ARST349
3/17/15
7-8:30pm
Tonight the 3D printer was out of order again so I decided to experiment with the 123d catch app. This app takes a while to load, and isn’t always very accurate when creating a mesh. This salt shaker is an example of some of the meshes that didn’t quite make a complete object
However the program is useful for creating 3d files and downloading them as different formats to print or edit. The highliter and computer mouse I captured came out fairly clear, and i was able to see how they would transfer to a print file on the maker bot software.
3/5/2015
6-7:30pm
Tonight the 3D printer was back working again but something was being printed by another student. Instead of working in the DSC i worked on sealing the pelican. It is getting close to finished but some problem areas still exist at the edges of the wings and the corner of the mouth, and I need to find a new combination of commands to fix this.
Im going to go back later tonight to see if the project that was being printed is done so I can put my piece in to print
Jimi Hendrix is a figure that feels alive despite his death in 1970. His music has influenced generations of music in just four years professionally playing. During his career he moved with no boundaries. He knew where he wanted to go and was able to travel his way there regardless of the path required. He helped define the hippie movement through his clothing, drug use, and eccentric personality. It is from these character attributes that I was inspired to create a vehicle capable of smoothly traversing environments that others have never been able to cross. His vehicle allows him to surmount heights not attainable by the common man. He deserved to travel in style with something that resembled a VW Bus right out of Scooby-Doo. Inside, he was rewarded with luxury. A flat screen TV surrounded by plush couches. A gentle fire to keep warm. Psychedelic colors defined Jimi Hendrix’s most popular vinyl album covers and therefore played an intimate role in the color scheme chosen.
I designed a vehicle for my mum. She loves travelling and she admires the island cultures. When I was looking at different designs, I saw an extraordinary design which was very fuel efficient and being tested by the U.S. army. So I decided to adapt the rough approach of high deck but reduce the size since she doesn’t like big things. Both my parents are not really into technology either they know how to sail so I decided to keep it as simple as I can. I decided to make a catamaran boat with a stabilized cabin since my dad has sea sickness. We haven’t had any holiday on a boat before and I really wanted to make that possibility real. I made sure the design had a minimalist approach since she loves simple sleek designs. I wanted this boat to be conveniently used when going to little bays in Mediterranean Islands. My dad is already retired and they can travel around the Mediterranean after mum retires. I wanted forms without corners and an aerodynamic design in order to keep the integrity. I think they would enjoy travelling and swimming in the undiscovered little bays.
My vehicle was designed with many inspirations including Wall-E’s tank treads from the movie with the same title with elements from the M1A1 Abrams Tank, a cockpit similar to that found on an industrial vehicle like a CAT, Batman’s gauntlet designs that has remained relatively unchanged over his entire history, Gatling guns similar to the type found on a A-10 Warthog plane, and a main body designed to look like a barbell, which shows a weight and heftiness. I chose to design the body after a tank because it has never really been done before for batman. I designed my tank for a harsh, rock environment, but is also suitable to be used in combat against Batman’s enemies. The harsh environment influenced my design in the way that it is shaped – it is designed so that only the wheels touch the ground and the body of the tank is not at risk of getting caught on rocky terrain. Also, I designed the tank so that it was generally balanced and had a low center of mass to combat the possibility of tipping. Batman’s characteristics find their way into my vehicle in the color scheme used (all dark), the incorporation of weapons platforms, the visual appearance of indestructibility, the general strong and heavy appearance, and the avoidance of light.
For
Project Description
My first project was an underwater bus for Michael Phelps to explore the deep sea. I was drawn to many of Phelps’ physical characteristics, mainly his height, long wingspan and flexibility, all of which I felt I could illustrated via an articulated bus. The design is long and flexible, contains multiple compartments, and included grand and spectacular “arms” like Phelps, and is made of gold to touch on Phelps’ desire to win gold medals in the Olympics. Unlike Phelps’ typical experiences in the water, where he is moving rapidly and trying to win a race, this vehicle is for deep sea exploration. There are still enemies that Phelps will encounter in the deep sea, which is why the vehicle contains components of many different ocean dwelling creatures. The crab claws, the scaled tail, the octopus arms, and the anglerfish head all provide protection and camouflage for the vehicle, allowing Phelps to ride around undisturbed. The renders highlight the exterior and interior features of the vehicle while displaying an interaction between the vehicle and it’s environment.
Project Renders
This project is a vehicle for Ron Swanson and Teddy Roosevelt hunting Big Foot. They fly in from America, because how would the greatest Americans in the world be able to live with themselves as a resident of Canada, to the Northwestern Territories in Canada. They don’t know if they will ever find big foot, but they hunt night and day following footprints or whatever leads they can get. The vehicle takes on some traits of both of these individuals. The hat, pin on the hat and glasses come from Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders days. The figure for the vehicle follows Ron Swanson’s simple life style. It has the travel bubble, two sets of tank treads, and travels quietly through the forest and sky. The large weaponry is an attribute of both of these men.
The inspirations for the vehicle that helped me were mainly tanks. While I chose a simple sphere for the main body, the treads resemble that of a tank. I felt that they matched a tank pretty well. I also made them smaller so that they could climb over rocky/bumpy terrain. The environment was mostly based off of forests and heavily wooded areas. I also wanted to put night images in so that it would give off the idea that they are hunting day and night.
The Stone Cold Canyon Crusher is inspired by various aspects of monster trucks, RVs, and off-roading quads. These are large, powerful vehicles with extra-large wheels that offer both stability and comfort while cruising over the rocky, rugged terrain of the Southwestern United States of America. I figured that this would make the ideal recreational vehicle for retired professional wrestler and actor, “The Texas Rattlesnake”, Stone Cold Steve Austin. A bonafide roughneck with little regard for authority in his heyday, Austin now enjoys spending time on his ranch in Texas with his wife, while maintaining a lifelong affinity for beer. The Canyon Crusher was designed in order to allow Austin to enjoy the finer points of retirement. Now, he’ll be able to enjoy the wild, isolated scenery of the Southwest with a cold beer in his hand, all in the company of his wife.
3/4/15
6:30-9pm
Tonight I worked on a few different things. First I worked a bit on the pelican, trying a mixture of extract and blend srf commands to mend the open edges. This has been a tedious process, as some commands like joinedge work better for certain naked edges than other combinations. There are also some edges that don’t seem to respond to any command so I need to be more creative with solutions to fix those.
Next I went to the DSC to work on the 3d printer. When I got there, one of the supervisors was working on test pieces because the printer kept stopping and beeping in the middle of a job. We used my lego piece as a test
Like the cube she had been testing with, the printer worked for a minute or two then froze and made a beeping sound before getting to the end of the piece as if it had overheated but was showing no error message, all three times we tested it. We cleaned and refilled the filament, and then restarted, but there was no improvement. She said this has been happening for a while and that there has been talk of getting a new printer.
After that I worked on the Kscan software for the first time. I used it to scan myself sitting at the computer. I am going to practice more with this because the scan came out a bit bumpy. The smooth tool helped a bit. However I still came out with two noses.
For our first project ‘vehicles designed for harsh environments’, I have decided to design a powerful and fierce aircraft for the one and only Miss Queen Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter. This vessel is inspired from her own artistic vision as a strong female musician and performer, as well as a successful CEO, wife, and mother. Her story is two-fold, for she keeps her personal life very private, while her global image is iconic and constantly in the public eye. Her two facades are demonstrated in this vehicle’s construction with the bold, flashy (reflective/visible) exterior, with a simple and more intimate scene inside. In an interview about her most recent album Beyonce, she says:
“I wanted people to hear the songs with the story that’s in my head, because that what makes it mine. That vision in my brain is what I wanted people to experience for the first time. Part 1: The visual album. I feel like right now, people experience music differently. I remember seeing thriller on TV with my family, it was an event, we all sat around the TV and I am now looking back, I am so lucky I was born around that time. I miss that immersive experience. Now, people only listen to a few seconds of a song on their ipods and they don’t really invest in a whole album. It’s about the single and the hype. It’s so much that gets between the music, the artist and the fan.”
Her goal in making music is to create a complete body of work in a narrative fashion that will make a powerful statement about femininity/women with power; I have strived to reflect this in creating my own narrative through her vehicular design and its surrounding. The interior design is greatly influenced by one of her fondest memories growing up watching the Jackson 5 on TV with her family, of which she later tributes a famous live performance of ‘Halo’ to the passing of Michael Jackson.
Beyonce will be entering this scene on a hovering aircraft that informs her personal and public life and her values as a female artist. The speakers above will play her music, representing that her messages are being spread and heard. She will be standing at the one golden door of access which will be open (in reference to her philosophy on producing music with only one access point and her aversion to leaks/music theft) as the aircraft gracefully hovers en route to land. The vehicle will be placed directly at the head of the conference table so that Beyonce can descend from her private interior (life) and take her throne at the head of the conference meeting. She is often called Queen Bey (Beyonce) and refers to her following of fans/supporters as her beehive. These people who appreciate and recognize her vision and messages will be incorporated to the exterior façade which will take the form of a gold, hive-like hexagonal pattern. The wings will slightly mimic those of an insect (bee) with the intention that her life is always in motion and her work is about movement and being able to influence future generations and spread her message globally. This vehicle will be styled futuristically to reflect her goals of impacting new generations of women as well as her avant-garde approach towards feminism. The exterior color scheme and material are informed by her royal title as Queen Bey with bold, royal colors that are sharp and sleek yet feminine like jewelry or her wardrobe. When she exits her interior living room, she takes charge of the scene in her powerful stance, representing how she takes charge of her sexuality, body, and capacity to be successful without fear of judgment. In one of Beyonce’s celebrated songs “Flawless” from her most recent visual album Beyonce, she samples Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED message:
“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise you will threaten the man.’ Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support. But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors – not for jobs or for accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are. Feminist: the person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes”
These words inspired Beyonce’s song, and both women continue to address gender inequality in the workforce and empowering women to a higher level. The harsh environment I have chosen is set in a board room meeting space filled with men in suits. Fittingly, Beyonce is the President and CEO of her company Parkwood Entertainment, where she takes the seat at the head of the table after descending her vehicle, however the gender of the board room changes once she arrives, as it becomes mixed equally in gender. The relationship with space in these final renders is very important for it reflects her career and private life juxtaposed in a societal critique on a woman’s place at a table, figuratively and literally.
To figure out a good design for my vehicle, I looked at both the Tron motorcycle and the Batman motorcycle. These vehicles are both very cool in design and give their rider that effect as they speed past their enemies. The Batman motorcycle inspiration can be seen in the weaponry and positioning of the wheels. The Tron motorcycle is seen in the sleek body and the helmet. This vehicle makes it easy for Bugs to navigate through a harsh environment of his enemies. This specific harsh environment is a battle in the desert between Bugs and Yosemite Sam. This made it important to have a number of weaponry on Bug’s motorcycle. Bugs is a very cool, fast, and over the top individual. I made sure the design matched his style. The motorcycle is very cool, is shown going fast, and has over the top weaponry to protect him. It has two seats in case he needs to save his love, Lola. One other thing I’d like to mention is that another one of Bug’s enemies is a bull that Bugs likes to tease. In this design, I had an ironic effect as Bugs is riding a design of one of his main adversaries. It shows that he is fierce and can conquer all enemies he encounters.
3/3/15
7-9pm
Tonight I downloaded the Makerbot desktop program onto my laptop so I can still use the printers when they are available. I went to the DSC to print pieces however the printer was in use. I reformatted the interlocking pieces to work though so as soon as the printer is free (going to check again tonight) I will print them and then print the full cathedral blocks. Also, I made a lot of progress on the pelican tonight. I used a few different commands to fix the majority of naked edges.
I used sweep2 and blend surface to rebuild some of the surfaces which worked best on some of the facial structures
Also, I used the join edges command which was really helpful on picking up some of the smaller edges throughout the wings
There are only a few more edges to fix and the pelican should be watertight for the most part. Have to still figure out a way to fix part of the face that remains as naked edges
