Virtual Environments, Module 1, week 3 Journal

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Virtual Environments Darcy Zelenko Module 1 - Ideation, week 3

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From looking at expansion in multiple direction from a series of points, in the workshop I created this fragmented form from modelling clay. As two or more strands of clay intersect along their expansion routes the create shapes which could be turned into panels.

I thought this was interesting because if extrapolated on a large scale all of these could work together to create a large and intricate form.

I further developed this process of creating a series of clay ‘strings’ that would interfere with each other differently. The material limitation of modelling clay made this impossible to model as it doesn’t hold it’s form without some kind of propping.

I then decided to thicken my strings and create loops, this struck a perfect balance between manouverability and workability.

The first iteration was created by laying four strings on a 2d surface which created a panel in the middle. Then strings were then bended upwards to join and create a similar looking panel along the top.

What I found interesting about this model was that despite how fragile it was, when moved it warped to create an entirely new form. This made for some creative photography experiences.

3 Clockwise from top right: Left, Right, Front and Top views

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Perspective View

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I then abstracted the model I created. I think I felt like pretzels because I think that’s what they came out resembling.

The abstractions were based on taking the strings from the last model altering their length and form and re-building them to create something vastly different, but still being able to see panels amongst the chaos.

The other reason why I included both abstractions was that they produced some really interesting shadows. It’s important to always be thinking about the effects that different lighting conditions can bring about

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Abstraction #1 Clockwise from top right: Left, Right, Front and Top views

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Abstraction #2 Clockwise from top right: Left, Right, Front and Top views

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The other model made in class was one based around taking simple geometric forms and arranging them to maximise clustering.

All the spheres in this model are of uniform size and have been knocked around a little bit before being pushed together which warped their size even more slightly. This helped illustrate the clutering effect better.

I recreated this model in a similar way after the workshop.

Spheres of a uniform size have been aranged in a helix formation. This formation was inspired from playing around with a Grasshopper definition that created a helix based around a certain number of points.

As the number of points used decreased so did the quality of the helix created. This first development is meant to represent a helix such as this

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Clockwise from top right: Left, Right, Front and Top views

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I wanted to refine this process in the development of another sketch model. In the back of my head I had the concept of my Grasshopper helix and how it was created. I wanted to illustrate a helix more clearly in my model so I did the logical thing: I created more points ie spheres.

I took the 7 spheres from the first development and cut them in half before rolling them into balls again to give 14 spheres.

After ‘smooshing’ them together along the line of a helix it was slightly more obvious as illustrated in the following images

13 Clockwise from top right: Left, Right, Front and Top views

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Left View

The results from the previous development model were promising, but they lacked the level of detail in spiral pattern I was after.

So I took my previous model and cut it’s 14 components in half and rolled them into 28 smaller balls.

This produced a better (but harder to assemble) result. It’s easier to see elements of the helix within this model.

This development is also substantially higher than the others

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Right & Front Views

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Top View

18 Trying to bring out shadow

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This is a series of sketches illustrating the evolution of my models. The mass of each one would be the same, but after being halved and halved again the volume and height can be seen to drastically change.

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Tweaking the definition I created last week, I managed to create a series of spheres along a helix which can be seen on the following page.

I haven’t been able to create a helix that resembles the one in my clay models yet. I think it’s a matter of chucking in a multiplier in to alter the range, giving me a stretched helix.

Currently, using spheres to illustrate this definition looks slightly cluttered, I tried using circles instead and the results are to the right

21 My attempt in rhino at parametrically modelling one of my development models

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Effects-based Lighting http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_woNBiIyOKI

Nosaj Thing is an American-based electronic musician. He has made a name for himself in recent years partly because of the various styled effects and lighting he uses in his performances.

His newest release Eclipse/Blue had a video made for it using some of these techniques.

The video is comprised of a pair of dancers representing the sun and moon, intertwining with each other. Combined with their routine is a projector, screen and high speed camera that acively tracks their movements before projecting a video that compliments their choreography.

A number of lighting effects such as brightness/darkness and contrast can be seen in this example. I also picked up on overlap being used in this performance and would like to investigate overlapping patterns further and whether they could be used in my design process.

This precedent also helped me to start thinking outside the box a little more. I’d like to get a projector and start projecting onto some prototype models

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The Miss Maple lamp designed by Elisa Trozyk was created by tesselating triangular pieces of ply adhesed to a fabric to create a ‘Wooden Textile’. This is then able to be manipulated into a wide variety of froms. What I like about this project is how the designer has used the translucicity of the fabric to allow some light to pass between the gaps of the lantern. It really emphasises the pattern created by the trianglular wooden elements and gives the lamp a certain solidity.

I would like to use some of the aspects of this design in my lantern. I think playing with the translucidity of black and white paper (the allowed materials) combined with the clustering and overlapping areas in my sketch models would really be a solid way to begin starting to design my lantern.

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After thinking about how I can produce some of the patterns and how they could interact with a lantern I design I decided to have a go at draping a pattern over the form I created.

In Rhino I took the series of spheres and draped a surface over them. I then referenced the surface into Grasshopper before connecting it to an image sampler definition I had from last year.

The result was quite unique. The brighness and darkness of the referenced image was represented by a series of circles, all of different sizes.

I’d like to explore this more in the design stage