Elephant_STL_DEAR_ZOO_TACTILEPICTUREBOOKSPROCJET_CU_BOULDER

thingiverse

ELEPHANT: (part of the "Dear ZOO" modelling project at Tactile Picture Books Project, CU Boulder) I decided to create a high quality, high poly mesh for the elephant. To accomplish this I first outlined the elephant. This includes not just the exterior silhouette but also the lines inside of it, such as the legs, mouth, eyes. Then I added a plane on top of it and subdivided it a bunch of times, getting a high poly mesh. I then used the sculpt tool to draw the elephant. The sculpt has different brushes. I found myself mostly switching between the “Draw” brush, which moves vertices forward along their normals, or backwards by holding the Shift key. The second most used brush was the “Smooth” brush, which… guess what… smooths it! There are a couple of pros and cons to this approach and here they are: PROS: In comparison with other methods, this is the easiest way to create a high poly mesh. It is also less time consuming, since it’s similar to working with clay. The reason for that is because what I am basically doing with the “Dear ZOO” is that I am bulging 2D pictures into 3D ones, and that’s exactly what the sculpt tool is meant to do (in a way). And it’s great at doing it. Since using the sculpt tool is similar to working with clay… using this technique is less stressful for the brain (compared to other techniques I’ve used for the book). CONS: Since you are moving multiple vertices at once, that leaves you with little control over the model. And this causes multiple issues: If you happen to have intersecting triangles, then it would be hard to go back and fix the model. The model will bulge over the outlines I created in the very beginning. It is hard to create sharp edges.