For my midterm in Piecing It Together I initially chose to make a model of a mech I designed in 3D some years ago. Considering I have not yet kicked the tires of the CNC Router yet I figured it would be best to tackle this in some form as a final project. Learning from the issues I experienced with my irregular box project and trying to maximize my time utilization, I decided to buy a vinyl cutter so I can do most of the prototyping at home.
For my project I decided to make a 3 or 4-tone illustration using transparent material like acrylic. My other material would probably be wood. I am envisioning making an enclosure for the image and it being at least 4 layers deep. I included some examples of this illustration style below.
My first steps are to reduce my picture to 3 or 4 colors. Create each color in a new layer in Photoshop. I’ll then import these layers into Illustrator and trace them out with the pen tool. To prototype I will cut these patterns on thick paper and plastic sheets with the vinyl cutter. After the prototyping phase is complete I’ll model the sculpture in my 3d software and determine what materials to buy this weekend.
