Initial Experiments

Some of our initial tests with the ceramic 3D printer was aimed at achieving a better understanding of the correlation between the level of subdivision of the computer model, and the size of the nozzle when 3D printing. In the image to the right, depicting a shelf with various objects standing on it, the result of some of these experiments can be seen. Objects closer to the right on the shelf have an increasingly higher level of subdivision, and objects closer to the ground were printed with an increasingly bigger nozzle.

Evidently more iterations of the fractal noise were able to emerge when 3D printing an object with a higher level of subdivision, compared to one with a lower level. However, one of the most interesting discoveries of this experiment was that when 3D printing using a big nozzle paired with a high level of subdivision of the computer model, more iterations of the fractal noise failed to emerge formally. It became apparent that the minute movements of the extruder, derived from the high resolution of the computer model, simply did not succeed in being accurately represented by the relatively thick diameter of the string of clay being extruded.

We also conducted a series of investigations into how different noise soups can be used to alter the shape of different geometrical base forms. At the bottom of this page, the result of the four different noises that we experimented with the most, can be seen applied to a cylindrical form. These are, from left to right, known as Sinusoid, Periodic Perlin, Perlin, and Worley. The difference between Perlin and Periodic Perlin is that the latter is repetitive in its manner and thus patterns are able to reappear in places. Sinusoid is, by nature, also periodic.