OBDF 210 Cain Niedersteiner

I started to model my mouse by measuring what I could and scaling other parts of the model to match. For the most part things lined up and allowed me to project individual faces like the top view of the mouse onto a rounded shape (distorted sphere). From there I spent some time extracting lines and sweeping edges together to make the first piece of the object, just the top piece of black plastic.  The trouble I am having now is in combining the rest of the mouse with this single piece. Building a rounded surface was simple enough but the curve only extended in one direction, and the rest of the object had so many interacting curves that I couldn't wrap my head around how to approach modeling it with the same approach of building surfaces from lines. I tried to build an entire object by subtracting pieces from a sphere but reached a similar roadblock where it wasn't exactly what I wanted and I needed help to visualize how to proceed. At the moment I am confused and progress has ...

Here is the  link to my new slideshow, with some extra detail about my concept for this project.   As I attempted to get started on my reverse engineering project (accurately replicating a bluetooth mouse to later modify and build on top of) I immediately ran into some trouble with my workflow.  I haven't been able to figure out how to approach the many complex curves of this object in Rhino. I began with making drawings of different angles of the object, to attempt to trace and scale to match the measurements I'm taking along the way. My major roadblock here is that A) the object is difficult to tackle or begin to outline even with six different views of it and B) once I have some basic outlines (not entirely accurate yet, just to try to create a surface from) I'm not sure what to do with them.  I've tried to explore sweep 1 and sweep 2, but wasn't sure if they were applicable to my project as-is, and had trouble understanding how to modify my outlines to make ...

 Project 2: Reverse Engineered Object For project 2 I will be reverse engineering an object and modeling it in Rhino for 3D printing later on. I looked around my house and came across a handful of "mechanical" items I saw as intricate enough to prove a challenge but still achievable given our time frame.  My pick of items I saw as feasible are a pair of nail scissors and clippers, a Bluetooth computer mouse, and a USB stick.  I decided to pair the nail clippers and scissors as a pair of objects because I didn't see either of them as being complex enough to model on their own. They are both tiny handheld items made of at least two parts. I couldn't figure out how to unscrew these yet but I know it's possible! The USB stick is also decently simple and symmetrical but I was interested in the way it joins and fits perfectly together.  The Bluetooth mouse is much more organic in shape, which I find interesting. It isn't perfectly symmetrical and will take some clos...

Laser Cut Object Final process presentation  link here! The final laser-cut object will be slightly more refined, for now, some pieces are misaligned because of some errors in cutting. This photo is a demonstration of how it will generally look and stand.  Below is a photo of the more tightly aligned final object, thanks to Avery and Lili for helping me assemble it more completely in class. Aside from a few more cuts in the horizonal pieces, this final piece closely resembles the previous draft. Previous Draft: Final Assembled:

This week I made some changes to my rhino file, finalized my file for laser cutting, and cut out the first form of the model.  As I progressed with my model I made a few minor changes to the design. I added more variety in the “branch” pieces, developing more of an overall shape and a bit of progression around the circle. I finished the engraving designs, outlining each of the circles and extruding them to the thickness of my material. I arrayed the branches around the circles and used boolean difference tools to subtract the intersections.  I had my piece laser cut with multiple layers of engraving, one for lines and one for solid shapes, to ensure I had enough difference in values on the Trotec plywood I used.  When assembling my piece so far I came across a few issues. I need to take another look at the points where the pieces join and create deeper cuts in the circular pieces to make for more seamless joinery. As is the piece is more difficult to assemble than it need...

 Modeling in 3D Space After I spent a good amount of time working on tracing the complex engravings I drew in my previous post, I progressed to modeling how these pieces would come together in 3D space. I took a look at giving the pieces I'd built so far some dimension, accurate to the thickness of the plywood I wanted to use. Then I combined the vertical and horizontal pieces into something resembling the final shape so that I could subtract the pieces I needed removed to slide everything together.  Below is both my current working model and a few prototypes from along the way.  After some trial and error, I decided on eight "branches" supporting the horizontal slices and three of said slices. Each will be engraved with a flowery design, including both solid color and thin lines.  Today I am working on taking the lines from these 3D shapes and laying them out, as well as getting my layers in order for printing. 

Design Progression Benchmark: May 14th During week one I explored the idea of a nest as a vessel to “hold” the second part of my object: After some refinement, I decided to look into a structure composed of five interlocking pieces of plywood. Inspired by the textures found in movies like Pan’s Labyrinth, the stand has a trunk-like base and branching upper half that will partially surround a round 3D-modeled object later on. I chose birch plywood because I want the material of the piece to complement the concept (floral, wood, branches), and think a lighter material will provide the greatest contrast with darker engravings. In my initial sketches, I played with how the pieces could interlock: the vertical standing pieces interlocking to create stability, and the horizontal slices slotted into each of the stands somehow. While I still need to research joinery and the specifics of my design, I plan to do so with the help of Rhino and further experimentation in paper. For now, I understan...

 Hi, I'm Cain Niedersteiner! I'm a second-year graphic design major with a love for illustration and film. A lot of my personal work is inspired by movies and TV in and around the Horror genre but I love exploring new sources of inspiration. The last time I worked with anything similar to this course was the OBDF 110 course I took last year, but I had a lot of fun and I'm excited to be challenged a little. Here's the link to my first Google Slides presentation Make These Shapes I had a lot of fun practicing drawing in Rhino with this exercise. The biggest hurdle for me was the shape below, which required a lot more puzzling and trial and error. It was a fun challenge but by the time I figured it out I was relieved. This exercise activated some of my Rhino muscle memory from Object Design 110, so after some early slow patches the process sped up a lot for me.