3D Rhino model of an artichoke Week Two Virtual Environments
Anna Petrou - 586090
Developing the shape: Loft
CREATING A FRAME OF SINGLE LEAF OR “PANEL”
Figuring out the best way to draw an artichoke leaf took a surprisingly long time. After experimenting with loft in a few different ways I rewatched some of the tutorials and realised that this is the best way to acheive an accurate shape. I draw curves which were aligned with the construction plane to bound the loft then drew curves which would shape it 3 dimensionally.
USING LOFT TO TRANSFORM CURVES INTO SURFACE
As you can see the loft function worked well to create a surface which resembles a typical artichoke leaf. This surface however is useful only as a basic panel to work from as an artichoke is made of many leaves of slightly different forms and sizes.
Leaf surface
These are orthographic views of a single leaf which was the standard surface used throughout the design. A majority of the components are exactly like this leaf while some are entirely unique. However, every leaf shape in the design is manipulated from this basic shape. It imitates a real artichoke leaf in that it shows the characteristic diamond shape and is raised at the centre.
RIGHT
FRONT
PERSPECTIVE
Developing the shape
USING POLAR ARRAY TO CREATE FORM FROM MULTIPLE SURFACES
I positioned my leaf surface and used polar array to duplicate and position the leaves around the central point of the construction plane. I repeated this process several times, being sure to offset the leaves. I also made bigger leaves toward the centre as I noticed this was a feature of the artichoke I drew last week.
MANIPULATING ORIGINAL SURFACE TO CREATE DIFFERENT INNER AND OUTER LEAVES
The inner and outer leaves of the artichoke needed to be quite different in shape to those which made up the majority of the object. I used the control points with Gumball to manipulate them and create suitable shapes.
First iteration After repeating polar array a few times and adding some different forms as the interior and exterior leaves this is the resulting shape. I thought about leaving it at this but I had several issues with it at this point. I felt that it was still unresolved. The bottom of the model is completely open ended and I thought that the lack of irregularities was unrealistic for an artichoke. For this reason I decided to continue making changes to the design.
Stem CURVES FOR RAIL REVOLVE
I decided to include a stem to help resolve the design. I used the rail revolve function to create a stem which i then continued to manipulate using control points. This is probable the least satisfactory aspect of this model to me as i shows seams in the render which I don’t know how to shift.
SURFACE CREATED WITH RAIL REVOLVE
Final iteration
This is the final model which I came up with. It is built of the first iteration but has the additions of a stem and a few irregularities. There are leaves which are entirely unique and I deleted some of the outer leaves to imitate a real artichoke. I also changed the shapes and sizes of some of the other leaves and attempted to “attach� them to the stem more.
Elevations
FRONT
RIGHT
Elevations
TOP
PERSPECTIVE
Section Here I split the model simply because I wanted to see how much my model resembled the cross section of a real artichoke. Although it is not perfectly accurate, I think it is surprising how similar it is. It also showed me some of the flaws in my model which I wouldn’t have noticed if I didn’t split the model.
Reflection This exercise has been very useful in two main ways. I have learnt a lot about using Rhino software in the process of drawing the object. It also enhanced my understanding of the object in a three dimensional sense. I was forced to consider how the object was constructed and replicate this in my work on Rhino. I think that although this model is unresolved, the idea of replicated surfaces is useful when I consider designing something using the Rhino paneling tools. I could create a panel like the artichoke leaf and easily use it as a 3D panel.