Andrew F. Scott: Material Studies

Scanned Rhino Model in rhino

I had the opportunity to do a little more form exploration on the previous model from laser scanned data.  Within Rhino I used the nurbs surface tessellation as a cue for the surface activation of the model. Using pipes i created a series of sweeping linear forms across the surface of the model.

Mahogany

Polished Oak

I began with a series of monochromatic compositions using a single material I wanted to get a feel for the rhythmic movement of the lines across the surface of the material.

Mahogany with Cherry

 This led to an exploration of a combination of materials. This is where the fun really begins as you can begin to play material properties with and against each other.

Gold with Pearl

 I really like this combination of materials because it begins to suggest a form that can operate on a diversity of scales.

Gold with Mahogany

Harvey Clark _ laser 1

Leslie Martin: Milling

For the milling project, I decided to make an inverse imprint of a foot. With the milled result, I can cast it, make vacuum forms, or possibly even make an imprinting stamp.

I first modeled the foot in Maya using polygons, then converted the polys to subdivs, and subdivs to NURBS. transition left me with a gross pinched surface on the back, but I intended to cut that face off anyway so it didn't matter.  I exported the NURBS surface as an .IGES file, and imported it into Rhino.  I did a Boolean union to put the backplate on the foot, which got rid of the pinched back and gave the foot some context.

Maya Polygons

Maya NURBS

Rhino final file

The idea behind this project is that I can use this foot to make imprints in materials like some weird creature has been there, or I can use it as in inverse footprint (more would be created with vacuum forming) and make it seem like these creatures are walking on the other side of the Earth's crust, and making inverse imprints on our side.

For the keyshot render, I used materials that look man-make as if it were an installation piece. This is because the backplate makes it obvious that it is not a real footprint, and it could be a statement about the unknown.

Keyshot

For the sculptural setting, I chose a flat cobblestone background on which to place the foot. It is actually in a parking space in the image, which is understandable because were it a large sculpture I would want to place it in a spot that is out of the ordinary.  I want to make people think- what good is a piece of art if it doesn't serve a purpose? Placing it in a parking space would at least make someone question what it is and why it is there, and that questioning is the first step towards rationalizing.  Rationalizing requires thought, so even if the spectator comes to an entirely different conclusion than was intended, my work is successful.

Keyshot sculptural setting

If there were more options that I knew how to use in keyshot, it would have been interesting to give the foot a dirt texture and place it in the woods or on a barren plain, making it seem like there actually were creatures walking upside down from us underneath the Earth's crust.  It would be funny to see the reactions of spectators viewing such a sculpture.

I will post a better Keyshot render (with passes) later.

Andrew F. Scott: Mashmod Demo

This is a brief demonstration of mash modeling with a deformation twist.
This model will be prepared for an FDM process. This is like other geometric works that I have done in the past.


This is the keyshot rendering of the Rhino model. note the diverse us of materials that represents the object's desire to overcome its digital origins.


When the object is placed in its proper context, its meaning and significance is finally revealed.

Andrew F. Scott: Laser Scanning Focus NURBS

In this post I will present a workflow for using the laser scanner to create elements for sculptural compositions. The illustration above presents the finished composition composed of a Nurbs Surface and linear contour elements.


The data was scanned in an earlier post Black Power Nkisi: Laser Scan. In that post the emphasis was placed on using Rapid Works to extract polygonal elements that could be used to create sculptural compositions. In this post the emphasis will be placed on using Rapid Works to derive a series of Nurbs elements that will be used in sculptural compositions.

The AutoSurface sub-menu is used to generate your Nurbs surface patches. You should focus on generating surface patches using both Evenly Distributed Networks and Feature Following networks. Once these patches are generated you have a variety of tools that can be used to edit the networks. Finally you can use your scanned mesh as the background for a networks that you create by drawing directly on its surface.

The finished surface typology is then imported in Rhino as an IGES file. Within Rhino the Curve From Object command is used to extract the contour curves from the nurbs patch network. Its always a good idea to organize your elements on separate layers so that you can access them when needed and its just good craftsmanship..

Grasshopper in invoked from within Rhino. Once in Grasshopper a simple script is created to read in all of the curves and transform them into adjustable pipes. Play around with the radius adjustment to play with the proportion of your tubes with the underlying mass and as an element unto itself.

The tubes should be baked into Rhino from within Grasshopper on separate levels.

The data can now be used in a wide variety of digital fabrication processes at a wide variety of scales. During this quarter I am teaching both Digital Applications in Sculpture and Direct Metal Sculpture. I look forward to exploring how these data sets and workflow can be used in both contexts.

7/14/2011 Update

Below are two of the initial studies based on the scanned data.

The first study is a serial exploration of the form. While I like the way that the cardboard looks I am interested in using this form as an internal armature. I want to see how well aqua-resin and cheese cloth works over this form. I am also interested in doing another serial study using wood.


In this study a 3d print of the computer model was created then molded using Smooth-On Rebound 25 silicone rubber. Afterwhich, urethane models were created using Smooth-Cast 325. I am interested in doing a few more castings and material explorations using these models. This is only the beginning.

Andrew F. Scott: Penthouse Gallery

ELDS 750/450: Spatial Simulation: Andrew F. Scott: Interior Lighting

This image was created in Maya using the Mental Ray shader. In this image A Physical Sky shader as the main source of light. Material_X is the primary shader used for all of the materials in this visualization. I think that I would like for the room to be in a penthouse so I will find an image for the backdrop that can create that context of I may just have to create the city myself.

I found a New York City skyline to use as the backdrop for my Penthouse Gallery. This image was created in Photoshop By compositing render passes from maya. The same work flow can be used in Keyshot to complete you image composites. Note the difference in the dynamic range of this image compared to the beauty shot in Maya.

I wanted to create another view of my Penthouse Gallery. I wanted this view to be set in a daytime context with a wider view of the gallery. I am beginning to like this notion of composing exhibitions of my work digitally. I followed the same work flow as in the previous image, first creatign the beauty pass in Maya. Afterwhich I used the render layers to compose several render passes.

This is the composited image in Photoshop. While I think it is a good start there is still some work that i have to do in Maya with the shadows to get it just right.

Andrew F. Scott: Keyshot rendering play

This image is from a class room demo showing how keyshot can be used to create render passes for compositing in Photoshop. This model presents some interesting considerations. The Nkisi-Nkonde figure was captured using a laser scanner. The approximate size of the model in 8 inches high. As a part of the scanning process texture coordinates were captured and fused together to create a texture map for the three dimensional model. Hypershot recognizes this data as a part of the model and applies it to your object when you import it into the program. It becomes a layer that can be used to both bump and texture map the model.

In this demo I left an important clue that would permit you to see that the image has been photoshopped. can you find it??

AFSart: Project1 Milling

7/1/2010

This is the blog posting for the milling project I will be using this image to create a relief using the heightfield command in rhino. This is for a classroom demonstration on how to use the blogsite.I used the iconic image of che gueverra
Heightfield images work by using greyscale information. I want to compare a black and white image with one that has a wider range of values.

Andrew F. Scott: Mobius Strip Redux

This Maya solution to the Mobius Strip geometry is based on the same principle as those articulated in the original Mobius Stripped Posting. In this Maya solution The Twist deformation is combined with the Bend deformation to create the strip geometry. This solution provides a wide range of geometric expressions and aesthetic solutions to the Mobius Problem. Can you figure out how it is done???

Andrew F. Scott: Mobius Stripped:

Irina inspired me to go home and work out this problem for creating mobius strips. Deconstructing the problems in its simplest terms yields a line rotated about a closed circular path 180 degrees from start to finish. Thankfully Maya has two powerful commands that can be used to accomplish this easily. Attach to Motion Paths> allows you to attach a curve to a path. It also alows you to generates keyframes for the curve's orientation as it moves aling the path. In this case the rotation at 90 degrees and at 180 degrees. Once completed you can then use Create Animated Sweep> to generate the lofted surface for your mobius strip. You can create output as Nurbs or as a Polygonal Object, and that's where the fun begins. This solution was inspired by a Jose Sanchez tutorial: The Mobius Strip from GSAPPonline at Columbia University. It provides a good start. A similar technique can also be used to generate shell forms. I have extended some of the concepts covered in the tutorial which will be explained in an upcoming tutorial video on using animation for modeling in Maya.