The Julian Journal

For my reverse engineered object I had first chosen a lighter though after realizing I could not take it apart without destroying it I chose to the "Bic" lighter, a commonplace lighter sold around the world.  (Flick my Bic? that just sounds wrong) (The Bic Dissembled) Oval shape for the lighter The Lighter  body curve extruded and caped overlapping and oval with and oval trim to the shape  of the  red plastic lighter gas button and metal flame housing Post triming Once curveextruded we have the two approximattive shapes I then created the  springs using the  "spiral command" and counting the spirals on each of the lighter springs./ extruded cylinder for the easy to model flint flint capped and shaded gas  nosel approxamitive  shape Spark wheel: a circle and 60 pointed star Curve extruded rigged parts and center cylinder caped spark wheel Everythin...

This Week I went back to the "Thing Tank" to complete my helmet. In Sure Cuts Alot 3 I mirrored my original design on it's vertical axis. I listen to the plotter symphony as I wait for my vinyl to cut. Weeding time, went so much better this time with the exacto than previously with the hair plucker. Weeding complete, someone made some setting changes to the plotter lowering the pressure and oddly worked in my favor making the cut vinyl slightly harder to peel off allowing for better control. Here I did the transfer with the lower adhesive large width transfer masking tape which worked perfectly in transferring the vinyl. compared to the hellish nightmare of regular masking tape and the sticky ramainder   After some tricky applying of the vinyl to the helmet here its is with both sides applied  (front view) Rear (view) One sad thing that I had already expected was the mirroring of the three sisters m...

For my reverse engineered object I chose the Zippo lighter, invented by George G. Blaisdell in 1933, the lighter is a staple of american design and symbol of american military history, the design virtually unchanged to this day.  Zippo lighter seperated from shell  I chose this object because It is small and easily deconstructed (mostly: i have to figure out how to take apart some inside parts of the lighter if i choose to model them). looking into the lighter   I also chose this object because I can see the shapes that would make its form in Rhino such as the cylinder flint lighter and the holes drilled through the lighter module that would involve subtracting cylinders from a round cornered hollow rectangle. the lighter component I'm going to have to learn a great deal about three dimensional modelling to execute this correctly but it's going to be fun.

I began by vectorizing my brain bike helmet drawing in adobe illustrator then imported the file into rhino  After importing the drawing i exploded the shape and began marking all the points to find where i could cut the shapes in order to prevent issues with the vinyl bubbling or warping on the compound curve of the helmet. I then began to start cutting up the lines that make up the texturing of the brain and disconnecting them from the outline of the brain to reduce overall stretch stress on the vinyl sticker. I then also transformed my three sister mountain sketch into vector through Illustrator and began to search for a place to integrate these mountain lines into the brain. Here is the design after some alterations to include the silhouette of the mountains mimicking the brain texture. I then went over the outline of the brain breaking up the perimeter with circles using the arc tangent to other curves tool. I then added a occipeta...

For my object I decided to use a bike/skateboard helmet. As we are dealing with objects with designs that reflect who we are I decided on utilising a helmet because it expresses the self through its design and semiotics as a exoskeleton of the human body. (my object) The helmet is also a piece of protective equipment I hold very close to my heart as a symbol for the adventures I've taken it along with over the years, whether every day commuting on my bike, my 5 years long boarding in the down roads in the rockies and the streets of Calgary.   I've devised two object vinyl tattoo concepts i would like to potentially pursue. The first uses a sketch of the brain on both sides of the helmet representing my mind. I may want to take this idea further and include elements of myself inside this brain. During the critique my group was mostly interested in this concept as the brain relates quite well to the helmet as a safety device for the brain. brain version...