Danielle Aras-Independent Project Process

These are some images of the process of making the Chicago Federal Building model.

 I did the initial 3-D model in Maya. Knowing the building was symmetrical, I made it as easy as possible on myself by only modeling one of each wall that was repeated more than once.

 The next step was to take the model into Pepakura and unfold it. I made two separate models, one for the base and one for the cupola. In this image, the colored pieces in the right window are all I needed to build the whole model.

After unfolding the model, I used Illustrator to add the cutout details and windows.

 This is what the files I sent to the laser cutter looked like...

And these are the pieces I got back, ready to be assembled. The final product can be seen in my other post.

Danielle Aras-Independent Project Part 2

The second building I chose to recreate was the former LA County Courthouse. It was built in 1891 and demolished in 1936 as it had been outgrown.

 This is the current state of the model. It still needs to be painted and the details of how it will be displayed worked out, but the general construction is done. There are also some smaller paper details that will need to be added to complete it.

I definitely learned a lot from modeling and constructing the Chicago Federal Building model, so the process of making this one went a lot more smoothly and there were less adjustments that had to be made after I had the pieces laser cut.

The final dimensions are approximately 3.25'x4.25'x4'

Danielle Aras-Independent Project Pt. 1

This quarter, I worked on large-scale models of buildings that have been destroyed. I used the Pepakura process to translate 3-D models made in Maya into cardboard.

The first building I chose was the former Federal Building and Post Office in Chicago. It was completed in 1905, and demolished in 1965 to make way for a larger building.

This is the resulting model. I still consider it a work in progress, now that I have the structure completed I will have to figure out how to finish it and how it should be displayed.

The final dimensions are approximately 4'x5'x3.5'

Danielle Aras - Keyshot Images

I really enjoyed taking one of my Rhino models into Keyshot and seeing it in different materials so I figured I would share some of the images here. I started out with a couple different materials in a lighting environment I thought showcased the model well.

I also tried putting the object into an environment. I just used one of the default images in Keyshot but I really like the sort of industrial environment and think it would be an interesting site for a sculpture.

This last image is probably my favorite material, it was a copper mesh and I was able to adjust the scale of the mesh to make the piece semi-transparent. 

This is the original model in Rhino:

Danielle Aras - Pepakura Final

This is my final Pepakura piece. I modeled it in Maya then used Pepakura, Illustrator, and Rhino to create the layout for the laser cutter.

 This is the original model in Maya. The open windows were not originally part of the design but while putting the piece together I decided to leave out those pieces both for aesthetic reasons and to make it easier to put together.

This is basically what the layout of the cut file looked like (there are also some extra pieces that do not belong to this sculpture). I ended up leaving off the large base piece as well because it didn't really need it and it was much easier to put together with the bottom completely open.

Danielle Aras - Pepakura Studies

This is the first study I did leading up to the Pepakura project. I got the shape from the polyhedral models website.

This is what the cut file looked like after I had taken it through Illustrator and into Rhino:

For my second pepakura study, I started with a model in Maya and went through the workflow using Pepakura and Illustrator.

This is what the model and cut lines looked like in Pepakura:

Danielle Aras - Serial Slicing

This is my first serial sliced cardboard shape. I modeled it in Rhino and contoured the shape then labeled and laid it out manually.

This is what the Rhino model looked like:

For my second sculpture, I used the serial slicing script in Rhino. I had a problem with part of my model overlapping itself so a few of the slices didn't work properly, but I was able to use the contour tool to manually create the missing slices.

This is what the model looked like in Rhino:

This is what the dxf file I sent to be laser cut looked like:

Danielle Aras - Laser Engraving to Printmaking

This is a second laser engraving I did on a 12x12" sheet of acrylic.

 Once again I used Illustrator to create the file. This time I used a deeper line for the outer lines of the buildings and a shallower line for the interior details. This is what the Illustrator file looked like:

I also ended up printing this plate. I chose to use it as an intaglio plate but would also like to print it as a relief in the future. This was my first experience printing an acrylic plate so there was a lot of trial and error and I would like to pull more prints to try to get more of the lines to fill in. This was printed on Rives BFK paper.

Danielle Aras - Laser Engraving

This is my initial laser engraving. It was done on a 16x20" sheet of acrylic.

 I created the file in Illustrator and used two different line depths as I was anticipating eventually pulling intaglio prints from the plate and wanted to create variation in line weight. Below is what the file I sent to the laser looked like.