Exploring 3-D Modeling

Assignment 5: Parametric Modeling

I have almost zero experience with 3-D modeling. Really, my experience in building anything is limited to play-doh and popsicle-stick picture frames.

I thought it would be something extremely challenging for me. I am horrible with visual-spatial reasoning and hate math. I couldn’t build a piece of Ikea furniture if my life depended on it. But, it turns out I love working in this area and wasn’t horrible at it.

This week, we started our first CAD assignment: make a 3-D model if something in Fusion 360. I have always been interested in packaging design, particularly in the cosmetics industry, so decided to create a 3-D model of a lipstick tube.

After some clicking and exploration of the Fusion 360 workspace, I decided to jump right in. (In the spirit of my learning to code post.) I started by following along to this tutorial, which was a challenge because there is no text or audio. However, you can click around the timeline from the screencast. Because of that, I learned more. I had to replay sections over and over again and really focus to understand what was going on. Trial and error proved to be my best friend.

Tutorial by Kirk Leung

Here is how my attempt turned out:

My iteration of the tutorial with the lid showing.

My iteration without the lid.

I also had some fun figuring out the animation feature. I have always been interested in video and animation, so this is very exciting for me as far as future projects.

Animated Lipstick Model

Uploaded into Sketchfab:

It was really frustrating because I couldn’t upload the textures or animations to Sketchfab. I ended up editing the materials in the 3-D settings on SketchFab to get this result. Without the animations, you can’t see my work inside the lid, so I moved it to the side.

Then I decided to design my own lipstick case. The design isn’t terribly different or innovative, but it was really rewarding to apply the concepts learned in the tutorial on my own. Here is how that turned out:

Screenshot of lipstick with lid.

Screenshot of the lipstick without the lid.

Animation for lipstick.

Rendered view of textures.

Again, I was so sad Sketchfab wouldn’t recognize my textures. I used an image to apply marble texture to the white plastic casing as well as used the clear acrylic and gold materials. The lipstick is made of the wax material, I just changed the color. Either way, sketch fab is really cool. I even downloaded Blender and Maya to play around it so I can eventually have Sketchfab models feature everything I want them to.

And a video of this entire process:

Video of my progress. From following the tutorial to my own design.

A few things I learned:

1. Parameters are your friends. Set them and change them.
2. Name your sketches as you go and bodies- it will make your life way easier.
3. The timeline is your friend.

If you want to check out either version in Fusion 360’s online viewer, you can check out the first rendition here and my design here.