VOBJECTS

Machine learning image I generated using Midjourney . A berry helpful idea generation strategy. When I started thinking of chess set ideas I was looking at one of my pineapple planters that I designed  and decided that I wanted to create something with a fruit theme. My partner even suggested fruits vs veggies. I ended on settling on something more specific. Berries. They are fun because there are some fruits considered berries that we don't typically expect. All of the following concept images are  generated using Midjourney v4  with a variety of prompts from myself. Queen King Bishop Knight Rook Pawn The major way this whole process helped me was realize that I didn't want each piece to look exactly like a specific berry but more that each piece could just be inspired by a berry, loosely taking on some of it's qualities. I imagine very few of my pieces will look much like these images but they were quite helpful.

Reverse Engineering Final Renders After finishing the last few parts of my reverse engineered French press I got started on the final renders. That was a lot of work. Very finicky detailed work. I can't say I particularly enjoyed the process but I'm happy with how it all turned out. The rendering process was quite satisfying and it's made more satisfying by the realism and accuracy of the models. Now please enjoy the following renders I spent so much time on. And now for something I've never done before. A Rhino video animation! It was a bit weird to wrap my head around initially but I figured it out.

Reverse Engineering Progress Update Two Continuing with my work on the French press, I decided to take a break of tiny finicky pieces and make the container. It had it's own intricate parts, like the handle having the slightest arc as well as merging the two wall vertical section with the the single wall lip. To get the brushed steel texture I just altered the Rhino "Grit Bump Texture" to be stretch drastically in one direction making the X size 8.0 and the Y size 10000.0. I'm pretty happy with the final look of the container, maybe if there's extra time at the end I'll play with the surface design to add the wear and tear. Here are the parts I've completed so far. And here's a little experiment I did with a hybrid display of the parts.

Digital to Physical Starting the process of converting to digital to physical. A progress video showing the process of converting the design to grayscale. From just removing to all saturation, to tweaking the levels of which areas are darker and then the cut lines. Then, we put it in the laser cutter and saw how it turned out. Peter's experience and knowledge meant he could tell with just one look that I was too subtle with how I used the blacks and greys and they they wouldn't come out with quite the same range of value on the wood. He was right. Although I did it on wood, that was sort of a backup. What I really wanted to do was etch the design into glass. It was inspired by sea creatures so clear glass felt more fitting. We turned off the cut lines and then just did a small experiment, because if the values were too subtle for wood they would be far to nuanced for glass. New Design So I came up with a new design, limiting myself to only 4 steps of value. #000, #555, #aaa and...

 Bonus Mug Share

Reverse Engineering Progress Update One Got started with converting the three-dimensional object into a two-dimensional one with measurements. I wanted to start with the simplest part so that I could get some momentum built. I was able to measure most things but their definitely was an element of best guesses and trial and error comparing the object to what I saw on screen. Like 0.5 fillets for example, I wasn't able to measure them but I think I got close. Then the momentum kicked in as expected and I forgot more regular documentation but here's some mini milestones I documented. The biggest issue I had was the internal bottom diameter of the filter wasn't possible to measure. So I held the digital caliper above it, tried my best to look square on and estimate it. Once I started to boolean difference out the windows for the filter I saw the bottom was too narrow. Using some of the references from the new geometry I was able to get a more accurate diameter, or at least one ...

For our upcoming project where we must recreate a physical object, accurate to .01 mm, in Rhino we had to select three potential objects to attempt this feat. Working with electronics seems like an absolutely nightmare so I wanted to avoid them at all costs but it's 2022 and I'm a nerd so pretty much everything I own is electronic. Honestly, finding a mechanical object was started to feel harder then the project itself would be but I found some. They have a theme. French Press It might sound simple at first but I think there's plenty of complexities here to figure out. If a single object isn't complex enough I could maybe do the whole set as a series. Clever Dripper Not a lot of parts but a lot of detailed geometry. Aeropress Simple, elegant and makes an excellent cup of coffee. Selection I think the best item to select would be the French press, it's got several parts and although some are fairly simple the double filters will be fairly intricate to reproduce wit...