Tag: teamwork

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New Ways to Laser Engrave!

 

The laser engraver in the ARC Design Hub can be a learning process to new interns. During the first couple weeks at the design hub we train and teach our interns how to use and/ or the purposes the laser can do for us. We are still new to laser but we always will find new tactics on how we should operate the laser. Either finding the right settings or experimenting on pieces of scrap materials to see how it will turn out. 

What does the laser engraver used for in the ARC Design Hub? What can we make with the laser we have?

Here in the Design Hub we currently are using two laser engravers in the back of room 311. The laser Engraver is used for ton of projects for our clients and personal uses. Designers here at the Design Hub create wonderful projects to help support the hub with their creativity. Just like the Retopo Map blog we did awhile ago, they used the laser for that project. Interns are able to used the laser for personal projects to create unique types of physical merchandise.

What types of merchandise or products can you use to make stuff here in the Hub?

The types you can make in the laser engraver is the following: Sketch book covers, key chains, ornaments, etc.

Let your creativity wonder around the ideas of creating wonderful types of pieces out of any materials like wood and plastic.

Although, It can also be used for educational purposes like making flash cards out of plastic or making pieces for a game board for and educational game.

How does the laser function and how can you get a decent design without it melting or making the design look weird?

Muhannad Abbas, who is very well experienced and excellent with the laser made these templates out of wood and plastic.

The templates shows how the laser reacts to the type of material it touches depending on the shading of the grey is being used. 

 

Too much power on the laser with a really dark color may burn the wood or melt the plastic. With the used of this template the designers are able to understand how the laser works and how much they need to make their projects a success. 

How can people outside of the Design Hub apply or request stuff to get printed?

On the ARC Design Hub Website we have a work request area. This area your able to request projects that our interns can print out for you. Their are examples and a request form to get started!

 

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Rocket Car Competition

On Saturday, October 13,2018, The design hub collaborated with the several students from San Juan High School. Bryan and Stephen and their instructor James participated in this Rocketcar event.

It was located in the football fields behind the pool and gymnasium area.

 

The participants from San Juan High school collaborated with the individuals from the Design Hub including Randy Schuster, Gavin, Kai, Kevin, and Jason. Also Participating in the competition are three ARC Design Hub interns: Justin, Marlo, and Muhammed. They worked on 3D printed designs and Melissa did the soldering.

Since one of our interns Jason who is skilled as a drone pilot, Helped filmed the event aerial style. Jason’s Company , J&S Drone Solutions, was also involved in the event, he flew his own drone!

 

The physics Department ordered this project from Randy, Due to the concern about the the limited aerial flying. Since the airspace around ARC is located so closely to a hospital. Instead, of hosting a drone flying competition. They decided to host a rocketcar competition. Where the main action would be taking place on the ground and not the air. Sean Franklin developed the first  rocketcar over the summer. Competition was hosted to unite the high school and college communities.

The participants received 3D printed trophies to honor their victories!  

Here are the results:

1st  – Steven … Representing San Juan High School … 50 mph
2nd – Bryan … Representing San Juan High School … 48 mph
3rd – Kai … Representing the Design Hub … 20 mph
HM – Gavin … Representing the Design Hub … Well over 50 mph but too low to register on our timer

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Conversion of PLY file to STL

Katrina is an anthropology professor here at ARC. Is doing all 3D printing.

A femur bone, Known from our website if you saw the header.

So we the design hub have built a 3D printer for Prof. Katrina . She is responsible for the Anthropology of printing bones and studying the bones from dig sites.

https://www.britannica.com/animal/tarsier/media/583719/219537

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, ” Tarsier is a primate found in various of islands in Southeast Asia. They look like a lemur and a monkey combined. ” Picture from the site is displayed on the left.

In the Design Hub we have amazing 3D modeling students that can help fix any model that the clients need fixing.

Unlike Engineers who work with numbers, the artists can visualize and make decisions on what something looks like. they are able to look at many references in need if they do struggle in dire situations.

Anthropologists give really good data, which they are able to access a certain software.  This certain type of software is called “Mesh Lab” . Which allows us to access the data we need. Prof. Matt Stoehr and some modeling students were able to arrange the data for the 3D printer. Which she can go ahead and print  what ever she needs.

If there was any mess ups in the scanning process, the artists are able to clean up any screw ups that were left behind.

When Traiser was scanned it came out all pixelated squares. Which was the interesting part of it. But our artists were able to smooth and make the scan look what it should look like.

ARC Intern Chris Porter, A 3D modeler and animation student had worked with her on stuff like this right now.

Femur

Engineers built a long beds so that she was able to print larger scaled bones such as the femurs.

From there she will be able to print any bone, or even huge human femurs. It can even print the entire skeleton!

 

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Beautiful U.N.I.T.E. Masterpiece!

A beautiful masterpiece!

Allen Peterson and U.N.I.T.E. was involve with a certain project. In this particular project, He used the plasma cutter to cut out aluminum shapes to create a unique design made by the Landscape Architecture Class.  The Aluminum shapes is a “mock up” of a plan that the Landscape Architecture Class constructed for a future project. 

Photo & Edit by Angelique Doty

The little metal sculpture will someday be built like posts or fenced around a building. The square bottom part will acted as a fence and the top parts with magnificent design, like birds and trees. It will act to give it a  unique design to help make the area it was located in very attractive!

 

This beautiful piece was created approx. 3 hours in only one day! 

Design Hub’s participation to this project supports the architecture students creativity. The Architecture class needed a miniature variant of the final project to be able to test out the original idea. In a way, They can predict upcoming obstacles or arrangements that may arise in the future.

 

Photo & Edit by Angelique Doty

From a photograph, Allen was able to set it up on a plasma cutter.

Future developments from this project is a metal trophy of a break-dancer for the winner of the Break Dancer Competition for U.N.I.T.E.

Further development from American River College tree logo on April 24 that Allen made.

 

Photo & Edit by Angelique Doty

This project has traveled to a few locations-

Design Hub to the welding location , then back to Design Hub and then off to be displayed at the Architecture Class.  

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Holiday Wars: Battle of the North

Here at the Design Hub, we don’t play games.

We design them!

Brought to us by the creative mind of Design Hub intern Daniel, we have a game that has been slowly brought to fruition titled “Holiday Wars: Battle of the North”. The creative team behind the development of Holiday Wars also consists of 10 Design Hub interns including coders, visual artists, and designers for website management that have collaborated on the project. While at first the goal for the project was for all of the interns to gain experience in making a shipped game for their portfolio, it has evolved into something so much more. “The main goal of the game was to keep it simple, accessible, easy to pick up and play, while still being casually hard to master,” Daniel tells us. He also mentions that the game has had a few different iterations and developments, but it has now evolved into the RTS (Real-Time Strategy) game that it is today.

Inspiration for this game included games such as World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2, and the game’s design aesthetic is very cute and fun, but with a subtle, dark undertone that’s sure to give players chills. 

The game is being designed for publishing on Steam with roughly 9-10 playable levels. As Daniel puts it, it is like chess but without the turns.  Players play as an army of Christmas Elves, commanded by a popular figure like “Santa” or characters like “the Snow Queen”.  While players explore the gorgeous snowy landscape, they come across other characters as well. Enter the Woppletingers-

Woppletinger character design by Daniel Todd

These mythical, beastly creatures were originally designed by Daniel and the Design Hub’s creative team, striking fear and awe into players as they encounter them. Everything players experience in the game was designed on programs including Blender for 3D modeling, Unity for the actual engine of the game, and Photoshop for art and concepts.

 The game, taking place in a chilly terrain surrounded by mountains,  is essentially a giant epic snowball fight between Santa’s Army and the Woppletinger tribe, along with other armies lurking in the cold as they fight for supremacy. While players are gathering resources to build their base, they are producing and controlling an army in hopes to defeat the enemy with the very same objective.  Daniel mentions that both sides are planned to be balanced, so it’s really a matter of skill who determines the victor in a fair environment.

Design Hub intern Daniel, working with team member on Holiday Wars game

Daniel has been working as an intern for the Design Hub for one semester, but has been nursing this project for the last few years. He tells us, “any game project requires a lot of work, and I’ve learned that the hard way over the years.  We couldn’t have done this alone, and I’m happy I met a ton of interns excited about the future of the game, and passionate for game design”.

Amazingly enough, the Design Hub has also actually helped Daniel start up his own company, Phoenix Ready Games. He is graduating this term, and unfortunately leaving the Design Hub,  but he plans to to cooperate with the Design Hub as an external business as he expands into other projects.

He tells us he would love to have this opportunity be available for students in the future; as he would’ve loved to have an opportunity like this when he first started ARC himself. And we at the Hub couldn’t agree more.

All the creativity, collaboration, and hard work from Daniel and his team that went into this game is truly remarkable, and is something that our Design Hub Team is extremely proud of.

Anyone interested in playing the game can send us an email, or keep checking our website and social media pages for updates on the game’s release on Steam. Thank you to everyone involved, and everyone who has supported the game thus far.

 

 As the war rages on, which side will you fight for?