Stage 1 - 3D Scan

The 30cm high Plasticine bunny was sculpted by the artist Kat Black, half of the VJzoo partnership, as a scale model of the final 2.5m high translucent plastic street-scape lighting. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts as getting CAD models made that properly represented their vision, VJzoo asked headus for help. Our first step was to 3D scan the Plasticine model, creating a perfect copy of the sculpted piece, including all of the hand-made defects and bumps.

 

Stage 2 - Remodeling Split Line

Because the final 2.5m high plastic lights were going to be manufactured using a Roto moulding process, a flat split line was required. Using PlyEdit, we could easily preview the existing split line for a 2 piece mold and found a few undercuts too (see green circled areas on left). Using PlyEdit's sculpting tools, we remodeled the surface to flatten out the split line and remove any undercuts. The only significant change required was a fattened elbow (green circle on right).

 

Stage 3 - NURBS Surfacing

Once the final shaping was approved by VJzoo, the next step was to use CySlice to fit a NURBS surface to the scan data for the production of the moulds via CNC machining. VJzoo requested that the hand-made bumps and defects be smoothed out to a degree, so we elected to fit a relatively light density surface to the more detailed scan data. Picking up all of that detail though would have been a simple matter of increasing the NURBS surface density in CySlice.

One Completed Bunny

Here's a photo of one the Roto moulded bunny lights alongside Kat. You can find them installed outside the Key City Worker apartments, 111-133 Goderich Street, East Perth.