Post 4 - Rings

Ring Assignment 

Sometimes we just have to continue working on an issue until we figure it out. - That is the biggest lesson I learned throughout the course of this project.

Due to several personal and family matters, I missed quite a few classes and set myself behind. Because of this, I heavily struggled with the key aspect of this assignment: extrusion.  

When I started my rings, I had very little concept of line alignment. I hardly understood the trimming and splitting of lines and could not figure out how to get my tools to work the way I wanted them to. 

Originally, I failed to recognize the importance of a clean shape, fruitlessly trying to figure out why my extrusions came out as tall lines, rather than solid shapes.

After closely following the videos provided on mosaic, however, along with my own set of experiments, I was able to overcome these obstacles, understanding my mistakes and learning from them, which made the process easier. 

After tireless efforts to fix my previous mistakes, I ended up starting my project anew and liked the results and concepts even better than before.

I began by remaking my 10 concepts with lines, both organic and geometric. Here I had a fun time playing with shapes, widths, curves, and duplicating/flipping. 

For my concepts, I began by measuring my middle finger, creating 10 50mm circles. Using these circles as my base, I created a bunch of shapes among which I implemented things that I am quite fond of, such as the fox, cat, bat wings, butterfly, and sunflower.

I continued by cleaning up my shapes with my newly developed understanding of the trim and split tools, which proved to be quite helpful. This time, I made sure to remember that the key to extrusion is connecting the lines with precision, and getting rid of all intersecting lines.

At long last, my efforts paid off. Once the shapes were clean, my extrusions were successful and created a result that I was quite proud of. I decided to extrude my rings one by one, which granted me further control of the individual width of my rings.

Following my extrusion, I was able to render my shapes all in one go as the assignment suggested. This part I already knew, so it did not cause me any further issues.

Although the hand out called for rings all rendered the same, as a bonus and reward to myself I decided to render my rings in different colours and materials, many for the sake of closer representation of what they are.

Overall, this assignment was a wonderful opportunity. I believe that this experience really helped me improve my ability to overcome obstacles and enhanced my problem-solving skills.

Although the issues I came across were quite unpleasant and caused almost a decrease in interest, finally getting the idea of the program proved to be not only very satisfying but also granted me an enriched hunger for further exploration of Rhino.