633796xiaojiehazelbian

Final Journal

Xiaojie Hazel Bian Student No. 633796

Semester 1/2013

Group 6

IDEATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

The natural pattern I have chosen is a daisy flower. By observation we can see that the flower is actually formed by series of oval petals. To be more abstract, the daisy could be seen that formed as aligned pentagons. In this way, I created my analytical drawing of the daisy as seven pentagons lining up a circle. Compare with other two analytical drawings I decided to take the first one I did for further development.

IDEATION

Lantern concept Constrain-- lantern interacts with hands Consideration-- light reflection Hand as a context

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Considering many possibilities, and tried to do some sketch trials, I decided to make my lantern wrapping around my arms. Which meets both the constrain and the consideration.

Holding between hands--- i don’t want my both hands to be occupied by the lantern, better to leave a hand free for the emergency which might happen (battery changing, adjusting the switch, fixing the minor details of the lantern....)

Holding on the palm--- in order to make a lantern which could be hold on palm, which means that the lantern must be very delicate, and also the size would be carefully calculated in advance to make the lantern, which is another constrain. Also, small lantern is difficult to make a lighting effect, the size is a big problem later in the design process.

Wrapping around arm-- I love this one the best, it meets the constrain and the consideration and I don’t need to consider any more about the size. Also, wrapping around the arm would be more safer option from above.

Since the body would provide a protection when carrying the lantern around.

IDEATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Precedent study: Cobra Tower A concept generate by CGI firm(CDI Gulf International).

The tower is supposed to rotate to give a cool spiral effect. This building is most appealing to me because of the twisted structure, I would like to achieve a similar effect as the building structured, and the interesting thing in the process is to consider the way that could diffuse the light. Instead of the double helix structure, I would like to construct my model as a single spiral twisting around the arm. It might also have some holes on the surface of the lantern to produce a unique light diffuse effect. Just like the window of the Cobra Tower.

IDEATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Reading responses 1. The third Industrial Revolution/ Jeremy Rifkin. Palgrave Macmillan, C2011. pp107-126Q: Drawing inspiration from the reading and your own learning from the last 10 weeks, describe how digital technology has changed your view on design, making and the context of the built environment?

The future trend of industry would definitely be digital technology. The computer technologies enables the productive process of the rationalization of production.The technology also changes the business context as “The partial shift from markets to networks brings with it a different business orientation.� I would construed the context of product design is shifted to networks that the designers can develop and display more options to the client through computer technology; the designer and client can work together even they are from different country. After experiencing the digital modeling method, I found it very convenient to communicate ideas with 3D models and there are much more opportunities to develop the design. Economically, using Rhino to fabricate saves paper from testing, mistakes in cutting and all other failure element in hand making process.

The CNC card cutter also saves time in making models that leaves more time to fix bugs and develop further before the due day. I used to see design as a regular process of testing, for example, the hue, front as well as the scale. However the digital technology has shown me the unlimited possibility of transformation and changes my stale understanding of design.

2. Evaluate your process of designing and making the lantern against the notion of Craft outlined in the reading. Have you include a degree of design risk in your work?

The concept of craft in this reading is referring the skill developed over time and in direct relationship to making and to working with materials. In my lantern designing and making procedures, I have been through the process of making and working with materials, as well as how to adjust the design to better fit in with the materials. The direct interaction with the material I am working on could provide me a better understanding of the constrains and consideration about my model design, as well as give me some advice to how to refine my model to achieve a better light diffuse effect. I do reckon the importance of direct contact of the materials. On the other hand, due to the different characteristics of the materials require me a better skill on Rhino to further developed my lantern model. In regards of the design risks, I reckon it happened a lot in my model designing and making process. Since I changed my model a lot from the initial design and also adjust it almost every details of the model. It affected more or less about the quality of the final model.

IDEATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Concept to clay model

Side view 1 (from the left)

Side view 2 (from the right)

Front view

Back view

Final model -- I decided that my final model would be a spiraling ‘tube’ that growing on my arm, and the tube is going to have a gradually changing radius form the tail(part which ends up at my arm) to the head (the started part at my fore arm). The radius is gradually increasing from the tail to the head as showing the process of the daisy blossoms.

DESIGN

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Initial digilisation I used sweep 1 rail to digitise the base model. I first measured the two radius at the two ends, multiply by factor of 5 (the clay model I made is scale by factor of 5), then measure the distance between the two ends, multiply by factor of 5 and import to Rhino. Using trials and errors, eventually tested out the best number of peaks and troughs should be in the model.

This is the first model I did, the surface is not smooth, needs refinement before further development.

The refined model base on the first one. Refining the shape of the model, making it look more comfortable, especially fixing up the unsmooth surface, which matters a lot in the further development.

DESIGN

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Further development

The previous one I did seem to be too long at the end, I worried that it might be the weak part of the model and when I fabricate using card it might broke easily. Therefore I go back to the original model, changing the distance between the two ends, make it shorter but also stronger.

After few refinements I have done, here come up the final base model of my lantern. I tested the length and width using ruler, making sure they are good in every detail, since after this stage, any change in the original model will cause a big problem.

Final model from different perspective

DESIGN

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

2D and 3D paneling

DESIGN

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Final decision

3D panel

2D panel

DESIGN

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

After I have managed to get a nice and smooth surface of my model, I moved on to play around the paneling tools on my model. I have tried the basic 2D panel form like diamond, wave, tribasic, triangular and dense, as well as some custom pattern i created myself. Finding out that ‘offset face border’ is a quite useful command and may be I want to use it in further development. I then moved on to try out the effect of different 3D paneling. The default 3D paneling created a surprising out look but it was kind of too dense. I tried to panel by using custom 3D panel and have an interesting looking.

FABRICATION

Phototype testing -- first trial

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

FABRICATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

My first phototype testing: It was so excited to operate the card cutter to get the frist testing stripe done.

Actually it looks quite good cause I didn’t expect to much for the first phototype. And the lighting effect was a huge surprise when I turned off the lamp and casting the light to the panels. However, the problem also comes. The panels could not fit well between each other. There were undesirable gaps between each panels which bothered me a long time trying to figure out how to fix it.

FABRICATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Orthographic view

Top

Front

Side

FABRICATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Fabrication Step 1. To start with the fabrication process, the very first step is to ungroup the whole model and then regroup them in different horizontal segments. Since I got two sets of panels on my model, I then divided the model into two parts, the 2D panels and the 3D panels. I first start the unrolling with the 2D panels. I colored them into different colors as they were set in different layers, making them easy to distinguish in the messy working period.

Step 2. By using the paneling tool ‘unroll faces’, I start to unroll one horizontal segment at a time. The unrolling 2D panel process went smooth but it’s very time consuming.

Step 3. Using Grass Hopper adding tabs to the unrolled stripes.

I adjusted the width of the tabs, making sure they won’t overlapping each other. However the few panels at the end of the model were pretty small and the Grass Hopper didn’t work well on those panels, so I added the tabs manually on Rhino.

Unrolled 2D faces

FABRICATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Unrolled3D panels.

FABRICATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Fablab files

I used the card cutter to cut tabbed surfaces of my model. I nested my unrolls as closed as possible in order to achieve the maximise use of materials. I didn’t used the laser cutting to fabricate my lantern since I saw my friend who used the laser cutter having the yellow trace of brunt at the edges of each piece of the stripes. I don’t want that happen on my model so I chose to use the card cutter to cut my cards.

I set the black line as cut line and the red as score line, knowing from the last phototype I have done, it is better to use some dashed cutting lines rather than just the score lines. Since the dashed cut lines could be folded in both directions and the score line could be folded in only one direction. Sometimes I need the paper to fold inwards but it’s hard to achieve only using the score lines, which might leave the folding traces at the surface of the model and ruin the smooth surface of the model. Combing with dashed lines could create a better visual communication.

FABRICATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Construction process

FABRICATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Preparation-- scissor, UHU glue, knife, ruler.

I started the construction process with first cutting out all the stripes on the card, lined up as they’re numbered and folded up one by one. Used UHU to glue them together as numbered, be careful about the different base angel. I made few mistakes when I did it. Lucky that it didn’t cause a disaster.

2D lighting test I took some photos about the lighting effect of my 2D model. It looks very cool. I was so happy that the 2D model achieved the twisting effect I wanted as the precedent. And the shadowing effect does look good.

FABRICATION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Adding 3D panels + Adjusting the model As I gluing the 3D panels on to the surface of the 2D panels, it sticks out and the volume gets larger. Given that at the end of the model where the turns of the spiral are getting closer and the space between two turns are decreasing, adding 3D panels might be too squeezy. Due to these factors, leaving the end part with only 2D panels may be a better decision rather than applying all 3D panels on the surface. To this reasons I decided to leave the last 6 sections of my model only having the 2D panels.

Considering about the lighting with the 3D panels, I am a bit worried that light might be blocked by the 3D panels which may not create the lighting effect I want to have. In order to solve this problem, I came up with the solution that manually making holes at the surface of the 3D panels in order to better diffuse the light. Actually making holes by myself is better than using the ‘offset face border’ command in Rhino since I can control the size and the orientation of the holes, and it looks cool with different looking holes on the surface which were manually made rather than the uniform holes set by Rhino.

FABRICATION

Lighting up the circuit!

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Let there be light!!!

I created a series circuit with 5 led bulbs for the model lighting. I used 5 lithium batteries to support the lighting. Putting the circuit in the model and use UHU and masking tape to stick them solely on the inner surface of the model, hiding at the joints of the 2D panels. Carefully stick the wires along the joints. I bought the wires in white as the same color as my model, easy to hide in the model with the same color camouflage.

REFLECTION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Final Model

REFLECTION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Final model with context This is the final model I have done for this semester. The size of the lantern turned out as I had expected and it is proper scaled. As I stated in the design brief, the lantern could wrap around my arm and growing bigger at one end. The growth of the lantern could represent the growth of the blossoming daisy. However, the absolute accuracy fabrication could not achieve in the reality, it’s inevitable to leave some glue marks and wiring traces in model. I did not use a switch to connect the circuit; instead I peeled the plastic outer layer of the wires and left the bare copper wire in the air.

REFLECTION

Xiaojie Hazel Bian 633796

Reflection Virtual environment has opened up a window of technology world for me, the best part of this subject will be learning to use Rhino to fabricate my lantern model, but it could also be a bit overwhelming at the start of the subject. Nobody knew what’s going on, or how to complete the tasks as described. It is interesting that learning to build up a model on a software you never heard of, but it could also be a bit hopeless when you don’t know what’s going on and what you are supposed to do. It only became clear to me at the end of model 2, I felt horribly sorry for the time that I wasted before, and realized that I have to catch up. I revisited module 1 and started almost from the very beginning to redo my model. Lucky that I was quite sure about what I am doing and already have an initial idea about my lantern model, it is much better to have a goal to work on rather than doing random stuff and wasting time. In the weekly simars, I was so surprised about my classmates’ ideas about how to design their lanterns, as well as getting ideas from their models to further developed my lantern. I still remembered the excitement when I first saw my design turned to a actual model in reality, I can actually feel the connection of the virtual world and the reality world, they are closely connected, as all the crazy ideas and the impossibles could be achieved with the development of virtual world. In a word, design never stops. To learn, understand and use the technologies to connect the virtual world and the actual world is the amazing part of the design process, bridging the gap between these two worlds is what we aim for.