Ong Yeok Ho
603404
Virtual Environments ENVS 10008 2013 Semester 1 Group 1 Module 4 - Reflection
Module 1 - Ideation Natural Pattern
Analytical drawings
Analytical Drawing 1
Analytical Drawing 2
Analytical Drawing 3
Recipe 1
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1. Start with a point 2. Draw lines from the starting point and away from it 3. Draw more lines, similar to how branches are branching out from the trees. 4. Draw even more lines facing random directions, but ensuring some spaces are enclosed. The pattern chosen is the pattern of floor cracks. Each crack has irregular shapes and sizes. However, when they are seen together, there is a form of repetitive pattern.
In module 1’s feedback session, I was advised that recipes should be as clear as possible with some texts explaining the formation of the pattern. As mentioned by Aranda and Lasch (2006), recipes come from the concept of algorithm. Patterns are broken down by analytical drawings and the process of formation is explained in the recipe.
Module 1 - Ideation A mentioned by Ball, each pattern has a “patterner” (2012, p 23). When together, they form an emerging pattern. It is not planned, predicted and is spontaneous. My pattern comes from the basic pattern of “Y” shape. They keep repeating in different lengths and directions spontaneously until they form a pattern similar to floor cracks. The extrusions illustrate how the pattern is formed.
Transformation from analytical drawing to 3D extrusions
Module 1 - Ideation
Overall form of the lantern
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The lantern would wrap around the hands where the patterns will be incorporated on it’s surfaces. However, the hand might disrupt the lighting effect, especially the shadows.
The lantern can be hanged on the hand. However, I was concerned that the weight of the lower part of the lantern might not be able to hold it as it is heavier.
I then thought of just holding the lantern normally using the hand. This avoids the disruptions of lighting effects and the weight problem. It is also the easiest one to work with.
I decided on just holding the lantern by hand to avoid any disruptions of lighting effect (option no. 3).
Module 1 - Ideation
Precedent – Miss Marple’s lamp
Miss Maple’s lamp (ELIZA STROZYK, 2012 )
The patterns will be incorporated onto the skins of the lantern. My initial idea was to produce a lighting effect similar to my precedent, Miss Maple’s lamp, by Eliza Strozyk. I explored and tested with the different kind of lighting effects that could possibly happen on the lantern. From the lecture, we were introduced with all the different kind of lighting effect, which I then explored further in Module 2. I then decided on having cut light (Loh 2013) that passes through the lantern to emphasise on the lines of the cracks. The lines and the gaps of the cracks are crucial too. If the lines are too thick, the cracks will look too static and well-planned. Thinner lines will be more spontaneous and there will be more movement on the pattern. Thicker lines will also allow too much light to pass through and they will look less like lines and more like shapes instead.
Exploring the different thickness of lines.
Module 2- Design 1
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The clay model is lofted in Rhino. It is a method of “reverse engineering� where I made the the physical model and then it was reproduced virtually in Rhino (Kolarevic 2003). 1. I used the method of tracing the contour lines of the clay model. 2. The lines are reproduced in Rhino and colour coded to differentiate the depths and positions of each lines. 3. It is then lofted. As I wanted a more uneven surface to create more interesting shadows and lighting effect, which is similar to Miss Maple’s lamp, I tweaked the control points of the contour lines until I reached the desired form.
Module 2- Design I first explored with the default custom 2D panels. However, none of them produces that effect that I want. As I wanted to have my patterns incorporated onto the surface of the lantern, by refering to the recipe and analytical drawings I did in Module 1, I made my own custom panel. They are not exactly the same as my pattern but by following my recipe, it produced the similar pattern. This is a method of reduction where it uses optimal way to send pattern without changing its information (Scheurer & Stehling 2011). However, this did not work as the panels did not create surfaces, only curves and I would not be able to unroll my surface. Hence, I had to modify my panels to a more suitable one.
Default 2D panels
Custom 2D panel
Module 2- Design
Prototype 1
I was told that triangles are the easiest to work with. I then started exploring with 3D panels as the depth and uneven surfaces would create interesting shadows, which is simalar my precedent, Miss Maple’s lamp. I explored with the different forms of the available 3D patterns in Rhino. I thought that Pyramid 2 would be the most suitable panel compared to the rest. The movement of the triangles which are in different directions give it an irregular form. I then offset the borders for light to pass through and to produce shadows. This is my first prototype. It is the easiest to be panelised, and would be easy to be made for my final model. However, it is very different from my pattern, as the fixed triangles do not reflect my pattern. It is a pattern that does not follow after my recipe.
Module 2- Design
Custom 3D Panels As the default custom 3D panels did not work out, I did my own custom panel. Since I was advised on making triangles, I decided to make triangles that closely resemble my pattern. They would be facing different directions randomly and come in different shapes and sizes.
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I had to go back to Module 1 and thought about the movement of the pattern. My panels will have to match the movement of the my chosen pattern so that it produces similar effect. As mentioned by Aranda (2006), it does not have to be exactly same, but similar. By applying the concept of abstraction, the analytical drawing simplifies the pattern of floor cracks into a manageable level (Scheurer & Stehling 2011). From here, I am able to find the key idea that makes the pattern, which lies in the movement. The movement of the floor cracks is dynamic where the lines are facing different directions, with different lengths. I apply the same kind of movement into my panels to mimick the pattern.
I experimented with different border offsets, from 0.3 to 0.2. I thought that with smaller value of offset, the pattern would be emphasizing on the thinner lines , hence making the pattern to be expressed more clearly, looking more like the lines of the cracks.
Module 2- Design Prototype 2
Prototype 3 The amount of light that is passing though is just right and produces an interesting shadow effect. However, the thickness of the lines does not really give emphasis on the lines, which I do not think is expressing the effect that I want well enough.
Prototype 3’s panels are the same as Prototype 2. The only difference lies on the thickness of the lines, where this is done with offset borders of 0.2. The lines are thinner, which I think, is the most similar to my pattern of crack lines. The thinner borders give emphasis on the lines, making the pattern even more obvious.
Module 2- Design Prototype 4 For the fourth prototype, I tried experimenting with no offset borders. With this panelling, there are no shadow effects that are shown which might seem a little dull and less interesing However, the lines are shown on the lines, where it could represent my pattern well. I glued the end tabs of each panel together to achieve this effect, which gives the lines a sense of depth, instead of cutting one end of the tabs and pasting the other on it. I also think it is similar to Miss Maple’s lamp which is what I draw my inspiration from, as I hope to achieve the same effect. At this stage, I decided to incorporate this panel in my final design.
Module 3 - Fabrication From Module 2’s presentation, I had the following feedbacks: 1. To think about how the model is to be held by the hand. The current design does not suggest any ideas on holding the lantern. It should express the way of holding it without the user questioning about it. 2. More types of panels can be explored which include: - having a concept from closed to open panels. - exploration with the tabs facing the outside surface rather than inside - explorations of different sizes of tabs as there are different shadow effects 3. Take note of the lighting when doing protoypes as some light builbs might be too bright (I was using torchlight from my camera phone which was too bright). This causes a different effect as the final model’s LED lights might not be as bright, hence affecting the formation of shadows. From the feedbacks, I made more prototypes and explored with more ideas.
I then explored with the directions of tabs. I tried with tabs that are facing outwards instead of inwards. However, I did not like it that much as I thought that it looked a little messy and not as neat.
I also tried cutting tab on one side and have the other side’s tab to be glued on it. However, it affects the shadow that was produced as it is too obvious.
Module 3 - Fabrication I then decided on accepting one of the suggestions which was to have from closed to open panels. This is because I thought that while I want to produce a lantern similar to Miss Maple’s, the shadow effects produced by the offset borders are really interesting and that the shadows give even more emphasis to the patterns. Besides that, the bottom of the lantern has closed panels, where the hand can rest comfortably.
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Module 3 - Fabrication Unrolling the panels Hence, I decided to unroll them in smaller sections. I unrolled those that are folded in the same directions in one section. This would make the foldings easier and much neater. The part with red colour was unrolled in on section as they were folded outwards
When both sections are combined, it would be easier to just fold them inwards.
The part with blue colour was unrolled in another section
There are some parts which are folded inwards that I am not able to separate into another section. I solved this problem by just running the blade through the other side of the paper. As there are not many of them, it was not a major problem for me. However, I had to pay more attention as to which direction the panels were folded.
Module 3 - Fabrication Unrolling the panels
Module 3 - Fabrication Exploded Axonometric View
Module 3 - Fabrication Exploded Axonometric View (Top Half)
Module 3 - Fabrication Exploded Axonometric View (Bottom Half)
Module 3 - Fabrication Cutting File
Total surface area of the lantern = 311206 mm² Total surface area of paper = (900 X 600) X 4 = 2 160 000 mm² Amount of wastage = approximately 80% Type of paper = White Ivory Card
Module 3 - Fabrication Construction of Final Model
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Module 3 - Fabrication Construction of Final Model
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Module 3 - Fabrication Lighting
I bought coloured paper to produce warm light. As the exposure of the LED lights was also an issue, I decided to make a sphere out of the coloured paper and had the LEDs hidden in the sphere. In order to do so, I made a sphere in Rhino, panellised it, unrolled it, had it printed and then cut. I made 2 spheres, where one was put at the bottom, while the other was put at the center of the lantern.
In order to allow the sphere to “float� at the center of the lantern, I made 2 strips of paper that were hard enough to support the sphere (by using 4 pieces of ivory card and they are then combined and glued). They were then glued inside. The spheres would then be located on top of the strips.
The red lines are where the spheres are located at.
Module 3 - Fabrication Final Model
Module 3 - Fabrication Final Model
Module 3 - Fabrication Final Model
Module 3 - Fabrication Final Model
Module 4 - Reflection The following feedbacks I had from Module 3 are: 1) to think aobut how to improve the lighting, so that they are more equally distributed. 2) the layout arrangement is too dense 3) to think about how the spheres are to be held at the center of the lantern. E.g using fishing lines etc. 4) More photos should be taken for the final lantern. I have improved on the photography and layout for this module. As for the lighting, I was quite satisfied with the shadows that was produced by the lantern. However, during the parade, I have seen some of other student’s works and realised that they have produced much sharper shadows. In order to do so, they used much brighter LEDs. I then realised that my lighting during the parade was too dim that the effects of the shadows was not seen enough. Besides that, the stage was not pitch black which makes it even more difficult for the lighting to be seen. Although the shadows was seen quite clearly when I tested the lighting, the ceiling of the stage was too high. Looking at all the other students’ works, I learnt that there are some aspects that I could learn from them. For example, I should use brighter LEDs so that it is bright enough for shadows to be formed, as it is something that I am trying to emphasize in my model. Besides that, I thought I should have explored the overall form of my model more and challenge myself with more complex forms. By observing other lanterns, I realised that it is possible to create even more complex forms from Rhino.
One of the students with really bright lighting which causes sharp shadows (Image source: Ying 2013).
Comparing it to my lantern, I realise that my lighting is too dim (Image Source: Ying 2013).
These students have challenged themselves by exploring complex forms (Image source: Ying 2013)
Module 4 - Reflection Digital Technology on Design
“ 3D printing, although sounds like science fiction, it is already coming online, and promises to change the entire way we think about industrial production. The process is amazing.� (Rifkin 2011, p 117) As mentioned by Rifkin (2011), the third industrial revolution changes the way we do our work. More people can now design and sell their own things which establishes small and medium industries. These are all made possible because of the advancement in technology such as 3D printers. From this project, we used CNC cutter to cut our models according to our digital drawings in Rhino. By using Rhino, I was able to loft and panelize my lantern, something that would have been impossible without a digital program. The 3D program enables me design and edit them easily. After that, I unrolled the surfaces and they are then cut out using the card cutter from FabLab. This saved me a lot of time where I do not have to print and cut them manually. From this project, it is obvious that without these technologies, it would have been almost impossible for me to produce a lantern by myself. Buildings, designs and structures are made using 3D programs which give a clearer and realistic Products printed from 3D printers that can be sold picture of how they will look like. This is something that is not possibly done without all the 3D programs. The way the to customers. (Image source: n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com world works is so different now compared to the first and second industrial revolutions. Besides that, everything is so 2013) much more connected now. Companies like Etsy and Wikipedia are able to reach to different people around the world virtually and this brings information gathering to a whole new level. For example, I am able to find my sources and inspirations from the web easily just through Google. Learning Rhino makes me realise how it is possible to design almost anything now with the help of the technology. Besides that, there is the advantage of lower costs. It is so different from the Second Industrial Revolution where the world used to be more centralised to only exlusive business and far from the reach of common people. The technological changes have indeed changed the way the world works.
I am able to find precedents and inspirations quickly, such as the Miss Maple’s lamp.
References
ARANDA, B. and LASCH, C., 2006. Tooling. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ELIZA STROZYK, 2012. Miss Mapleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lamp, photograph, viewed 6th July 2013, < http://www.elisastrozyk.de/seite/woodtex/lamps.html> KOLAREVIC, B., 2003. Digital Production in Architecture in Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing. London: Spon Press, pp. 29-54. LOH, P., 2013. Pattern & Effects: Camouflage & Spatial Effects. Lecture Slides edn. Melbourne: University of Melbourne. PHILIP, B., 2012. Pattern Formation in Nature. 82(2), pp. 22-27. RIFKIN, J., 2011. Distributed Capitalism in The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 107-126. SCHEURER, F. and STEHLING, H., Lost in Parameter Space? 81(4), pp. 70-79. YING, Q., 2013. Images from the parade, photograph, edn. N-E-R-V-O-U-S.COM 2013. Product printed by 3D printer, photograph, viewed 6th July 2013, < http://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/shop/generativeProduct?php?code=99>