Prof. Michael O'Rourke

DDA 500, From Virtual to Physical

Exercise #2:

A Polygon Model

Flattened and Rebuilt

due 2/27 (week 6)

Refer to the tutorials on my 3dtutorials.michaelorourke.com website for technical guidance on this exercise. See the A Polygon Model Flattened with Pepakura in the Virtual to Physical set of tutorials. Also see the several tutorials in the Modeling set for more help with Maya modeling techniques.

This exercise can be done either individually or as a team of two people.

Research the box-like geometric sculptures of Tony Smith as examples of what can be done sculpturally with relatively simple planar surfaces. You do not have to imitate or replicate a Tony Smith sculpture in your own work here, but use his work as a guide and inspiration to the subtlety that is possible with relatively simple forms.

Using the Maya software, create a polygon model sculpture. Use any polygon modeling techniques you want in Maya. Dimension your model however you feel appropriate -- small, medium-sized, large, monumental, etc. Your final object or model will be made of paper or cardboard. If your intended sculpture would be larger than about 1 foot high, you will make a scale model of it, rather than the full-size sculpture. Scale your model accordingly in Maya.

Once the polgyon model is complete, use the Pepakura software to flatten your model into a two-dimensional unwrapped pattern. Use this pattern to build an accurate physical model of paper, cardboard, or some other similar material.

On the due date, hand in a CD or DVD disk with all relevant Maya organized into a standard Maya project folder. Put your Pepakura files into the /data folder of that project. Name your files so that I can find and understand them readily. Also bring in the physical model that you fabricated.