to mimic the pattern of the sea urchins the best I could, and I think I succeeded. In Adobe Illustrator I created my design then placed it on top of my original outline of my papercraft shape. Using the command "clipping mask" I was able to cut out my final shape with the ornate and intricate design within the outline of my shape.

That was only half of my shape completed though, I still had to create the design for the legs of my shape. I was not able to find any clear reference images for what sea urchin legs looked like so I chose to give the legs of my shape crab claws instead. I know that these are two very different sea creatures but I still found the two different designs to work well together as well as give my piece some humour. Originally I wanted to make the legs orange and yellow but I was finding that colour scheme to be too messy. In the end I chose to go with the red and white coloration often seen on spider crabs. One thing I physically changed about the legs of my shape in this version was that I used actual wire instead of paperclips, which created the framework of the legs (Image can be seen below).

I found this to be an extremely fun project, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the process of taking an object that was created in a three-dimensional software, like Rhinoceros 5, and slowly but surely turning it into a flattened objects that could be cut, folded and glued to make up a real life shape that I could hold in my hands. I look forward to doing more projects like this in the future. 

To view the first prototype and its process view my previous post titled "Papercraft Objects: First Prototype"

Original Phase 1 Prototype 

Original 3D model

Original paperclip legs framework

Phase 2 Prototype

Final Design/Pattern (small black lines indicate where to cut and fold the shape)

The new leg design

Reference I used for the crab legs

Reference images for the sea urchin design and colours

Final Design 

Front View

Bottom View (With wireframe) 

Close View at the design of the "Crab Legs"