starosek - Benchmark 1: Laser cutting

I began with a 3D capture of my head from a previous assignment and imported it into Blender. I simplified the geometry into a low-poly mesh to create a faceted structure for paper construction. I manually adjusted seams to control how the model would look once unwrapped, paying attention to concave areas (such as around the eye and neck) to get properly shaped paper islands.

Using Blender’s paper model export workflow, I generated a 2D unfolded pattern of the mesh. I scaled the model for 8.5 x 11 inch sheets and refined island placement to fit on three pages. I also applied a grayscale split texture to differentiate the two halves of the bust before exporting the final PDF for print and vector preparation.

I imported the unfolded PDF pattern into Adobe Illustrator and separated the file into laser-ready layers. I assigned:

• Red lines (RGB 255, 0, 0, 0.001in stroke) for cut paths

• Blue lines (RGB 0, 0, 255, 0.001in stroke) for fold lines

I cleaned the exported geometry by removing fills, text, and extra tab outlines while preserving shape alignment. I checked that line weights and color modes matched the Universal Laser requirements and prepared each page as a separate artboard file. I also confirmed 100% scale printing to make sure that the texture print (prepared at home on a Canon LBP6030w printer) and the vector cut file matched.

I printed the grayscale texture pattern on 65lb cardstock at full scale using my personal Canon 6030w printer and brought the prints to the Makerspace for laser cutting. Following the Universal Laser workflow:

• Blue fold lines were scored first

• Red cut lines were cut second

After cutting, I manually cleaned any areas where the laser did not fully separate the paper. I pre-folded all crease lines before assembly and used Tombow Mono liquid glue to attach the pieces together. The sculpture was assembled in stages (sub-sections first, then joining major sections).