More Nurbz, Sweeps, a Lofting

But mostly Nurbz and Sweeps. By the end of my little experiments, lofting became easy. Using the nurbz and sweeps was a little more unpredictable, so I kept working with them. I wasn't ever able to figure out how to "control" the final result, that is to say, to recreate an image in my head in 3-D digital format. Nonetheless, the nurbz and sweep tool are pretty neat to simply play around with.

Loft, Sweep, and Nurbz

In an effort to better understand how to use more of the tools in FormZ and to further develop my luminaire, I experimented with the loft, sweep, and nurbz tools. Shown here are a few of the wire frame and the RenderZone images that resulted. To use these three tools, I drew two lines in different planes (XY, XZ, and YZ), then I selected one of the three tools, and a smooth, continuous plane was created between the selected lines.

The first two images are large scale views of a nurbz creation. I'm not quite sure how to "control" the nurbz tool. How the program determines the configuration of the continuous plane is a mystery to me. With the loft and sweep tool, i felt that I had some control in terms of guiding the form that I wanted to create. However, with the nurbz tool, interesting forms can be created, but what that form will look like was always a surprise to me.

I found that it was very important to label each object as it is created, in order to keep track of all the duplicate images that are created with each operation. It can get very confusing and hard to keep track of original images, copied images, ghosted images, and the like. In order to create to create the double plane with the S-curve face, I had to create the first plane with the S-curve, then ghost that plane, reactivate the S-curve to create the second plane, then unghost the first plane. Yes, it is unnecessarily complicated and confusing.

Assignment 6 - Digital Pen sketches

Over the course of the last week, I used a digital pen to record the strokes I make when drawing/sketching. The most interesting drawings were a series of sketches done for "The Facade" class, a course dedicated (as the title suggests) to learning how to more effectively design building facades. The title of the assigment was "The Difficult Whole," in that we were to design a building facade consisting of either 4 bays, 3 to 4 stories tall in horizontal format, or 2 or 4 bays, 4 to 6 stories tall in vertical format. The challenge was in that there is no clear center (as with a 3 or 5 bay format), and that is comprised of components that aren't grounded, that threaten to "rip apart," but has an element that tethers the composition together.

The sketches recorded using the digital pen are my efforts at developing this "difficult whole." After the drawings were downloaded, I imported them into Adobe Illustrator and did some simple renderings, to emphasize the different materials, i.e. to distinguish the windows from the solid masonry, for instance.

Assignment 5 - 2D to 3D translations

This assignment explored the transition from designing a luminaire in either a 3D program, converting it to a 2D graphic for the purpose of fabrication (by means of a laser cutter, then reassmbling into a physical 3D model; or simply designing a 2-dimensional figure and physically maneuvering it into a 3D object.

Assignment 4 (phase 2) - The Asplund Luminaire

This is more accurately a continuation of the third assignment, in that we took the luminaire design from that project, placed it in a setting digitally, printed the composition, then sketched over it.

To do this, I used the underlay feature in FormZ to import a background image. I then copied and pasted the luminaire over the underlay image. I used the visual rotation tool to position the luminaire, and the uniform scale tool to size it appropriately. Next, I exported the image as a jpeg. After printing the image, I used it again as an underlay for the rendered sketches you see here.

Assignment 4 - Emergent Forms

In this assignment, we were to experiment with all the possible options available with two specific tools. Shown here are examples of objects that can be created using the "Spherical Object" and "Star" tools in FormZ.




The first group of objects shows how a Geodesic Sphere (the default setting) can be modified by changing the number of subdivisions under the Spherical Objects Option menu. Shown here is the progression of 2, 4, 8, 10, and 20 subdivisions, demonstrating the increasing intricacy of the final objects gridded body. The second grouping of objects experimented with changing the shape of the Geodesic Sphere by changing the radius of the object in one or more directions (X, Y, or Z).

The third group of objects demonstrates what objects can be created by changing the Shape description from the dropdown menu in the Spherical Objects Option menu (see attached image). Shown in order of their creation are: a tetrathedron (4), a hexahedron (6), octahedron (8), dodecahedron (10), isocahedron (20), soccar ball, a revolved sphere, or a geodesic sphere (the default option).

The predefined forms only allow you to change their radius, impacting their overall size. The Revolved Sphere, however, allows you to alter the length and depth of its resolution as well, allowing you to make the final object something other than symmetrical, but elongated or squat depending on the settings you choose. (In the end, this was probably my favorite tool, because of the options available to alter its predefined form).




The last group of objects shows how Stars are created. The menu options for this tool start with the Base Type, which include tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, isocahedron, soccer ball, geodesic level 1, and geodesic level 2. In addion you can select "dynamic" sizing to manually determine the star's size as you are creating it, or you can predefine the star's radius in the menu settings. Lastly, you are able to alter the "Ray Radius" of the star. The examples shown here demonstrate all of the aforementioned Stars in order, with a varying ray radius (left to right) of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% respectively.

Assignment 3 - Materials & Texture Mapping

To give tangible meaning to FormZ as a modeling tool, this assignment had us create a luminaire. To start, we used the "basic" 2D and 3D modeling tools to created forms that were modified with various other tools (intersecting, subtracting, rotating, duplicating, etc.). Once the luminaire took shape, we applied textures and colors to the different objects and planes. Lastly, we used the "lights" feature, to position lights and see the effects of the cast shadows.

FormZ isn't always easy to use, and my first attempt at modeling this luminaire resulted in a great deal of frustration. For example, I was unable to enable the objects to be transparent, thereby allowing their colors and textures to be represented in shadow. The light was also difficult to control; for instance, I wanted to "wash" the backplate with light to give it a soft glow, and I have not been able to position a light to create that effect.

Following our in-class review, our course instructor Nancy Cheng demonstrated several additional techniques, enabling me to create some of the effects that I had envisioned for this luminaire. Shown here are my original layout (left), and the modified layout (right) with model and layout changes. The text has been modified as well.

The inspiration for this luminaire is found in the Stockholm Public Library in Stockholm, Sweden, designed by Erik Gunnar Asplund.