Virtual Environments Week 2 Journal

Choon Sien Wong 640103 Virtual Environments Sem 1, 2013 Week 2 Module

choonw@student.unimelb.edu.au

Process and Final Outcome

A4 Papers are cut vertically in a portrait manner.

The strips are folded into a triangle and a zigzag pattern.

The zigzag strip is then fitted into the empty space of the triangle structure.

This is similar to the radical web lines designed by the spiders on their sipder web.

The triangle model is then arranged around the base pattern to form an extrution of our chosen pattern Using week 1’s analytical drawing and the recipe, a 3D form of the base pattern is form.

Bending, folding, and movement was used to design the 3D spider web.

The structure is held together by glue-sticks, sticky tape and stapler.

The 3D Model Top View

Perspective view

Macro view

Basic triangles

The joints between the triangles The repetitive pattern of the spider web is the triangular shape.

The triangle is used as a bsis to structure the model Using the skills that we learned from Rhino, rotation and scaling was used to design the model.

Perspective view

Top View

Rhino Week 2 Module Screen Shot

Polylines drawn on the 15X15 tile Using copy and paste and rotation as the moments for the pattern to form a model transformation.

The base pattern is a spider web. From the analytical drawing, a triangle shape is used to create the pattern.

The 3D Model Top View

The 3D Model Perspective View

The 3D Model Side View

Task 1.8 SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE The roof structure of the Sydney Opera House is the closest thing that is similar to the my module.

The roof structure is unique, with a resemblance of a shell.

The shell structure has a similar geometrical shape, which is a triangle.

Week 2 Answers

A spider web is a unique structure made of silk and is one of the strongest fibre(5 times as strong as steel). Its formation is complex and but can be explained by a few simple rules. The spider produces a Y-shaped web in the initial stage of spider web formation. It then lays more frame threads between various anchor points. The spider then lays out radius threads from the centre of the web to the frames and later lays more non-stick silk to form an auxiliary spiral, extending from the centre to the outer edge of the web.

The formation of this structure can be used to re-create the pattern with basic rules. A centre point is determined and a Y-shaped line is formed. Multiple lines are then used to connect from the centres to the frame. Triangle shapes are then fitted into the gap between the lines. From the centre to the outer edge, the triangle gets scaled up. Some of the pattern formed can be seen as if mirroring transformation had occurred.

This can be deduced that spider web pattern has specific moment of transformation, i.e. symmetry, scaling, mirror and repetition.

The article by Philip Ball describe that some pattern formation are self-organised (dunes and sand pattern) and some patterns formed due to biological evolutionary that takes into account of physical forces and chemical processes (living organism, i.e. zebra and clown fish pattern on the body). Spider web is a self-organised pattern, where the spider is its own architect and engineer.