Ideation

I began properly ideating today and I now have three main ideas. The first is to make the torch in the shape of a gun. The batteries would be situated in the handle, and the switch to turn it off and on could be the trigger. This would mean that the torch could be quite small, but still detailed to fit in with the design brief. It could also be good for deterring potential criminals as it would look threatening even though it is harmless.

My other two ideas are both modelled off items in shows/movies that I like. They are a sonic screwdriver from Doctor Who, or a wand from Harry Potter. Both of these series' have large fanbases, and the items would therefore attract a large audience. I am leaning more towards these two ideas than my first one as I think they would be more interesting to make and also fit better with the conventional torch shape. Images of both the items can be seen below.



At the moment, I cannot decide which I prefer between my second two ideas. I am interested in doing the wand because I have been wanting to learn how to do a spiral/spring for a while, and I could include it in the embellishments of the design if I chose to do this. On the other hand, the sonic screwdriver is a better shape to fit all of the pieces of a torch. As it is slightly wider, it would be better for accommodating the batteries, reflector etc. I am going to continue looking for more ideas in the lesson tomorrow to see if I can think of anything better, or improve on the ideas I already have if I can't think of anything.

In today's lesson I completed the pen assembly, meaning that I have completed all of the exercises that need completing, so I can now focus on ideation for my torch. I do not have many ideas yet, but in the next lesson I am going to look up different images to try to decide on what I would like to do.

ProDesktop Progress

Since my last post I have made a lot of progress on ProDesktop. I have completed most of the tasks required for the assessment. These are both toy blocks, calculator, clock face, cart wheel, phone, energy drink bottle and aluminium motor cycle wheel. I found the aluminium motor cycle wheel to be the most challenging as it did not give much explanation on how to create it. It also involved using most of the tools that we had used so far, and adding on the mirror tool. While it wasn't exactly difficult to make, I found it hard to make the shapes similar to the ones in the design. Even so, I am pleased with the end result of it.

I have had an issue with the file for my phone. Last lesson, just after I had completed it, the program crashed and damaged the file so it won't open. Mr Ward has said that I don't have to redo it, but I am still slightly annoyed because it had taken a few lessons and I was really proud of how it had turned out. I had put in a lot of detail into the design. For instance, where there were extrusions subtracting material below the workplane, instead of just leaving it as a hole, I had either rounded or chamfered the edges depending on what was on the phone to make it as accurate as possible. I had also done all of the measurements very exactly to make it as well as I could. I was planning on adding the text on the back and attempting to create the Apple logo as well, but the program crashed before I could do this.

I am fairly close to beginning work on my torch now. I just need to complete the pen and then I can do the torch. I am planning on making the torch as well as possible, and incorporating as many different skills as I can in order to make up for not handing in the phone. I haven't really thought of many ideas yet, but there is one that I wouldn't mind trying. I am going to look up how to make a spring, but rather than putting it inside the torch (because in springs in actual torches, the coils slowly become smaller as you move closer to the top, and I think it would be difficult to make it realistic) I want to have the spring design extruded slightly around the surface of the handle of the torch. This could serve to improve aesthetics, and also provide extra grip around the handle for ease of use. I am excited to start work on my torch, and will hopefully begin properly ideating soon.

Starting on ProDesktop

At the start of this week we began working on the CAD program ProDesktop. So far we have mainly been revising things that we learnt last year. These include extruding, protruding, rounding edges and duplicating, along with other basic aspects of the program. The most helpful thing I have learned so far is how to alter extrusions after you have completed them. I did not know how to do this last year and due to this I have occasionally had to restart my work completely because I had extruded the wrong amount. I believe everyone could benefit from knowing how to do this, and as it does not explain how to do it in any of the textbook exercises we have been doing, perhaps Mr Ward could show the class.

Images of the Final Product

This our completed resort. In the last lesson, we made a few final improvements to a couple of different aspects of the resort, like the cabins, dirt and trees, and attached the waterwheel. To do this we used the wire from a pipe cleaner. This involved taking all of the fluff off the pipe cleaner, which took quite a while, but there wasn't any other material we could see that would look as good or work well. It fit well through the center of the wheel and was very easy to bend into shape and glue to the mountain.

I am very happy with how the resort turned out and had a lot of fun making it. Overall, we didn't have many problems creating the resort, and any that we did have were easy to fix. I think that it has come together nicely and looks fairly realistic. All we have left to do in this task is the oral on Friday, but we have already written that so we only have to complete the PowerPoint.

Resort Progress

In the last couple of lessons there has been a lot of progress on our resort. After the paint on the mountain dried we dabbed grey and green paint over parts of it with a sponge, mostly around the sides and the waterfall. We didn't have any white paint left after the grey so the green is very bright but it doesn't matter too much.

In the last lesson Shae covered the ground at the base of the mountain with fake dirt using glue while I made some final improvements to the design of the cabins. I glued four small wooden sticks that were about 1cm wide, 2cm tall and about 1mm thick around the lower storey. There is one in each corner next to the wall, and two in the corner of the window walls. These were put there to support the roof and to make the cabins more detailed. I only completed three of the four cabins in this lesson, but they didn't take very long to do so I should complete them fairly easily. I haven't taken any photos of this yet but I will hopefully upload some tomorrow.

In today's lesson we glued on the trees at the base of the mountain, made the water wheel, and made the water. We made the water at the base of the waterfall lighter than that at the top so that it would look more natural and hopefully flow better. To make the waterfall we poured the glue at the top of the mountain and let it flow down into the lake below so that it would follow the path that water would naturally take, making it look more real. Photos of this will also be uploaded along with the cabins.

We have almost finished our resort and will make the last few changes in our last lesson tomorrow. All we need to do is make some slight changes to one of the cabins, finish gluing on the trees and attached the water wheel and cabins to the mountain. This shouldn't take too long to do, and if we need to we can finish it in lunch.

Since my last post our resort has progressed nicely. Shae was away for two lessons so I finished plastering our mountain and began measuring and cutting out the cabins in this time. After Shae returned we decided to only make the cabins one storey because it would be difficult to make them the way we had planned. After we made one cabin like this we decided it seemed too plain and low, and so we added a second storey but in a different way to our original design. An image of a semi-completed cabin can be seen below. We are planning on attaching clear plastic to the front and side walls of the cabins to symbolise the glass, but if this doesn't work we will probably just leave it as it is.



We have also begun painting the mountain. We decided it would be better to paint it before doing the waterfall so we could have the paint going right up to the edge of the lake without having the risk of it getting on the water. It is going to be predominantly brown, with grey around the sides and where the waterfall/lake is. There will also be some green around the top and sides of the mountain. The current mountain can be seen below: