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Chandelier Saga Part 2: CAD
Picking up the story of making this giant lamp, we get to the hardest, most important part, but also the least photogenic. That would be, the computer modeling and prototyping.
Here's what I was going for in terms of structure:
The scales are made of 1/16" thick plywood, linked to their neighbors by bolts. The struts spanning the widths of the scales are there to pull the ends together and make sure the centers bend upwards to let enough light through.
It turned out to take something like 4 full rebuilds of the computer model before I was happy with it. The root of the problem is related to the fact that it's really hard to model how real-life materials will bend. So every few days for a couple weeks I had to re-draw all the geometry with slight differences, head in to the laser shop to cut the pieces out, and assemble them to see what it would look like.
Hit the jump for a bunch of screen shots of the different steps involved in designing the final piece.
Working in Rhino (my 3D Computer Aided Design software of choice/training/convenience), I started with an ideal originator surface, created by revolving a curve. I dropped grid points along it:
Then I drew out the base shape for the scales with points and lines. The tips of the scales are drawn out in space perpendicular to the grid point they're above. Their distance from the surface is proportional to the width of that scale:
Next, turning that into surfaces and mirroring the scales along their center-line. (Also, there were some steps involved in expanding the edges of the scales to accommodate the bolts.)
Next comes a polar array to get them all in place:
And a cut-away view to show the internal structure that would hold the light bulbs in place:
But then (after testing the floppiness of the previous prototype) I decided I should give it a bit more structure to support certain points of the surface. Figuring out the geometry for that was a pain:
With that done, time to flatten the scales:
...and lay out the sheets that I would be laser-cutting:
Then I just have to cut twelve copies of each of these sheets, plus a half dozen or so more sheets for the internal structure.
And that mostly wraps it up for the CAD part of this story. I'm intentionally glossing over a lot of the geometry headaches, because you don't want to think about it. Trust me.
Next up will be photos of construction! Though I foolishly forgot to take any photos of actually laser-cutting the scales.
I'll leave you with the front view of that prototype I showed at the beginning:
I was feeling crappy for a few days, and I decided I needed to design something fun, quick and simple. So instead I started working on this which has been on my list of ideas for a very long time. The challenge is to design something in 3D made up of panels that can be unrolled to flat surfaces. Then I insert stitching holes, futz with the edges for a while, and laser-cut it out of leather. The first head-thing I made with this technique was this crazy rainbow spiky helm, then I did this intricate wolf mask. This design built on experience from those projects. (As expected, it was neither quick nor simple, but it was fun!) This will be a plague doctor mask/hood. It'll cover the whole head, and will have laces in the back to snug it down. I'll probably cut some acrylic for the lenses, either red or mirrored if I can get it. And if I'm lucky with the guesses I made, it should fit over my glasses! Modeled in Rhino with lots of very finicky curves on surfaces, then lofting between them.
I’ve wanted to make a shark mask for some time. The question of why exactly is difficult to answer, but last night I sat down and pounded out a design for one. I did the design in 3D in Rhino, building on the experience of having done that plague doctor hood a couple months ago.
Here you can see the design in 3D, and all the pieces laid out and ready to laser cut. I’m going to attempt riveting it all together. The plague doctor hood was sewn together, which takes a really long time to assemble (like 8 hours of hand stitching), but is easy to design for and lay out and know that it’ll work. I’m less certain about the rivets working quite so smoothly, but we shall see. If it works, it’ll mean a vastly speedier assembly.
I’ll be laser-cutting this out in 8 hours! I should get to bed.
Here's a bunch of progress shots showing the development of this wolf skull mask. (Final images here.)
I started with a simple muzzle shape that I designed in Rhino, then drew the skull pattern to fit on it. Once I was happy with it I scanned that in and traced with vectors, and made some slight adjustments to the base muzzle shape, so I could then go and laser-cut the whole thing again. I dyed the base and painted the skull's cracks in with black dye, then sewed the base together and tacked the skull onto it to sculpt it.
Once everything was dry and set in its final shape, I painted the surface of the skull with a couple coats of white acrylic. Gave the whole thing a clear coat to seal it, and sewed the pieces together. The last line of stitches is hidden at the base of the teeth, so it follows a funky wavy path, which you can see on the interior shot. Last steps were putting the snaps on so it could attach to the straps.
FGC-9 J Stark
Hey guys sorry to be the bearer of bad news but i will mostly just draw my oc's, like original oc's, sorry for yall who followed me just for pmatga
Idk i made this because he would just lowkey do this, also the cad characters just Look like him for some reason (definetly the nose)
Never let me cook again.
Art dump (here’s scott), I wanted to read some comics of him to get the hang out of him but started with his “ending arc” instead oops, sorry if anything is out of character idk
tried out a different brush on him, it was nice, made all the drawings too small now they’re all blurry and pixelated tho
oh yeah I mentioned frillix on my tumblr like 2 times yet didn’t show how he actually looks like so here’s a doodle of him (love him)
I had this stupid idea and I made it, originally wanted to add a third panel where Ethan’s shoves the glasses back in Scott’s face but decided not to since it was basically just padding
Also I changed Ethan’s nose and improved his hair so now he actually looks like himself
Going to draw the other characters too I promise idk why I’ve been only drawing these two
Every time I showed my friend kangy a image of scott they’d send me an image of that dude from postal 2 and I got this idea, so yeah
I don’t know shit about postal, the most information I have of it is from one of the segments of an caddicarus video
Also I’m still working on the cad drawing ive promised, when I post it I’ll post all of the dumb doodles I made too
Hey guys, i may have or may haven’t made thousand of cad doodles that I never posted because I wanted them to post them with my cad artwork that however is as of now stuck in limbo/on the verge of getting given up on because it’s not worth it
I won’t post some of them since they suck and or are cringe (some of these are cringe too though so idk)
the newer ones are at the top and stuff
Oh yeah sorry guys that I have to tell you like this but he’s german now, also I really hate this one but ethan looks good on this one so I took it anyway
Hey guys, I accidentally drew ten thousand doodles oh no
New cad oc, I got inspired making one after seeing some other player ocs
This is 1156e+10, he loves playing video games, or not because hes always afk i suppose ,other than that his hobbies are [DOING NOTHING], [STANDING AROUND] and
[BEING COMPLETELY USELESS], i love him dearly
oh yeah I also drew scott and lucas
Hey guys, I’m really sorry that I haven’t posted for a month, I’ve been busy with other stuff and the doodles/artworks I drew in that time weren’t good, I hope I can post something again but I’m not very good at drawing at the moment
Here’s a quick one I did of scott
Fine, I’ll guess I post these
I love them so much
I saw the cad turnarounds and uh
I’ll won’t be drawing anymore cad though, my memories of the fixation feel like a fever dream I made up
He needs a haircut
