For the computer-aided design portion of fab academy, I chose to go through some tutorials usgin Grasshopper3d for Rhinoceros.
I spent some time running through tutorials at www.digitaltoolbox.info and then i downloaded and tweaked an existing definition from www.grasshopper3d.com in order to apply it to an object. The definition was a multiple point attractor system where i could set up multiple points in a line and make a shape scale up as it moves away from the points.

After i had the definition in place, i used the heightfield command in rhino to generate a surface from a black and white image. I then lofted the curves created from the baked definition and trimmed the interior areas so i was left with a perforated surface.

I then used the extrude surface command in Rhino and gave the surface a thickness of .125". Next, I mirrord the surfaces to make multiples around the corner point of the original surface. Then using Vray Express, I was able to add a color and render and animation.

While this is not an animation of my final project, it is an anticipated output of the data that my project could provide.