Digital bodies¶
INSPIRATION¶
The body shapes, emotions and moment is the most inspiring thing for me. Line and light danging is most uniqe and spacioal element in my vision of art.
Person Who Inspires Me¶
Ron Arad – Between Structure and Play
Ron Arad is a British-Israeli industrial designer, artist, and architect known for his innovative and often radical furniture and architecture, which features experimental use of materials and integrated technology. His iconic works include the postmodern Rover chair and designs for brands like Kartell and Vitra.
Ron Arad’s constant experimentation with the boundaries and possibilities of materials, from metals to composites, and his radical re-conception of the form and structure of objects and buildings, large and small, has put him at the forefront of contemporary design and architecture.
Ron Arad is a designer who doesn’t simply build objects — he sculpts movement into still forms. His work lives between architecture and sculpture, where each line bends not just material, but also expectation.
Among his most iconic pieces are the Ron Arad chairs revisited with Alpi — a collection in vividly colored wood, where surface and volume meet in playful conversation. Each curve reflects his philosophy: function should never silence imagination. The bright pigments highlight the organic motion of the wood, as if color itself is breathing through the structure.
These chairs are not static objects; they are frozen gestures — sculptural yet alive. Through them, Arad invites the viewer to feel movement in stillness, to sense material not just by touch, but through emotion and curiosity.
WHAT TOOLS I USED¶
☼ 3D scunner
☼ Blander
☼ Slicer
☼ Illustrator
☼ Cutter
STEP 1. 3D SCANNING¶
My first step in this project was scanning my own body. In Fab Lab Armenia, everyone supports and helps you with everything — even with unusual or creative ideas. One of them is Areg Khalatyan, who helped me understand how a 3D scanner works. First, we needed to download the Creality Scan program on the phone, then connect the scanner and the phone together, and finally attach the phone to the scanner.
How to make a correct scan?
The correct scanning process must be fast enough so that the person’s initial position does not change much, and to avoid having different positions appear in the same area. In other words, we need enough frames to capture the position accurately, but not so many that deviations become noticeable. When making a scan, you must choose the right parameters for your project. For example, if you are scanning someone’s face, you must select ‘face’ in the object line, set the size parameters to ‘normal,’ choose ‘geometry’ in tracking mode, and finally select the quality level you need. But the first scan we made was of my whole body, sitting in a chair.
After the instruction we scun holl my body, face and heand.It was hard to not move for cuple of minutes and I faled in the first holl body scunning.
That part was fun! But the problem was that my face was moving. In the scan, I ended up with two mouths and two noses. Instead of the face, the other body parts and details turned out really good, even until the necklace under the shirt. I was really surprised how detailed the scanner could be.
Here you can see my whole body scan ⬇
Here, in the red parts, you can see the areas that were not fully detected and scanned. During the process, the red body parts show which areas must be scanned again and in more detail. The blue parts are normally scanned areas that do not need additional scanning.
After we scanned my face, then my hand, and in the end, I scanned Areg’s hand to fully understand how the scanning process works. Spoiler: it was really hard!
The hand is really hard to scan because of its high mobility. Some people’s hands shake, while others can’t stay in the same position for a long time. Another problem is the space between the fingers — it is very small and tricky during the fixing process.
My biggest problem was keeping the correct distance between the scanner and the object so the scanner could work properly. When I came too close, the scanner turned red and stopped scanning. I made this mistake many times.
But in the end, my hand turned out to be a really good scan for further work.
This is my heand ⬇
This is the hand that I scanned (Areg’s hand) ⬇
For future work, I chose my hand scan because it is cleaner and more detailed. The hand position is also more artistic, in my opinion.
STEP 2. CREATE FUTURE DESIGN. WORK WITH BLANDER.¶
After the whole scanning process, the next thing we started to do was create our own design in Blender and make the object mesh lighter for further work in the slicer.
How to work with blander?
It was first time for me when I used this program. The interface was confusing me, so I watched a short YouTube lesson to understand what the program is before the FabAcademy tutorial.
This is the very training material that turned out to be really interesting and simple for the first steps in this program.
What I need for my design
The main two tools I use are Remesh and Boolean. These tools help me prepare and modify the scanned object for further design work.
What is Remesh?
Remesh is a modifier that helps change and rebuild the mesh of an object when there are problems with it.
- Common mesh problems:
- Uneven mesh distribution
- Too many or too few polygons
- Holes, broken geometry, or messy scan data
- Difficult-to-edit surfaces after 3D scanning
I use this tool because my object has too many polygons, and I need to refresh and simplify the mesh. The file is too heavy, and many programs cannot open it properly (for example, slicers). With fewer polygons, the object becomes lighter, easier to process, and much easier to work with during further design steps.
How to use REMESH MODIFIER ?¶
- Select your object
- Go to the Modifiers panel (wrench icon)
- Add Remesh modifier
- Choose the remesh mode:
- Voxel (best for scanned objects)
- Smooth / Sharp / Blocks (for different visual effects)
- Enable Smooth Shading if needed
- Apply the modifier when you are happy with the result
How the modifier panel looks and how it works ⬇
Applying changes is paramount. If you don't apply the changes, the object won't remember them.
For boolian we must drow any pulling object. i choose to add plane.
How to add plain
- Ctrl+A (shortcut)
- Mesh → Plane
- Choose the Scale tool
- Choose the correct scale axis
- Scale it to the needed size
Rotate
- Choose Rotate tool
- Choose the rotation axis
- Rotate it on the needed axis
Move
- Choose Move tool
- Choose the move direction
- Move it to the needed position
Boolean Modifier. What It Does¶
The Boolean modifier combines two objects using logical operations.
Boolean Types
- Union – merges two objects into one
- Difference – subtracts one object from another
- Intersect – keeps only overlapping parts
How It Works
- Select the main object
- Add a Boolean modifier
- Choose the operation type
- Select the second object
- Apply the modifier when finished
Remesh and Boolian and making my two heand mixing design.
STEP 3. SLICER FOR FUSION 360¶
For slicing our hand, we need a slicing program. In Fabric Academy classes, we had a lesson about Fusion 360 / Slicer. It is an easy-to-use program that helps you understand what kind of modules you need and how you can make them. You can change the design and see an animation of how it will be assembled.
Let’s see how to use it and what you can do with it.
How to import a file into Slicer 360
To import my Blender file, I first saved the hand as an STL file.
After opening the program, I clicked the Import button, chose the needed file, and clicked Open.
On the left panel, we have several windows that help us control our work. The most important one is the Size panel. For me, it is more common to use millimeters (mm) as the unit of measurement. Here you can choose the sizes you need, depending on how big your material is or on the laser cutter bed size. In my case, these parameters were 60 × 40.
In the next window, we have the designing part that we need. The program has six techniques that we can use.
Let’s see which one is for what ⬇¶
1 Stacked Slices
This technique slices the object into horizontal layers, one on top of another. It works like contour lines on a map. It is good when you want to keep the exact shape of the object and make something sculptural. But it uses a lot of material and is not very strong from the side.
2 Interlocked Slices
In this method, the object is sliced in two directions, usually X and Y, and the parts are locked together. It creates a strong structure and does not need glue. This technique is very good for hands, bodies, and organic shapes, and also for large objects.
3 Radial Slices
Radial slicing creates slices that go around a center point, like a fan or a flower. It works best for round or symmetric objects. Visually it looks very dynamic and light, but it is not good for very complex or asymmetric shapes.
4 Curve Slices
Curve slicing follows the natural curves of the object instead of straight lines. This technique gives very organic and smooth results. It is more decorative and interesting visually, but also harder to assemble and cut.
5 Folded Panels
This technique creates flat panels that can be folded into a 3D object. It is good when you want to use thin materials like paper, fabric, or plastic sheets. It is light, flexible, and fast to assemble, but not very strong.
6 Slot Construction
Slot construction uses flat parts with slots that fit into each other. It is very common for laser cutting and is easy to assemble and disassemble. This method is strong, reusable, and good for experiments and prototypes.
In every technique there are control points. You can control how much detail you put into the object, in which angles, and how many vertical and horizontal details you need. You can also control the lines or the bottom manipulator and adjust only the parts you need.
The red parts show that there is a problem with the geometry. You can go to the right panel to see what kind of problem this detail has and fix it there.
I experimented with the direction of the line and got this final result in Slicer 360. ⬇
But anyway, we can see red and blue parts that do not work correctly. The red parts will not connect properly, and the blue ones do not even touch each other. Because of these problems, I decided to continue my work in Illustrator.
STEP 4. ILLUSTRATOR¶
In Illustrator, I opened the saved folder with my cutting parts after saving the EPS file, and started to work with the incorrect parts. I corrected them using the Pencil Tool. I simply drew the correct lines, which helped me fix the parts that were not properly connected or to connect two objects that were not touching but needed to be connected for the working scheme.
How to work with the Pencil Tool:
- Choose the tool
- Start drawing the needed lines
It is an easy process, but in any case, it is not less important than any of the previous steps.
The corrct working file which i made ⬇
Open Lilit’s hand cutting modules as a PDF
STEP 5. LASER CUTTING PROCESS¶
Erika Mirzoyan and Anoush Arshakyan tell me how muchin works and what kind of safaty i must keep.
The most important thing is that the machine can burn at any moment, so you must stay near it and carefully follow the working process. Every material has its own cutting parameters. These depend on the thickness and density of the material. The main parameters are cutting speed and laser intensity.
Before starting the cutting process, you must turn on the two fans in the lab. Laser cutting works by concentrating light waves at one point. You also need to adjust the material height to find a slight, clear focus line.
If you see fire, stop the machine immediately using the stop button, or simply open the lid — the machine will stop automatically. After the work is finished, wait about 2 minutes before opening the lid.
After these standard steps, we need to place the material on the working surface and secure it if there is any chance it could move during laser cutting.
Next, it’s time to find the optimal laser height. The laser beam should be directly under the laser head.
How do we do this ?
We use the two buttons for up and down, and press the small knob so that the laser light passes through and we can see what we are doing. Then we move the head up and down to find the optimal height where the laser beam and the laser head are perfectly aligned.
The cutter is ready for work. Make sure everything is set correctly, then click the start button and enjoy watching how the laser smoothly cuts everything.
My cutting parameters:
Engraving: Speed 7 / Power min 60 / Power max 65
Cutting: Speed 7 / Power min 60 / Power max 65
My material marameters:
Material is a plywood
Dimensions are 380 mm × 570 mm
Thickness is 3.3 mm
WORKING PROCESS AND FINAL RESULT¶
