Project 3 – Exercise Reflection

In the 3rd project, we are going to work in Autodesk Meshmixer and that is why the main goal of the exercises was to familiarize students with the Meshmixer workflow. As I did not choose an object to scan yet, I performed exercises on the Stanford Bunny. The first part of the exercise was to fix the mesh on the bunny, reduce the number of polygons, and also to repair a hole in the bottom of it. The result is shown in the following embed.

The next part of the exercise was to explore various modifications that can be made to the object in the Meshmixer. These modifications include:

  • scale and distortion
  • lo-res
  • voxel
  • Voronoi
  • streamline
  • lattice

After reading about these modifications, the students were asked to implement one of them on the object.  I chose a lattice effect and the result is shown in the following embed.

The main goal of the third exercise was to remind students about Booleans in modeling and also teach how to work with mesh in Fusion 360. Also, students were asked to explore various Surreal Stanford study cases and implement one of them. I decided to replicate David Mack/Rachael Whiteread Bunny.  The result can be seen in the following embed.

 

 

Project 3 – Reference Reflection

The third project references are Chapters 8 and 14 of Parallel Universes, Alternate Realities, and LinkedIn Learning tutorials.

In chapter 8 of Parallel Universes, students were asked to read about the following visual principles: Hierarchy and Scale. Two relationships of order can occur in Hierarchy: Emphasis and Subordination. Emphasis is represented by the main object/event, and Subordination is represented by the dependent objects/events that modify or complement the emphasized feature. The scale is a relationship between an object and its context (or other external relationship). When we change the size of an object, we change the scale with its environment. Changing the size of the surroundings can also change the scale of the object.

Chapter 14 of Parallel Universes discusses material processes such as addition, subtraction, assembly, and substitution. Addition (modeling) is characterized by building using soft material that can be modeled by hand. However, computer software (Mudbox) allows the modeler to manipulate volume as if he or she was working with clay. Subtraction occurs when works reveal from a larger volume through the process of carving. In traditional sculpture, the material such as stone or wood is used in the subtractive process. Assembly is a practice of manipulating the existing objects through assembly and construction. Digital analog of assembly can be seen in boolean union commands and juxtaposition of the elements. Substitution is a process of creating a form in first, intermediate material in order to recreate it in the second, final material. It is a process of creating a mold. In digital art, 3D scanning is a way of acquiring the data from the physical world.

Alternate Realities Discusses the notion of realism in the art world. The reality in art takes many forms, such as Realism, Surrealism, Photorealism, Hyperrealism, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Computer Generated Imagery, Digital Fabrication. All of them try to imitate the real world.
Realism emerges in France in the 1850s when the artists attempted to represent the world around them in a truthful way without supernatural elements and fiction. In turn, Surrealist artists use traditional realism techniques in the non-traditional way when they explore the subconscious rather than the conscious state. In photorealism, artists study the photograph and try to reproduce the image by painting, drawing, and other graphic media. Hyperrealism occurs with the emergence of high-resolution digital images. Hyperrealistic painting or sculpture resembles a high-resolution photograph, which creates the sense that it is more real than real. Computer Created Imagery is an application of computer graphics in creating still or animated visual content.

LinkedIn Learning tutorials’ main goal was to introduce and familiarize students with Autodesk Meshmixer, 3D printing, and 3D scanning. In the tutorial on Meshmixer, the instructor discussed its interface, talked about how to save and import files, and showed the technique of fixing mesh automatically and with remeshing. In addition to that, students learned what separate bodies mean in Meshmixer and how to export them. In the tutorial on 3D printing and scanning, the instructor showed how to use 3D printing software, FDM-style 3d printers, and a laser scanner. The main takeaway from these tutorials was that it is recommended to work in a standard shader because it shows the outside and inside faces in different colors, and this might help detect the problems.