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2. Digital bodies

Research & Ideation

I wanted to dive into the fantasy/fairytale realm for inspiration. My research led me to artists like Robin Wight, who creates stunning wire sculptures of fairy-like figures, and Adam Martinakis, whose digital art explores surreal, dream-like human forms. Inspired by their work, I decided to focus on the theme of “Soulmates” for my design.

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References & Inspiration

For this week's project, I was inspired by the theme of unlikely soulmates, particularly the mythical combination of a dragon and a mermaid. These two fantasy creatures represent opposing elements—air/fire and water—which makes their union an unusual and intriguing contrast.

I plan to explore this idea by using a combination of digital fabrication techniques:

Mermaid: This part will be created using laser cutting. The mermaid will consist of layered slices to bring out a 3D form, symbolizing fluidity and movement of water.

Dragon: For the dragon, I will use 3D printing to capture the strength and structure of a mythical creature. The detailed scales and wings will showcase the precision achievable through 3D printing.

Through this contrast in fabrication techniques, I aim to represent the balance and tension between these two creatures, which reflects the beauty of opposites in harmony.

Tools

Process and workflow

Experimentation with MakeHuman

I started by playing around in MakeHuman, a tool for creating human models. It was easy to use and great for generating base models. However, I don’t plan to use it for my final design because I want to push my creativity further and go beyond what the software generates. I will explore more artistic and abstract approaches to achieve the "soulmates" theme.

3D Scanning

While others have faced challenges with 3D scanning, I was still keen to experiment with it. My goal is to see how I can integrate these scans creatively into my work, though I’m mindful of the potential technical limitations based on previous results.

describe what you see in this image

3D Printing and Laser Cutting

Step 1 Creating design in Tinkercad

This model 1 was obtained by..

Step 2

The laser cut nesting 2 was created using..

Step 3

...

My hand drawn sketches are ...

This model 1 was obtained by..

The laser cut nesting 2 was created using..

footnote fabrication files

Fabrication files are a necessary element for evaluation. You can add the fabrication files at the bottom of the page and simply link them as a footnote. This was your work stays organised and files will be all together at the bottom of the page. Footnotes are created using [ ^ 1 ] (without spaces, and referenced as you see at the last chapter of this page) You can reference the fabrication files to multiple places on your page as you see for footnote nr. 2 also present in the Gallery.

3D Models

upload the 3d models of MakeHuman, Final 3d modelled body, 3D Scans, etc

Dita's Gown by Francis Bitonti Studio on Sketchfab

Videos

learn how to add video tutorials, inspirational videos and movies etc

From Vimeo

Sound Waves from George Gally (Radarboy) on Vimeo.

From Youtube

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Fabrication files

  1. File: 3d modelling of mannequin ↩↩

  2. File: Laser cut sheets ↩↩