Parametric Modeling

The assignment this week definitely tested my willpower. I tried several design ideas, but when I went to actually put them together I struggled. I sketched, started modeling, failed, started over, rinsed, repeated.

I first had an idea that I would make this unique table, with a rounded base and circular top. When I went to sketch it, though, I could not get the top of the table to lay as a whole shape (see left.) I tried and tried to correct it, but each time it had a smaller circle indented in the middle. Every. Single. Method. Didn’t. Work. So I scrapped it and tried something new.

I decided that making it parametric was the most important task, so I simplified it down a little bit. I set out to recreate my media console where I keep my record player and vinyls.

Since the design was so simple, I ended up making the whole thing using parametric measurements. Here’s a look at my setup and basic sketch for my largest model:

As I made my iterations, I simply just put in the measurements when making the elements by putting in the parametric, then dividing it by 2 or 3. That gave me my three sizes.

Then came the difficult part: creating a moving glass door. I tried to make one by following a YouTube tutorial, but I still couldn’t get it. I thought I would only be able to turn in the simple design, but RJ saved the day by showing us the “joint” feature in class. It took some trial and error, but I got it to work! I’m not sure how to get it to move when it’s on Sketchfab, but I took a video of it animating so you can see how it works:

And that’s it! Here’s the model in Sketchfab.

(sidenote: I still don’t know how to stop the colors from changing when I upload it into the program, but I’ll keep working at that).