From Algorithm to Object

Garrett and Vaughn Prompt: Wearable Elk

The piece must include all or parts of your assigned tutorial
Create a new page on your google site to document your progress.
Your Google site must include at least 3 sketches. These can be drawings, grasshopper scripts or Rhino sketches.
Your Google site must include a Final rhino rendering
Your Google site must include a few sentences describing each phase of the project.
Your google site must include at least 4 progress pictures of your fabrication process.
Your google site must say which tutorial you were assigned and what parts of the tutorial you used for your final object.
Your google site must say what kind of object you fabricated and whether or not you were successful.
Include any fail attempts and/or challenges

IDEATION PHASE

Inspiration

Grasshopper Script

Mountain...on a head....very inventive

At first we were very confused. How could we make something wearable using topography? We scratched our heads, and then it hit us...our heads. We could make a hat(with a mountain on top of it)! We would essentially paste part of a mountain onto a custom hat brim and have a unique and fashionable hat. We used a similar script to the one we used in the Elk Tutorial to preview possible mountain forms.

DESIGNING PHASE

Zoomed out view of imported mesh

Surface used to cut through mesh

This was by far the most difficult part of the project. We knew we wanted to make a mountain hat but in order for it to look like a hat, we needed a very specific mountain; one with many peaks and a relatively circular base. Garrett downloaded .hgt files from the Tibetan mountains and I looked through files in the Rocky Mountains range. We used the grasshopper script from our ideation phase to preview meshes until we found one that met that requirement. Once we found a good looking cluster of peaks, we baked the rhino script and had a mesh of our mountain. We then used a surface to cut through the mountain, isolating the peak we chose to be out hat.

STRUGGLE PHASE

Very dense and complex rhino file

Trouble exporting the file correctly and would freeze my computer

Final rhino renderings

After creating the mountain part, we created a torus that encircled the base of the mountain, removing any roughness. We then reduced the geometry of the torus creating a much more interesting and mountain-like form. However, when we attempted to export this rhino file and slice it in the 3D printing software, the complexity of the form meant that Ultimaker wouldn't let us print. We reached out to Samu, who had a much better computer and they helped us simplify our mountain so it would print.

PRINTING PHASE

Baby mountain test print

The final product in the printer

PVA shedding

After our printing problems were sorted out, we made a test print. It was far too small to see any detail but we wanted to be sure that that the mountain piece and the brim piece would print together. We then sliced the full size version and were nervous when it said it would take over 40 hours to print. We arrived next class to see that it had printed wonderfully (successfully) without any problems. When we turned it over though, we noticed that the interior was almost entirely filled with PVA so we had fun shedding it before putting it in a warm water bath to finish dissolving the glue.

PRESENTATION PHASE

The mountain hat in its final form.

The mountain hat perched atop Vaughn's head.

Stylish adaptation of the mountain hat and a beanie.

PHOTOSHOOT PHASE

Featuring our In-House Model Elena Gutierrez

Kaiden special feature

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