Currently, I am experimenting with ways to present my findings. One of the concept is to let the audience generate their own creature. I have tried a few prototypes this week to find out what is the best design and settings to use when it comes to having under cuts in the project. For the design, I want to have interchangeable parts such as the head, fins and tails of the creature.
First attempt (left)
The design was too heavy, weighing in at 200g and it is only the head. The back panel (use for sealing the magnet into the part) was not able to fit in as the tolerance was too little, at 0.25mm.
Second attempt (right)
I down sized the model a little so that I am able to decrease the weight as well as having faster prototyping process. For this attempt, the tolerance was 0.35mm. The support setting was off like the first attempt.
Third attempt
In this attempt, I increase the tolerance to 0.8mm and adjusted to support to touch more points in the overhangs of the model.
After assembly (with magnet)
Idea for presenting creature ONE
Creature one is a dolphin. From the data I have collected, I have created a creature which I think best suits the physical appearance and behaviour. There will be two sections for creature one. The first is a generative section where the audience and mix and match different parts of the creature to create their own creature. This is to show how the creature was made and why it looks like that. The next section is a mechanical exploding section where audience can turn a wheel that animates and explodes the model into skin and skeleton structure. The head section of this sculpture will not be moving but it will be spewing out smoke to showcase how it breaths.
Making of smoke machine
Went to SPMS lab to do some soldering
Soldering 2 wires to a 0.85 Ohm coil
Tested this on proper lab instruments before I make my smoke machine. Lab assistants said that it is very unlikely that using a power bank to power this coil will cause any fire hazard. The fuel is used is glycerine and it does emit a acquired smell. I might dilute it with water so that the smell is not too noticeable? The smoke is pretty thin in this video but I will be creating a system where by the smoke can concentrate in a box and then be blown out so that it looks thicker.
Plans
By the end of this semester, I want to finish all mock-up mechanisms of all creatures that I am making (around 6-8 creatures).