I.Love.Sketch

Amazing 3D software based on freehand sketching!

Rendering Clinic

Recently attended a D&T clinic conducted by one of my NIE lectureres, Mr Jason Tan.
One of the techniques I would wish to learn is how to render using tablet PC and software, as demonstrated expertly by Mr Jason.

In the meantime, I will make do with pencil and paper :)

Took my watch to practise my sketching and rendering.

Step 1: Sketch using pencil
Step 2: Outline using felt pen, erase pencil marks
Step 3: Render using coloured pencils

2008 Project Highlights

The Sec 2 "Light" Theme project has thrown up interesting outcomes, varying from Photoholder, Clock, to Containers and Light Night.

The Sec 3 Moving Toys project also saw students applying their knowledge of mechanisms to create unexpected outcomes. These designs were evolved from a standard wooden base that is used to teach basic woodworking techniques.

Design of Strida - Folding Bike with Triangular Frame

MAS Design - www.strida.com

Objectified

Movie premiering in 2009.
Wonder if it will make it to the consumer movie market...

Synopsis (visit the website here):

Objectified is a feature-length independent documentary about industrial design. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It’s about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them.

Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?

Future By Design

Movie Synopsis:

Future by Design shares the life and far-reaching vision of Jacque Fresco, considered by many to be a modern day Da Vinci. Peer to Einstein and Buckminster Fuller, Jacque is a self-taught futurist who describes himself most often as a "generalist" or multi-disciplinarian -- a student of many inter-related fields. He is a prolific inventor, having spent his entire life (he is now 90 years old) conceiving of and devising inventions on various scales which entail the use of innovative technology. As a futurist, Jacque is not only a conceptualist and a theoretician, but he is also an engineer and a designer.

Shape Borrowing: Architecture

Shape borrowing in action!

Looking at the architecture of these luxury hotels, what are the original objects you are reminded of?

Isometric Java Sketchpad

A very nifty tool for practising isometric drawing.
http://www.mathsnet.net/geometry/solid/isometric/index.html

Orthographic Projection

Understanding what is first and third angle orthographic projection.

Overview : http://metal.brightcookie.com/2_draw/draw_t3/htm/draw3_2_3.htm
First Angle : http://metal.brightcookie.com/2_draw/draw_t3/htm/draw3_2_4.htm
Third Angle : http://metal.brightcookie.com/2_draw/draw_t3/htm/draw3_2_5.htm

Mechanisms: Moving Toys

Wonderful interactive website to teach the common mechanisms.
Includes a game for you to try building machines :)

http://www.mystery-productions.com/hyper/Hypermedia_2003/Muirhead/website/main.htm


Watch videos of moving toys "museum".
http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/toys/moving_toys/index.html
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1482_moving_toys/toys_bband.htm

Woodworking Resources

Currently, I am teaching my sec3 class on basic woodworking techniques.
The struggle I have internally is that nobody uses handtools to cut and shape anymore.
All the nicely finished products we see out there in the market are all machine cut.
Eventually, most of them will be machine cutting their projects once they hit N or O levels.

While I am teaching them the foundations, I also need to prepare them for the real world out there where we are training them not to be manual workers, but machine-trained skilled craftsmen.

But no school can afford 40 pieces of woodworking machines such that each student can practise on his own. It's not practical! So handtools will still be around to "occupy" the students...

Dilemma. It's a fine line to tread between idealism and practicability!

Anyway, some good woodworking resources:
www.getwoodworking.com
woodworking.about.com
www.woodworking.com
www.insidewoodworking.com

Shape Borrowing: Fractals

Shape borrowing is an ideation technique to "steal" the form of an existing structure as a trigger point for further manipulation.

How about using fractals as the source of shape borrowing?

Fractals occur in the natural world. Snowflakes is one of these fractal structures. What makes them more pretty is that no snowflake is unique! The wonders of Creation!

Trying this Java Fractal Generator as a tool for your ideation process.

Simple Machines

Try this flash quiz to see if you can identify the mechanical components.

Gears: A Puzzle Game

Try this out and learn something about gears.

ThinkerToys

Good reference book for ideation.

Lighting Devices Image Board Resources

Some resources you can look through.
You can google for "stock photo" to find websites that carry photos.

http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/lighting-devices.html
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?text=lighting+device&action=file
http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?sortby=popular&search_group=photos&searchterm=lighting+devices

The Force Behind Star Wars: Turning Design Ideas into Reality

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