Project #3

3D printed Knight Chess piece

I modeled a game dreamscape incased in a marble. The train is inspired by Ticket to Ride. The horse/knight is a chess piece. The large die/dice is personified — chance becoming an observer and active player in this dreamscape game. The heart fabric was inspired by the card game hearts and also the idea of making a flexible, personalized chess / checkers game board. With the heart fabric I was thinking about mesh/fabric and 3D printing flexible material. The shell, inhaler, and camel are there to personalize it a bit more. The shell is inspired by games of collecting shells. The camel is alluding to a game in Mauritania that is played in the sand with dried camel dung and little sticks. I didn’t want to 3D model dung, because the shape is boring, so the camel is there in its place. The camel was also inspired by the knight chess piece — if I were to create a personalized chess board.

Modeling Process / Areas of trouble

Making the die/dice definitely took longer than expected. I was having difficulty creating a 3D model of a die/dice by looking at 2D photos — especially because the dots/number are in a specific oder on each side of the die/dice. I found a photo of a printable dice and used that as a visual guide for how many dots to put on each side. While doing this I imagined different ways about going about this — for instance creating 6 squares with the dots and then rotating them to build the 3D dice. I ultimately created a cube and used the printable dice image as a guide for where to put the dots.

link to Etsy page with printable dice model

Some tools I used were Boolean difference (for the dice and the train eye), Bend, Revolve, Rotate, Explode (to have different colors on a single object). I also played with scale and used the standard shapes / objects to build new objects.

Early on in the process, I attempted to make a squirrel but decided that it would be better to 3D scan rather than model in Rhino because of its organic shape.

My attempt at modeling a squirrel (playing with diff. textures — i.e. grass)

I. DICE

II. HORSE

III. TRAIN

IV. CAMEL

this was 3D scanned in AISOS lab and brought into Rhino with the texture

V. SHELL

this was 3D scanned in AISOS lab and brought into Rhino with the texture & color

VI. HEART FABRIC

VI. INHALER

(extra object)

my inhaler was 3D scanned in AISOS lab and brought into Rhino with the texture & color

When envisioning how to display the final rendered objects, I played with light, color, and background images including this one of space/ the galaxy. This is something I hope to play with more in the future.

Final Rendered Image