For this project, Jasmine and I have chosen to model Bambi. We began by casting our toy in a small cardboard box using spray foam. We then took it to the woodshop to be cut. We marked off our cut lines on the outside of the box, taking both horizontal and vertical sections.

We then brought scanned images of our sections and orthographic photographs of the toy into Rhino to begin modelling. Scaling our images to the right sizes was challenging as our toy has very few flat edges, making it difficult to get accurate measurements. We tried to solve this problem by taking our photographs with a ruler for reference. However, some of our images sizes still seem to be off, so we may need to retake some of our photographs.  After scaling our images, we began tracing them to get the general shape of the head and torso. Since our toy is fairly symmetrical, we drew a centre line to divide the toy into two halves. Once one half of the toy is modelled, we plan on mirroring the other half.

We then lined up the section slices with the photograph of the top view of Bambi’s head.

Using a curve traced from the top view as a rail, we used Sweep1 to begin modelling a portion of the head. We will trace out the rest of the sections of the head and will hopefully have the full shape of the head soon.

The first attempt at setting my doll in spray foam was a good learning experience. The challenge was that the vinyl doll we chose is a bobble head so we had to remove the spring in the doll to be able to cut the sections. So I quickly created a way to set the head on the body before setting the entire body. But it was not actuate enough and the box I set it in was not strong enough to keep its shape. The cuts that Amy preformed were inaccurate because of my lack of precision. This gave me a good idea of what to do differently for my second attempt. Below: 1. close up of bobble head predicament 2. setting the head onto the body

I got a bit of a late start to this project as I was sick the week it began but thanks to my partners – we were able to make slices of the model.

However, because I missed this first week of progress – I actually think this worked to my advantage as I got to look at the project objectively and assess what I would need to take it on. This ended up being taking photos of my model to begin modelling and placing them into Rhino using PictureFrame as we did for the Lightbulb tutorial.

However, after a short while… I ran into what became a huge hiccup and deterrence from my workflow. What Edward said to be a videocard issue and all I needed to do was “refresh” the PictureFrame every so often… wasn’t the reliable fix (as it sometimes didn’t ever bring the .jpegs back).

Thankfully, I was able to trace some parts of the model before the images disappeared and worked from the physical model to start recreating little Hulk.

Lots of friends suggested using Curve Network as they found it gave them the most accuracy and success when done properly… I gave my first try and was quite pleased with the parts of the torso, chest, abs and arms I was able to produce in this first week.

For this project, Anna and I have chosen to replicate Drogon. Here is a summary of our progress so far:

• Basic analysis of Drogon and consideration of where potential cutlines may reside

• (1st attempt) Cast toy in a yogurt container using spray insulation foam – FAILED ATTEMPT as we did not take into consideration the air-sealed quality of the container and expansion of foam

• (2nd attempt) Cast toy inside original packaging; however to prevent inconsistencies from occurring as a result of foam expansion, we inserted the packaging inside a wooden box and let it sit for 1.5 days.

• After speaking with Andy during class yesterday, we realized that more cutlines are needed given the complexity of Drogon’s form. These cutlines are made as a result of examining the doll and decipher the underlying simple geometries which make up this complex toy.

• Drew cutline marks on box and brought it to the wood shop to cut

• Pieces cut and scanned

• Anna has brought and scaled images in Rhino. We realized that the toy is actually asymmetrical. After speaking with Andy, our next steps are model the toy symmetrically, only to adjust things slightly to make it asymmetrical in order to replicate the toy exactly.

For our modelling project, my partner and I have chosen a toy that is nearly symmetrical except for its arms. In order to create a precise and realistic 3d model of Finn, we  have used a strategy in which we make horizontal cuts on the left side of the model where the arm is turned down, and vertical cuts on the right side where the arm is turned away. Our vision was to be able to use mirroring to extrapolate the information to form the model as a whole.

After using a scanner to get precise images of the cuts, I used a straight line in Rhino to line up all of the slices based on the position of each cut line. At this point, I ran into some problems. After tracing the edges of each section and positioning them in 3D space, I realized that my dimensions were way off. After consulting Andy, I realized that something had gone wrong with my scaling and the two different sets of cuts were not at the correct scale. I spent an hour or so measuring the real slices and scaling the picture frames accordingly, but so far the results are still slightly off. Still, I have the basic wireframe for the character that I can see taking shape.

To begin the process, the first thing that we did was to cast the toy so that we can cut it up and understand it better. To do this, we made a box using scrap cardboard, set the bus in the middle and sprayed insulating foam into the spaces and let it set. The foam expanded to fill and seal the gaps, holding the bus firm in place inside the box. Once we were sure that it was strong enough, we took it to the wood shop to cut up into sections.
In determining the sections, we cut longitudinal and cross sections in order to get a fuller understanding of the interior and exterior conditions of the toy. Below are the section cuts we made.

However upon showing our progress to our professor, he gave us case specific advice. He explained to us that given our toy, instead of using the foam to get a best understanding of it, we should simply just dismantle the toy and study the individual parts. Taking his advice into consideration, below are the parts separated.