Render Assignment:

I chose to render a combination of real and imagined items- my mug, a grapefruit half, and a bowl and spoon.  I spent most of my time in uv mapping and wrapping, so although I tried to structure my composition, I could have put more thought into it. I added the spoon at the last minute because I prefer compositions with groups of 3 or more items.

Some of the texture images I created:

  

Moving Parts Assignment

I did a press fit chain- the "atoms" were designed to work as a tanagram. It can be printed as one piece, or separate pieces and snapped together. Once it's printed, I hope to attach a metal chain and make it a necklace.

To get the press fit tolerances correct, I printed a number of test parts on the form 1

Assignment 3

Boolean Form

Cost: white strong flexible plastic
Shapeways: $14.38
IMaterialize: $16.90
SolidConcepts: $41.00

Planar Form

Cost: white strong flexible plastic
Shapeways: $12.09
IMaterialize: $16.90
SolidConcepts: $41.00

House
Rhino File: link

Reading Assignment:

Mandiak weaving pattern, Guinea-Bissau:

This composition blends elements of repetition and reflection. With the exception of the triangle-rectangle structures in the center, each element in the design is based on the motif of the diamond-like form that dominates the composition.  Despite this extensive repetition, strong vertical compositional lines emerge from the piece, due to the dominant quality of the white striped borders of the two central columns of large diamonds. The numerous smaller diamonds in the surrounding black portions help to break up the rigidity of the central columns giving the piece a structured but energetic quality.

Anish Kapoor, Tall Tree & The Eye (Tall Tree & The Eye), 2009

This sculpture outside of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao contrasts an intricate repetition of circular forms with the smooth consistent surface of the museum, creating a dramatic tension, that is minimized somewhat by the similar material qualities of the sculpture and the museum. The sculpture itself varies the concentration of the spheres to create an emphasis on the top of the sculpture. The negative space elements in the central and lower portions of the sculpture give it a lightness, which stands in contrast to the heavy steel material that the sculpture is constructed from.

Rhino Assignment Part 1: I chose objects at 3 different scales: (small) A hand-held iron, (medium) an Alexander McQueen bodice, (very large) the battleship Yamato.

Composition 1:  I tried to model this composition like a still life of small objects. I grouped the objects in a stable formation in the lower left hand corner to create a entrance to the frame, with the grouping providing a resting point near the middle of the frame.  

Composition 2:  I experimented with a fulcrum-like composition, balancing a close/ level grouping of the ship and iron with a small, but distant bodice. The abstracted version of this composition approaches a cruciform layout due to the closer configuration between the objects.

Composition 3:  This composition was designed to be dynamic and convey a feeling of motion. I rotated all of the objects to remove any perpendicular or parallel relationships between them.  I used a triangle formation to try and draw attention to the bodice, which is rotated slightly to keep from being parallel with the iron- hopefully creating an interesting vibration to the piece.   

Rhino Assignment Part 2: I chose to model a small toy plane. I took pictures of the plane from the front, top and side and scaled them in photoshop to correspond with one-another. Then I set each picture as the background bitmap for each respective perspective in rhino and modeled splines using the photos as a reference. Units are in mm.  Rhino file 

The original plane:

perspective view:   top view: front view:   Side view: