Toy Design and Prototyping

For this assignment, I used Cinema 4D and designed my character for project three. I was trying to get comfortable with using the software. Prior to this assignment, I had never used the software before. So I just tried with every tool in the software and had a basic understanding of the characteristics of each tool. The following image is what I designed using the software. It still looks like a drafted object. Hope I will be more comfortable with using the tool before the printing process. 

• Name: Metis
• Age: 13
• Occupation: student
• Hobbies: Love to read and study
• What makes your character happy: getting A’s 
• Does your character have any super powers: reads extremely fast and can remember everything that she has seen
• What does your character carry in his/her pockets: she always carries a book or two in her pockets
• Description: Metis is a 13 years old girl who lives in a place where everyone in the region believes that their only mission for life is to build strong controlling water abilities. However, Metis does not like that. She does not have any water-controlling capabilities. Her only hobby is reading. Unsurprisingly, she is regarded as a stranger in the town, and no one likes her. 
• Story: People in Metis’ town can use gestures to control water flows. To them, water is more like a tool. Of course, in certain situations, water could also be their weapon. However, Metis, unlike others, do not find this tradition to be much interesting. Instead of following what everyone else does, she falls in love with reading and learning since she was a child. In our words, she is a bookworm. And she is much gifted as well. She reads extremely fast. Maybe a scanner could compete with her. Moreover, she can remember anything she has seen. Either the face of someone or some chapter content she has learned. People in her town view her as a stranger, and all exclude her from the big group. They all think that building up well water controlling abilities is the only thing they should do. Nothing else is on their mind. Learning to read sounds ridiculous to them. None of them could imagine that there is a bigger world out there. As time goes on, their place is no longer suitable for living. So they decided they have to move to another location. Of course, somewhere that has clean water. But which location would be the best for them? They do not even know how big the world is. How can they know how to pick their location? Metis walks up and tells them that she knows where they should go. At first, they did not want to trust her. But they got no other choice. No one else in the town has more exposure to the outside world than Metis. They then decided to give her a chance agreeing that she has to move first and follow afterward. With her knowledge, they then quickly picked a place. 
• Original sketch: 
  • original sketch
• Turnaround:
  • front
  • back
  • Left
  • right
• Kinetic image: 
  • kinetic

This project is designed for my roommate. At the beginning stage of preparing the project, I interviewed her and asked her a couple of questions regarding what she wants to receive in hand at the end. She clearly told me that she wants something that is not sharp. She does not want anything that involves plastic or solid fabric. Moreover, something she could toss around is what she had in mind. So with this round and fluffy shape toy, she could toss it around, and each face of the toy displays an emoji. 

To my current knowledge, the play could bring me happiness and help to escape from stress for a bit. For this specific project, I have learned that play could also incorporate some personal features, such as displaying the owner’s favorite colors on the toy, bringing comfort and joy to the person. At first, when designing a toy, I had the mindset that I have created something that helps the player build up some skills, either body or mind corporation. However, as I move on with the design, I have a new interpretation. Maybe play could be simple joy and enjoyment. Nothing complex is necessary. According to Cas Holman, she prefers not to set up much limitations and directives on her designs. But she still includes interaction between the toy and the player. For my project, I think I mainly focused on letting the player have simple joy. I could have let the player have more interaction with the toy. For example, maybe I could put on patches on each emoji. Then the player could patch on different emojis on each face of the toy. 

Overall, the project turned out to be what I had in mind. However, I am not satisfied with the sewing part. I think some faces did not line up in a perfect line. If I had more time, I would definitely cut out more pieces and sew them again. The most worth mentioning thing I have learned from this project would be how to use the sewing machine. I think after working with the device for a few days. Now I am pretty comfortable with using it. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ljowWVRIxUF5oYNuVZjvTV95LY7EDX1w?usp=sharing

For this exercise, I used the conducting thread and knitted an enclosed path on the fabric. I first knitted and then placed the soft button on the fabric. And then made the thread go around the button. However, that did not work. I then cut the thread at one end of the soft button. Then, started knitting from the other side of the button.