2. Digital Bodies¶
Week two.
Below, you can surf through my process on week number two. I will talk about 3Dscanning, inspiration, Makehuman software, Rinho and Slicer.
3DScanning¶
- Kinect
As soon as I arrived home from Digital Bodies´ Lecture, I felt really happy: we had a Kinect in da hause!!. I belived that FINALLY I would use it for something convenient (I am not a gamer AT ALL, I do not even know how to turn the xbox ON)
(I need you to remember that the fablab at my University is not open due to COVID-19, so everything that can be done at home is heaven)
BUUUUT...Of course this was just an illusion. Once I tried, and tried, AND TRIED to make it work, I found out that "apparently" the kinect that comes with the Xbox ONE (the one we have) wont work for 3Dscanning: the one that will do it, is the one in XBox 360.
Result: COVID-1 Lucrecia-0.
- QLone
I tried with Cellphone apps for 3Dscanning. I downloaded some of them and the one thet worked better for me, was QLone. This tool seems to be for scanning small objects, rather than to scan a body. That is why I -and also Olivia, my 5 year old doughter- thought that was fun to scan some "small friends". As you can see below, they seemed REALLY interested on the event. A copule of minutes later, there was a long queue of small people waiting.
This lady was finally choosen as the best model.
To use QLone, you have to print a Mat, where you must place the objects, and then, you move either the phone, or the printed paper. It is not the best tool to get a great scan of reality, but it helped to understand the concept of 3D scanning.
Anyway, This is the LESS CREEPY the princess looked like after, at least, an hour of scanning in different angles/places/lighting/velocities. SCARY, isn´t it?
Inspiration.¶
I was inspired by our little model above. She made me think about character design, and how the body changes and evolves through the eye of the artist, in order to create a new, certain and particular life. The little doll, brought to my mind the app game Monument Valley, its charming, misterious world and its characters.
Makehuman.¶
I could not install Makehuman software in MacOs (Catalina) as it showed an error while trying to execute the program, that is why I had to Install Windows in Mac to be able to use Makehuman. I think that maybe because of that, the computer was slower than ever.
Besides, the experience of creating the character was fun and enjoyable.
As I could not get a minimalist character -because of Makehuman nature and possibilites- I focused on the spirit and the soul of the character: I tried to make my human version of "Monument" androgynous, misterious, playful, childish. I played a lot with head, neck and legs, to get a fragile look.
Making some mooves...
Rhinoceros.¶
When Rhino came to my life, my experience wasn´t the best and I ended up with a huge headache! I have been AGES trying to understand the program and cutting arms and legs from my model.
I could have choosen the standing model but as I am quite stubborn, I selected the playful pose because It was much more aligned with my concept.
First Character
Character Selected
Long story short: When I finally could make it and I arrived to Slicer, I realized that there was a MASSIVE HOLE into the head because of the mouth and the eyes. That hole made everything messy and couldn´t make it work at Slicer. That made me go back and try to fix it. I finally could make it by doing an "Unión Booleana de mallas" with three different spheres (two for the eyes, and one for the mouth).
Meshmixer.¶
I used the Meshmixer mainly to soften the shoulders, and worked quite well. It remind me to photoshop so it felt "safe".
Slicer for Fusion 360.¶
When I thought I was arriving to the end of the process, "Mr Slicer" showed up to drive me crazy once again: I couldnt make the manequin with head work. No matter what movement I did, many slices with issues appeared. That made me decide to go back once again to cut the head off. I felt frustrated: the manequin looked boring.
Luckily, after a night of good sleep, I gave "the head" a new chance, and surprisingly, I solved it. The constuction technique I choosed was the "curve" option, wich gave an interesting flow to the shape. Also moved the slice direction and then solved some issues.
Lasser cutting and finishing¶
I still couldn´t have access to my fablab, but fortunaltely, Maite helped to print my file in her fablab, so I was able to lasser cut. Thank you!!
I made a Quick photoshop, becouse I thought I was not going to materialize the file. I wanted to feel it real, so this was my plan: to remark the layers and the color palette of my inspiration in order to get a "mountain" kind of look, and stay close to Monument Valley game which is all about impossible layers.
After having the file cut, I painted each piece with acrylic painting.
Download 2D File
Download 3D File
That´s it! See you next week.