Project 2- Group 4- “Geometric Eden”- Yvette, Max, Valeria, Shivangi

I. IDEATION

• The original Concept we chose the to 3D scan was a origami cube , and our initial direction for the project is to produce something that, like origami, has something to do with a modular design composed of primitive geometrical element.

   

   

  

  

• The Original concept that we pitched was to create a stage environment for the mannequin to stand on. In regards to our ideation, we started out with an origami cube that utilized smaller geometric pieces mimicking a folded square or triangles on the outside.

because our concept of origami is all about geometrical as well as triangular shape and structure. It wouldn’t been likely to achieve our ideal result simply by using the high-poly original scanned model of cube. Therefore, a key strategy we came up with is by using the “decimate” modifier

 

With that we are able to yield a bunch of triangular pieces generated out of the original model. Our original approach was to utilize these triangles and build structures out of them

Then we take this idea and when beyond resembling the shape of our original scanned model. I decided to design and create an environment with modular, geometric element that looks like its made by origami . 

• From here we were interested in pursuing a focus on nature due to our mannequin’s dress being green from the last project and thus fitting this kind of natural “Eden” like style. From here we thought it might be fun to focus on this geometric origami style for our 4 pieces and have the actual designs be nature-focused things that could be completed in origami, thus we settled on an animal theme with a rabbit, cat and fox + the actual environment you may find these animals in. The reason for this was to create this small world that quite fun.
  We gathered influence of triangular structure and environment design and generated our mood board for reference.

some concept sketches

• As the machine’s printing size was smaller in comparison to the mannequin then what we expected we ended up going with the idea of the mannequin making her own origami and that being our 3 animals and environment, in a sense playing on how our original idea came from origami we had created.

II. PROCESS

• 3D Modeling

We started off by modeling the animal. The approach taken is to model the big shape first and them decimate and triangulate them to make them fit into the origami , geometrical typology

 

The workflow is :

Create base body mesh -> sculpting mode to sculpt details -> decimate and triangulate -> some pushing and pulling to refine the shape in the edit mode.

The same process in making the fox and the rabbit.

 

 

Then moving on the the environment model, it follows a similar work flow which create a platform first, then sculpted our mountain and terrain from the ground, and then goes to the modifier. 

This process is mainly extrusion + sculpting. Had encountered the problem as I messed up with extruding in the edit mode.

However, we were able to get to the final result:

• 3D Printing.

Then we sent our models to the 3D printer.

We have encountered some issues at this stage. 

• • • had some problems with scaling in our first attempt of printing the fox- it was at the size of the environment and it’s too big to make sense in the entire scene
    • due to the scaling issues, we had to reprint each item 3 times which took a lot more time than expected 
    • another issue happened when we accidentally broke our model.  poor fox with a broken leg:(

Regardless, we were able to finish the print and it yielded a decent result to scale.

 

 

III. REFLECTION

This project helped us build up our knowledge of Blender and familiarize more tools in digital modeling. In addition to that, the 3D printing process is also a brand new experiences for the group member as we all learned a lot. Our approach to mimicking origami allowed us to think about 3D modeling from an engineering perspective as well since the triangle shapes within our animals/landscape models are commonly used for stability in engineering structures. It showed the importance of understanding the basics of 3D printing and the geometry within it as well. We had encountered issues such as scaling, broken pieces, etc when printing but we were eventually able to overcome them, which also strengthened our problem-solving skills for this new medium. Trial and error with reflection became our way of overcoming these issues. For most of our group members, 3D scanning is a completely brand-new territory, and we all hope to expand our new experiences and innovation throughout our time at USC.