ATEC-FAB GRAD

Erik DeFries: Week 7 - Moulds and Messes

After overcoming a handful of logistical obstacles, I was finally able to cast both my Alien and Torso prints. The torso print was tricky, as the arm presented a significant challenge for removal with every cast. Unfortunately, the printed Alien head broke while removing it from the mould.

Erik DeFries: Week 6 - The Art Formerly Known as Prints

3D prints! Such excitement! I'm very pleased with how the alien turned out. The torso, however, printed way too small: the fingers were incredibly brittle and broke on the way home. I'm re-printing the torso myself at the Lab. Still no access to Rhino outside of the lab computer itself.

Project 1 Part 2 Fabrication through mold making

Firstly, with the 3d printed model, some smoothing needed to be done to get rid of some texture made through the 3d printing process.

Next was getting the mold done, this was made using reserve silicon pieces and rebound 25. It was made using the metal sheet technique for mold making. Along with hot glue and clay, a seal was made around the 3d model, and the silicon was poured in, after curing, it was split apart and tied together with rubber bike tire strips, to keep the mold integrity while also providing a way to separate the molds made within. I still have this and will continue to use it!

The two variations I made for class were these.

The one on the left was created with the onyx black mixed with brass powder, and a wood style texturing on epoxy clay to have a small coating of "wood" around the creature pretending to be a stump. I used plaster and a metal brush sculpting tool to create some "moss". I feel as though this one has a couple ways of being improved and I plan to eventually. Painted using acrylic paints.

The one on the right is a simple design created using the Onyx white and a little bit of SoStrong brown coated in plaster and painted with acrylic. I snipped small pieces of wire to make the black teeth within the lips. I needed to practice more with 3d painting and got a level of understanding within this project, but am still definitely working on it.

Project 1 part 1 mudbox into rhino - Vinayak Nair

Part 1 was all about crafting the model we would work with throughout the semester. In Mudbox I attempted to craft a roughly textured tree stump monster that played on the idea of the innocuousness and monstrous creatures. How something as rudimentary as a tree stump, something that can't even move could be rendered in terrible, horrifying form. Taking it into rhino served the purpose of adding the eye and adding a base to the sculpture, the problems I faced here pop up later in the processes as well, so it was all a learning experience in the end. I messed up in how I modelled the eye as a separate mesh within the original mesh of the stump itself. This original image above was my first try that was just not well sculpted whatsoever. I redid it and that's the result below.

This is what was 3d printed at 3DallasPrint, and the model that was used to create the mold.

Erik DeFries: Week 2 Torso 3D modeling

As much as I enjoyed my alien head sculpt in week 1, it dawned on me that my original Mudbox sculpt would probably serve as the foundation for every other project in the remainder of the semester. Considering that fact, I felt unsatisfied with the casual intent behind my original sculpt, and decided to generate an alternative piece of more scope and significance. Drawing from ancient Greek statues for my inspiration this time, I worked on modeling, then posing, a highly-detailed female torso: work that I could more readily envision in a traditional gallery setting.

Now armed with the foreknowledge (pun intended) that this sculpture would later be printed, molded, and cast, I detached the upper-arm section to print separately. The arm would later join to the torso via a pentagonal peg. This also allowed me to swap/interchange different styles of arm.

Reading ahead in the syllabus, it seemed prudent to have a decimated, polygon-ized version of the torso prepared and printed as well.

Moving forward, I elected to source my torso sculpt and my alien head sculpt in parallel for future projects.

Erik DeFries: Week 1 Mudbox Alien Head

This piece represents my very first experience using the 3D sculpting software Mudbox. I found the sculpting experience quite enjoyable overall. For this first project, I designed a rather ominous-looking humanoid alien, with incredibly pointy features and detailed cranial ridges, inspired by common alien designs from the science fiction genre of film, gaming, and television. I got very invested in adding irregular bumps and dips and ridges all along the head. Because I was experiencing license issues with the Rhino 3D software while also facing a quick turnaround time, I adapted the model for printing using my 3D software of choice: Blender.

Ideology

I named this series "Ideology." As ideology always silences the voice of all but itself, this composition shows a hand in each sculpture that tries to silence the voices of diverse opinions. The initial idea was derived from the revolution that occurred in Iran that brought the voice of Iranian women to the ears of the world. The voice that was silenced for more than 40 years. Now women are shouting it by setting their scarves on fire, going in the streets without head covers, and cutting their hair to demonstrate disobedience toward mandatory hijab. The idea of showing hair as a tool for expression led to the idea of adding different hairs to imply diverse thoughts. So, I added hair with a distinct personality to the molded copies.

The silence of Iranian women was a silence whose breaking has cost the lives of dozens of children and teenagers and hundreds of other innocents. With the intensification of the Islamic regime's violence in Iran, committing mass murder, attacking girls' high schools, beating students, and killing them, I felt more anger than before. I tried to express this anger by adding a fist to the third statue's hair. Today, anger is the most powerful emotion that Iranians feel towards oppression, and they use it to liberate themselves and achieve freedom. So, I added anger to the collection.

3D Print Model