Toy Design

1.

the idea of this piece is really simple yet really messes with my brain. because when you see it from a certain angle it looks like a solid sculpture just with a lot of layer but from another angle it just kind of disappears. I judge these projects based on if i will turn around and actually look at the piece if i catch it in the corner of my eyes and this definitely will. 

link here

2. 3. the idea of reverse

I thought really hard how was pic 2 achieved but it’s not the point of it to me, rather it’s the idea of reverse. because normally when we see hand sculptures we normally just see a realistic hand or its print on some clay. this one is none of them — or both of them. it’s concave in terms of the hand’s gesture but also convex in terms of the actual hand on it.

p3 is also a good exicution of the idea of reverse, this time the umbrella shape is formed by the water, which umbrellas generally tend to keep away from us. this reminds me of when the weather is rainy my mood is also down even if i have my unbrella to keep me from the rain — its just like raining on the inside. also how this sculpture looks all lonely in the dark and under the street lamp just amplifies the feeling by just about 100%.

 

4. indication

sometimes an indication is enough. such that the indication itself takeover the event it implies and becomes the main event of the whole show. this reminds me of a youtube video that i saw which was about how a food stylist plate a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich, where there was almost no bread, just a rine that indicates there was, and also the pb&j poured right on top of the table. (I’m doing a terrible job explaining so please do watch the video)

 

5. minimalism+ theraputically de-stressing == my favourite

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/708472585124843537/

I have always been a big fan of any minimalist game that I can just play around mindlessly and be peaceful with my life. I wouldn’t say I would play them all day long but I definitely enjoy them big time.

Part 01: Title and Description

This project is called “Our NYU Shanghai Memory Kit”.

The idea behind this is that during this special time, many of us are not able to return to campus and really miss being there with our friends and access to all the things in there. The target user (or the people I will put my empathy on) is those people who are not able to return, but it could also be used by those who are far away and missing the ab (for example the graduates or the study away students). I want to bring back the memorys of being on campus through a set of objects that I selected and remade from interviewing some of my friends about what place/object do they miss the most in or around the AB. 

Part 02: Project Creative Process

about the definition of empathy: my definition of empathy is really to put yourself into those people’s shoes who you want to empathy with. For me I did specifically asked those people who are not able to return to campus and asked if having this object could release some of their bad emotions of missing being on campus so that I could avoid simply making miniature versions of stuffs in the AB. Also one of the most important parts in this project is the protrait of the Ayi in the background which contains my genuine appreciation of their work which made all these things accessible to the people who returned. without their work none of these could ever be possible. 

about the inspiration: I don’t have any specific inspirations really, what comes closest would be everybody’s wechat moment posting about how they miss being on campus. This idea sort of lived in my subconscious for a long time before I could dig it up and use it in my project.

about reflection: Overall I would say this toy turned out pretty well and is consistent with my expectation.  the cup didn’t work too well because I may have it too thin and the ring on the edge of the cup is not obvious enough for it to resemble the cafe cup, the coloring of the piano wasn’t so pretty because I was using black material to print and white paint to paint the white keys on the keyboard, the paint was too thick and sort of made a mess on the keyboard…… now it only resembles a piano from a distance. the mirror went better than I had expected bc I wasn’t expecting there to be a reflective material that I could use to laser cut (I was genuinely gonna buy a small mirror myself…), using skewers as the lever on the foozball table was quite a good move and it looked very good(I specifically ordered some eleme only for those skewers…), buying the music box and made the Familymart jingle with it was definitely the best move in this project I really liked it.

and future possible developments: I have so many more ideas to further develop this toy. first the cafe cup can be printed with aluminum so it naturally has that metal shine and texture to it (also making it a bit thicker would definitely help…). I could have  designed the inner box a little differently so that it opens on its top face rather than its side which is a bit narrow. Also I forgot to put the wifi simbol on the top right corner of the outer box…… also there could be holders for each piece to sit in while inside the box so that they won’t move all pver the place and bang into each other. I can make a handle on the side or the top for easier carrying around. Final thing is I could make the whole thing a little bit bigger……

Part 03: Documentation

1. sketches and plans:

2. some of the AI files and 3d modeling files and me sitting in the studio questioning my life choices……

(link to all my files (not necessarily final version because I had to adjust them to fit out laser cutting machine) below)

3. skipping the assembling process and into the final pieces and their real life equavelents (my poster)

4. the amazing protrait that my friend created for the Ayis (which I turned into vector graph and engraved onto the box)

 

 

(if you guys want to hear the family mart gingle lol)

Link to some of my files HERE

for project 4 I will mainly use laser cutting, but with things made with 3d printing and sewing here and there. My reasoning is that it is much easier for me to make better and accurate designs on AI and I can use image trace to have better character designs since I’m not a drawer myself. but something else is just more accurate and vivid to make with 3d printing such as te piano and the cafe cup. also the sofa is best made with sewing with some sponge or foam filling.

the plan is:

ai files for all the other little thingd beside the three above, and also ai files for the outer box design which you can see in the lower half of my sketch.

3d modeling of the cup and the piano

sewing plan fot the sofa

Project name: Hail to the DOC

The full three-part story: first part:

Corona virus out break happened, people were hiding in their houses, feeling frightened of being infected. And that’s when DOC chose to stand out, risking his/her own life to save ours. mechanism 1 describes the DOC holding the sanitizer gun, looking “around” the street, trying to locate the virus.

DOC located the virus, who certainly was not prepared for the destiny to cone to its head so darn quickly, fleed like a scared bird. DOC chased it street after street, town after town, before he/she finally managed to wipe the virus out of the existense completely. 

DOC, returned with the virus’s DNA on hand as a trophy and also a method of creating vaccines, became a hero of the world, everybody praised him, everybody respected him, and no more violent medical disturbances happened ever since.

some mechanisms and design details:

p1: elongated cam A

 

p2: double sided bridge that holds the rotating axis

p3: three-holed connecting platform (two side holes for the character, one center hole for axis)

p4: background supporter traingle lol

 

I came up with three different ideas that I haven’t decided which one yet.

first one is based on my final proj for comm lab (which I’m sure Leon has the link to lol) which was a modern interpretation of the seven deadly sins. (for example rage for not being able to kill that one mosquito in a summer night, glutton being the guilty pleasure to buy bubble tea and things like that) this connect with empathy because sometimes we have to stop and think about how these things annoies us in real life and also how much colorful they made our lives. The empathy here is not feeling sorry for ourselves, but rather in a more positive way which is to acknowledge and appreciate these small annoying things in our lives.

The second idea is based on a video by a Minecraft youtuber Mumbo Jumbo. The video is called “50 Most Frustrating Things in Minecraft” which describes 50 things he as a MC player hates the most when playing the game. I want to create this idea in memorial of all the diamond gears we lost in lava and all the different times that we died in the game. The target audience is obviously MC players only but this could really strick them in their deepest soul and remind them of their biggest frustrations playing this game.

The third idea that I have is empathy for those who cannot return to school. I don’t have any inspirations for this one I’m just genuinely missing the feeling of being at the AB and hang with my friends and I’m sure people are feeling the same way as me. So I thought I would creat things that are famous in the ab which people don’t get access to just to bring some of the feeling of being at AB to the toy’s user.

The Ai file of my final version of the toy: (oops .ai type is not supported in the system so here is the google drive link)

Just saying, I ended up with a three-part story using three different mechanics.

Suprisingly even if the engrave works but the service said if I wanted to engrave with larger surface area it will cost so much more. So I ended up just engraved with outlines. A little background actually works very very well in terms of emphasizing the main part of the toy which is the story rather than the mechanics itself. Also I’m very proud with how the character “Doc” looks because I am NO drawer but I ended up with a decent looking comic character. (BTW this character is actually a discarded plan when I was designing my own character so I’m actually suprised I can still find a use for him now)

Ideas for project 03:

Since the situation of Corona Virus is pretty intense right now around the globe, peopla are feeling a bit depressed, so I wanted to make something fun to cheer people up and give my thanks to the medical workers out there risking their lives fighting this pandemic. So this toy basically tells a story of a doctor literally fighting the virus with a gun (of medicinal alcohol) on the street, the basic mechanics is cam B, which can make the doc and the virus both move up and down, which will lok like the doctor is chasing after the virus.

Low poly object:

My project is a version of Hanayama puzzle which is a kind of disassembly puzzles for people to solve. This toy is designed for one of my friends, Nate, who is going through a lot of pressure and workload, to act like a distraction from all his works and relieve some of his stress. I’ll try mail the thing to

him and tell him to record a video for me.

As my post for week 2 mentioned, playing for me is mostly and most importantly for fun. In that post, I also explained how all the readings and videos we did inspired me to form this idea, which masically is: “why is everyone treating play so seriously?”. So, based on the idea of play is play, I interviewed Nate about his work and study life recently and asked him what does he want most under such pressure, he said anything as a distraction would be great. Then he said he really enjoys playing quiz games and solving puzzles which he finds very relieving, so I thought making him this puzzle toy could help him in some way.

Reflection on the toy itself:

First in the designing process, there wasn’t too much trouble because I’m replicating the toy from a video to my sketch paper. But looking at the toy actually working and functioning I was able to replicate it exactly the same onto my sketch. So I would say this was a great way to use my skills.

In terms of how the toy works as a whole I’ll have to update this when the toy actually got delivered to me.

But over all I feel like my toy was a bit simple and straightforward and there are definitely things that I could improve if I had more time such as making some more decorations on top and also I could paint on the printed model to make it look nicer. But afterall it doesn’t affect the whole functionality and the idea of the toy too much so I think this would be it fot this toy’s potential. But I must say that there were certainly more new ideas about other toys that I had which due to the time was not realized. I could have gotten on a whole different route on this. But I guess I’ll just stop here.

Documentation of the process:

the youtube video that I replicated the model from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FKOeYEpDXE

then the sketch I did:

 

The rendered model: 

the video of my friend playing the toy itself, I love how he was not able to take out the last piece lolll

 

 

 

 

 

for this one I had to download a rough shape of an air pod from the internet otherwise I don’t think I’ll ever finish it………..

anyway the model is here.

so I deleted the orignal holes of the eye and mouth because they are not at the correct position. and I bridged the hole together so it looked kinda rough on the places where the original holes used to be. and then I used some cylinders and boolean object and poked the new holes on the places I want. Also I added the little legs on the bottom.

I nearly forgot how to add the texture pack but I did it in the end.

Anyway here is the final product.

(oh also I made him the left airpod because I’m left-handed lolll

Character

Code name: Lost_Airpod_Left

Real name: Lefty

Age: he forgot, he always kept the box he and his twin brother, Righty, came with in their home so that they remember their birthday, now that he is far from home, he couldn’t remember the exact date, but he know he’s pretty young.

Job: use to be playing music with his brother for a guy named Steve, but now his top priority is to get back to home.

Characteristics: He enjoys music of most kinds, but hate those with strong bass drums and loud distorted electric guitars because they give him headache every time he plays them. Luckily Steve was not into those kind of music either. He likes all kinds of animals (that he has ever seen in his life, which includes cats and dogs and no more……) although he is very desparate to return home, he is also kinda excited about the journey because he got to see more cats and dogs. 

AI turn-around:

Sketch