Angie's 3D Design Blog

I decided to take more of an intuitive approach with this model rather than draw in Rhino right away. Here is the simple concept I  began with: First, cutting and measuring straps to fit my head: Then created a tightening latch system at the back(with help!), and would potentially use velcro for this, although I am still undecided: Then I moved on to forming the shield. Originally I attempted to do this with clear plastic film which turned out to be way too flimsy.  I also made some bolts to fasten the shield onto the head frame: Final product(for now):          This exercise was incredibly useful and tells me that I have a lot more work to do in terms of finalizing this design. This model gives me a place to work from though, in terms of measurements once I begin drawing it in Rhino.

Many of my thumbnails sketch ideas were too 'costume-y', or too practical, or too impractical for completing in a two week assignment, but not so much on the artful side of things.  So the brainstorming session was essential. People were able to take some of my more complicated ideas and suggest interesting and manageable solutions. The one idea I decided to run with, in the top right corner of my thumbnail page, is the face shield.  The very first image in my mind for this one, thinking of weird eyewear, was of the crazy sun visor face shields that have become so popular in some asian countries, and are showing up more and more in North America: I see these things and sometimes think that despite how crazy they look, it must be neat to be completely shielded from the public view while still in public. I thought it could be kind of nice to have some kind of protective eyewear/facewear that was designed to give me a reprieve from the public gaze. Something that ...

Presenting the BOSS Line Selector LS-2 effect pedal (or a very close approximation thereof).  At first this seemed like a straightforward object to re-create. But once the digital callipers came out and I began to dismantle the pedal, it became clear that this was going to be a challenge. For starters, there isn't a single side of this enclosure that is at a 90 degree angle.   Interesting details in the knobs provided the unique challenge of capturing multiple textures and colours: Re-creating the text was also a fun challenge. Some elements I traced from an image, while others I was able to re-create with the 'TextObject' tool. I learned that for the text to be legible, it can't simply be a planar surface snapped to its intended surface. It also has to have a thickness to it, so that it sits 'on top' of the surface, otherwise the colour of the surface and the colour of the text meld together in a weird way.  Here's how I re-...

Steph and I roughed out some sketch ideas: The main theme ended up centring around topography and jewellery. Here is an idea for a topographical pendant piece, one being a mountain range, the other being the bathymetry of a lake - a potential idea to capture favourite places in a personal keepsake: Then we thought it would be interesting to juxtapose organic shapes found in the natural landscape contrasted with the grid-like pattern of city streets.  The anatomical heart-shaped sketch near the top reminded me of the shape of Nose Hill Park in Calgary, so we decided to create a design for a pair of asymmetrical earrings that paired the topography of the park with the grid patterns of the adjacent neighbourhood. We picture the final piece in a light material - maybe wood/layers of coloured transparent plastic(for the topography piece) that could be cut as individual layers and then cold-connected. Some final prep is in order for the CNC machin...

I decided to begin with the back plate of my BOSS pedal. It was slow-going at first, getting used to creating shapes from a real-world example, and to figuring out how to best translate calliper measurements to the drawing. It looks straightforward, but turned out to be tricky in places. Simple offsets don't always work here, likely due to imperfections in the way this enclosure was manufactured. For example, the width of the casing wall is different on all four sides.  Also, the fillets on the rubber backing are different at the top than at the bottom. Here are a few images illustrating my process. Casing wall, bottom view. Note differences in wall thickness: Metal back-plate with screw holes, sunken level with the casing wall: Addition of the rubber backing: Using Boolean Difference to create the negative space within the rubber backing. Here you can see the difference between the fillet shapes at the top compared with the...

After a test run with the cutter, blade re-adjustment due to the knife being set too low, and then more test runs....  SUCCESS! Then seeding for daaaayyyzzzz....  Luckily I cut four copies of my design, because seeding them meant breaking three... It was a lengthy, delicate process and was easy to tear corners.  Fourth time was a charm! Wrapping proved to be the biggest challenge. I set the vinyl on and carefully peeled it off about five times before I was satisfied with placement. The biggest lesson learned was next time to add some sacrificial registration pieces to my design so that I can precisely line it up with the surface. In this case, the placement won't matter too much, since there will be knobs, bolts and washers covering up any small imperfections in placement.  Ta da..... Complete, with knobs and fixtures: