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Week 12 - Project 3 continue & final week

Project 3

This week we continue doing project 3 and it is the last week of this semester. I had some problems while building the model. It’s a bit regretful for me to use 5mm foam core because it is hard to cut smoothly and precisely. 

The good thing about this model is that I feel I make it pretty cute. Also, I used sand paper to sand the edges of it, which was a good way to improve a bit.

What I dislike is that cutting the curves and every time when I cut it, it’s easy to break it.

Final week 

After 13 weeks studying, I learnt new skills to use AutoCAD, photoshop and bridge. It was like a huge challenge for me. I still remembered at the beginning of this course, I struggled a lot of using these softwares. But for now, it gets better and better.

I reckon my favourite and most hated project is Project 2: Rendering. It took so long to get the effect I wanted and I did not even know how to trace the outline in a effective way at that time. But, it was still a chance for me to analyse an object logically. Considering about the direction of light, texture of material and so many things. This will be a precious experience for me in the future’s project.

Besides, project 1&3 were both good for learning AutoCAD and an opportunity to learn variety of methods of measurement. I am so happy with learning these new stuff.

If I had another chance to redo all the stuff, I would be well prepared and get organised for my work.

I really appreciate all the help from Robert, Max and Will, also my classmates.

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Week 11 - Project 3 Measurement

This week we’re given a new project to measure an object and build a bare-bone model of it. It is tricky to take a proper item with me to the class, so initially I picked my coffee kettle with me. But after considering the time (so many assignments need to be done in last week), I changed my item to a spray bottle.

We learnt many different ways to measure an item during the studio, many of my classmates decided to use bamboo skewers to trace the outline. But this method did not seem like the best method for me, so I used spray adhesive to trace the shape of my object.

Measuring tools I’ve used:

Masking tape, Black A2 paper, spray adhesive, tracing paper, steel ruler, Vernier.

The reason led me to develop this technique is I could not work with bamboo skewers. I wanted to use a simple but accurate way to trace the most accurate outline if possible. I tried to use flour firstly, but it did not go well. Therefore, I decided to use a A2 black paper to set as background, and spray adhesive on it.

Steps:

1.     I used masking tape to cover the surface of my spray to protect it and easy to write one it.

2.     Put it on the a2 black paper, spray it with adhesive (constantly).

3.     Take item off and use tracing paper to record the outline.

4.     Trace the front view, side view and bottom of it.

5.     Divide it into two symmetrical parts first (roughly symmetrical) and then break them into sections horizontally.

(I divided it into 11 sections for the main body by using 15mm space between, and I was going to use 5mm thick foam core)

6.     After breaking them into sections, I used Vernier to measure each part of them.

For now, I am still not figure out how to put this into AutoCAD. But I am happy with the method I’m using. It’s a shame I could not put plenty of time on just 1 project. Hope I could make it delicate :)

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Week 10 - Sketching with Tom Skeehan

This week we had two classes joined with Tom Skeehan, which was an amazing experience. I checked his website before the lecture, all the furnitures designed by him was so impressive. Wood & modern design. Also, his free hand sketching was pretty good. Therefore, I expected to learn some from his lecture.

What went well / what did I have difficulty with?

Tom suggested us to use ball pen to do this exercise, but I did not have one at the moment. I used pencil to finish this exercise, which was not that tidy and clean. 

I initially had trouble with 2 point perspective, because I was unable to imagine 3D form in my mind. But after couple of practise, I could draw quicker. 

What did I enjoy / dislike?

I quite like these exercises, especially drawing lines. Just like what Tom said, the more you practise, the better you can do, it’s all about getting familiar with it. Your body, your muscles, your hand, your mind. I reckon beautiful free hand sketch take long time to achieve and it is worthy.

I would like to spend more time on my free hand sketch.

Also, Tom talked about how a product been produced by his studio, from sketches to a product, it needs to cooperate with many people. All his experience, how these affect him, these are all valuable to learn.

What were some of the key things I learnt, or insights which I developed?

For the last two projects, I was struggled with my bad software skills. I felt anxious while doing them because I wanted it to be perfect. But everything takes time, I need to be patient and accept my shortage. 

Do more practise and keep going, it could be better.

Overall, I enjoy this experience so much. : )

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Week 9 - Presentation

What did you do well and what would you do differently next time?

Overall, I am quite happy with today’s presentation. I heard some fantastic ideas and learned some new techniques from my classmates (such as doing overlay layers to create some textures). Besides, this is the first presentation I’ve done for this course. I initially reckon we suppose to selling this product and describe how and why to choose this product, but before the studio I realize I was wrong. Therefore, it was a bit stressful and nervous for me to give a proper presentation.

Were you adequately prepared?

Definitely not! I actually changed my idea from Dyson’s fan to this single drip pot, so I only got very limited time to finish this. Unfortunately, I put much efforts on rendering, which made me run out of time to do a better research poster & fluent presentation.

Did you speak clearly and articulately?

For my main idea (like how I decided to go with this product), I reckon I did speak very clearly about it, but I am not sure whether my voice was too loud?

How was your body language?

I do use body language to demonstrate while doing the presentation and indicated some specific areas to show what I mean as well. If I am going to rate it, I will give it 4/5. 

How did you feel before / after the presentation?

Before doing the presentation, I was quite nervous because I was not well prepared. I kept thinking what I suppose to say for the presentation. But while doing it, it was such an enjoyable process, I actually could speak more fluent that I imagine. But I regret that I forgot some ideas I really would like to say. For example, I would like to talk more about “the story” between me and this single drip, because I really like the design and combination of wood and stainless steel for more than half a year. (It’s a product selling on a coffee equipment website, but it’s a bit not necessary for me at the moment)

After the presentation, I felt relax and knew the insufficient part of my presentation and hope to improve it next time! (also after rendering it, I truly want to buy it due to its textures)

Was your support material effective / helpful?

It depends on how good your supportive board is. For mine, I did not think it is helpful, there was only one image could demonstrate how to use this single drip and selling the feeling & lifestyle by using this single drip. If I could get enough preparation, it will help audience and tutor understand more about how I create this.

What did you do well and what would you do differently next time?

Do well list:

-             Communicate my ideas with audience

-             Speak clearly (personal feeling)

-             Demonstrate main ideas of my presentation (what I’ve done, some tools I used)

-             Fluent? (not enough)

Do differently:

-             Well prepared (think in a logical way and analysis the content I am going to introduce)

-             More eye contact with audience

-             Speak confidently

It’s a great opportunity to see so much delicate works from my classmates.

(Here is a small mistake about text)

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Week 8 - Photography

This week we were given chance to take pics around the campus and improve it by using camera raw and Photoshop. Honestly, I was so happy to hear that because I am always passionate about photography and enjoy taking great pictures with nice proportion! But actually I am more familiar with film camera and instant camera or improving pics from mobile phone apps (snapseed, Vscocam), which was a bit challenge for me to deal with this task. We got only 1 hour to look around the campus and take pictures, which gave me some pressure! (want to shoot some cool stuff)

What went well / what did I have difficulty with?

Even though excellent photos are recognisable by everyone, I reckon photograph is still like a personal thing. It relates to photographer’s aesthetics and the way of his/her thinking. In this task, I felt being limited by time because I did not have enough time to have a look around the whole campus. Sometimes, it takes time to consider the angle of shooting or height, so that’s like a difficulty for me.

But, I did get some pretty good pics (I do like them). Also, a good frame or a pic need to be taken as fast as you can. (If there was a bird flying, you want to take a pic, you have to do it as fast as you could to capture that view!)

What did I enjoy / dislike?

I enjoy editing photos by using different tools, especially you can tell the difference between these two directly! Also, I learned how to use bridge to check all your photos.

I dislike using laptop to edit photos because I am not familiar with using masks in camera raw L I need to get more practice with it.

What would I do differently if I had my time again?

If I could have another chance, I would like to use more time to observe the movement of things, to capture the best moment as I can!

·       What were some of the key things I learnt, or insights which I developed?

-        Using bridge/camera Raw

-        Getting familiar with Photoshop in a different way (not rendering)

-        Develop the way of thinking and observing things (e.g. perspective view)

In short, posting photos on Instagram was a great activity, which we could see the great work done by others and some may give some suggestions from it.

#picture 1

#Picture 2

#Picture 3

#Picture 4

#Picture 5

#Product photo

I choose my favourite coffee cup as the model of product photo. 

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Week 6 - Photoshop Rendering

Troubles with software never stop for me. I still remember last time when we doing the AutoCAD task, it took me so long to get familiar with it. This time I got the same problem. I was so frustrated at the beginning and did not want to do it because I could not even trace the outline beautifully. Then I read the tutorial again and again, also I asked help form couple of classmates. Thanks for teaching me to use pen and covert tool, set up layers and etc. with huge patient.

I reckon software for me is a huge challenge and eventually I am excited to beat this task ：)

What went well / what did I have difficulty with? Why?

Cleaning up the image is the easiest part for me, especially Robert showed us on lecture before. Therefore, I think I am fine with my line work.

Difficulties:

No clue the relationship between each layer at the beginning

(When I drag paper down, it turns to completely black)

Initially, couldn’t use pen tool in an effective way (too much anchor point)

Hard to imagine reflection and highlight while editing light and dark layers

What did I enjoy / dislike? Why?

I enjoyed how eventually I made it and the process of learning a new skill and get familiar with it.

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Week 5 - More drawing with CAD.

This time, using AutoCAD is not as hard as the first time I use it. I tried to practice more by using keyboard operation rather than using mouse. Doing this program took me about 2-3h because I made some mistakes. I believe later on I could be more confident with using this software.

 What did I do well?

 This task asked us to use AS1100 standard to draw the lines, so I decided to make a template for myself and it will be easier to use next time. Also, I was getting familiar with using tools like move and copy (two tools I used most in this task) and it helped to save a lot of time.

 What did I not do well?

 I got trouble with construction lines first, because last time I finished building all the construction lines before doing the outlines. Therefore, it took me a long time to think the layout and I made a huge mistake: the lines were not parallel, which then I spent more time on fix this error.

 Another thing that I did not do well was set up printing. I did not know how to set up A2 paper to make this drawing fit to entire A2 paper. Either it will be big for the paper, or small for the paper. Then I tried to change all the setting scales and it finally could fit the paper perfectly.

(wrong one) 

What did I enjoy?

 Compared with last project, I can feel my progress directly. Planning the layout and thinking 3d model in my mind become easier and more confident for me. The most enjoyable thing is using move and copy tools… I don’t know why, but I really think they are the best tools ever… (maybe save time and easy to operation?) Also, learning how to use trim is beneficial to draw the curves (prefer to use trim not fillet…)

 The loveliest moment is to label texts!!! (It means I finish drawing…)

 Overall, building a template is really helpful. (no need to setup again, building layers with different colours is really annoying) I need to form a habit to save my drawing all the times (nearly lost my drawing when there was a bug).

(I made a mistake here by putting the wrong dimension number and later I fixed it :( ) 

(right one :)

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Week 4 - Drawing with CAD

·     What went well in this project?

 Actually, I feel like nothing goes well in this project L, especially the beginning of this project.

 ·     What did I have difficulty with?

 There are plenty things I could talk about difficulty!

 Firstly, I did not finish watching all the tutorials on Lynda (more like majority). That was bad for me, because I really did not know how to use AutoCAD at all.

Second, after watching these videos and ask help from my friend, I knew the basic skills of using this software. Even I learned how to use different tools, it was still hard for operating with my keyboard and took me like 1h to get familiar with it.

Labelling measurements was another problem for me, it happened to my hand drawing as well! Therefore, I was not sure whether my measurements for this project was correct.

  ·     What would I do differently if I had my time again? Why?

 If possible, I will watch all of these tutorial videos first and do more exercises! That can help me save plenty of time during drawing!

 Overall, this project is like a giant challenge for me, a very beginner of AutoCAD. I enjoy the process of learning new stuff from this experience and realise some drawbacks of my study habits. Meanwhile, I would like to rethink the way of posting my blog because there are some truly nice bloggers in our class. Hope next week I could get improved!

(BTW, my AutoCAD LT does not respond all the times, does anyone have same problem? cuz I finished this task by using AutoCAD 2017 )

step 1: border and construction lines

Step 2: Hidden lines (to help locate some points)

Step 3: draw the outlines

Step 4: measurements

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Week 3 - Cross sections & Dimensions

For this time, set up and planning my drawing got quicker than the last week. I understood how important the planning would be and used less time to make sure my view was at the right position. 

This week I enjoyed a lot about drawing process, because that was a direct way to feel I got improved on every aspect of hand drawing, such as making less mistakes on planning. Meanwhile, I learnt the right way to label date, like put them at the right place (showed on my paper). 

But I felt it was difficult to use T-square in an effective way, so for the next task, I’d like to get more familiar with using T-square. Other problems I had, included drawing the section view and right side view.

For the right side view, I was confused which lines should be put on my drawing and hard to have a 3D view in my mind. Also, drawing the section view became tough for me because this was the first time to draw a section view and I suffered same problem as I drew right side view: no 3D view in my mind. I would like to develop that kind of skills in the future. 

Last, inking was still a problem for me even I learnt how to not make it blotchy, it was still need more practice.

Overall, it was a great experience and my progress helped me to build confidence on my hand drawing.

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Week 2 Studio Tutorial- Multi View Orthogonal Projection 

 When I first began to draw this project, I was totally confused about everything, even didn’t know how to start it. Then, Clement and I discussed about it for a while and then asked help from Will. Will taught us to draw from three views: top view first, then side view and last front view. After getting this method, i planned how to draw these views with couple of sketches. Then I started my top view with measuring 60° and drawing a 30mm radius circle. Drawing a top view is what actually I am good at(because it is like primary school work😂). Later, Max and Will helped us more about how to using construction lines that benefited us with direct using it instead of measuring. I was struggled about the connection between side view and front view and Tim was so nice to teach me patiently. 👻that I eventually finished it!! For tast2, I chose my computer translater as the model. I can felt that this time I could draw it quicker after mastering the method of using these construction lines! In short, small progress makes things better! I can draw better than week 1 and thanks for these lovely help.

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Week 1 Studio I've never done any sketching activities before, so this task was like a challenge for me. There were couple of problems that l had in this task. First, I actually did not know how to use compass properly. Then, Max came and taught me the right way to use it. Next, when I started to draw the second figure, I had no ideas about drawing those curves. Big thank you to Oliver: He taught me how to use circle template to draw the curves. At that time, it was nearly the end of the class. I began to draw the next part, the pattern. At first, I only knew to draw it individually, but then Oliver told me a quick way to draw all of these patterns and cut them down. I didn't finish all these tasks during the class, so I brought them back and finished them at home. It was an amazing experience to think, to try, to ask for help from others. I'm not good at drawing, sketching these kind of skills, but I hope can get improved by the end of this semester.

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Intro

Hi, guys. I'm Yutong Zhang and you can call me Daisy. I was inspired by some vintage furnitures and that made me decide to learn industrial design.

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“Pale daydreams” pink aesthetic by @lonely-wandering