Susanna Brolhani

Since I had previous experience with Rhino and Grasshopper, I decided to start this week's assignment with those, and later explore other tools. Because I haven't used Grasshopper in many years, I though I could use this week to get my head around it once again. Reminded me how amazing this tool is. I decided to rely my first 3D model entirely on Grasshopper and see if I could get an end-result, with no 2D sketch input. Also, since I don't know the final size/geometry yet, as they will unavoidately result from the hardware that will be included in it, I thought it would be nice to have a base file that I can later on modify and refine.

The first think I did, was define a coordinate for my starting point (the origin - 0,0,0). I then created a vector and added an input dimension to create a line.

The second step was to create a round section profile that would sweep around the first line I created. I used the same lign as a to align normal to align the profile. I created some sliders to set my input values.

As everything was aligned and looking good, I could already create a sweep to generate the first cylinder.

Next, to create the tip of the pencil, I used the same profile of the main cylinder as a starting point. I created an input for the length of the tip and created a cone.

Then realized that a perfect cone with such a sharp tip was unrealistic. So I thought I could create a loft between the first profile and a second profile that would be the same one, but scaling it down.

Looking much better! So now I could close the caps of those open ended surfaces and unite them in a BREP. This is the rendered viewport from Rhino. Simple model. I'm not particularly inspired by it but I'm thinking I'll add details during the process, as I start figuring out how this object will work. I like the fact it started as a fully parametric thing, which can become more complex.

(Find the model files in the attachment section from this page.)

I wanted to learn a more professional tool, so decided to work on a separate model on Fusion, which I haven't used before. This time, I thought it would be a good idea to think about the actual separate components, starting to think of the pieces and assemblies, instead of a modelling a solid geometry. I also thought of exploring a square profile instead of round, see how it would look. I started with a sketch of a square.

Then I did a thin extrusion of the shell of the body.

Added some fillets so it would be more comfortable and realistic.

On one of the edges I took the outer perimeter and did another extrusion, for what I imagined would be a separate cap portion, which I'm not sure yet if necessary - but will leave it here for now.

On the other end, I did the same, but a shorter extrusion. This will be the drawing part.

On that new extrusion's face I drew a circle, thought I'd make it look like a monoline pen this time.

Extruded that. Then repeated it for the tip of the tip.

That's the rough geometry. Then refined the dims a bit, and started adding fillets all around to make it look nice.

Then modified the appearance and adjusted the scene settings.

Then went ahead and did some renderings! It's kinda cute!

After I modelled those ordinary pens, I had this idea that holding a pencil is kind of like holding a wand and having powers. So as a Harry Potter fan, I thought it would be cool if everyone using this pencil thing could have their own unique wand. Then I thought I could /imagine some more unique designs. Started thinking about what artists I admire would design. One of my references for design is Dieter Rams, so I prompted Midjourney with "imagine harry potter wands designed by Dieter Rams" (I created more versions of this experiment and posted in my final project page).

I opened the raster image on Inkscape and used the trace tool to turn it into a vector file.

FILE: SVG file