Ronald's Blog

The final Zodiac constellation sign of this project is “Scorpio”. Since I was working on Zbrush for individual parts and had merged all the parts together in Autodesk Maya, modeling the initial design was quite tedious. During my modeling process, I referenced creatures from the movie, “The Mummy 2,” and integrated the body shape of the scorpion creatures into my Scorpio structure. During the modeling process, I also planned to make the arms, legs, and tail detachable in order to ease the moving and transportation process of the large structure itself. Since this was my very last sculpture in this series, I decided to create the largest Pepakura sculpture I have ever done. 2D drawing design:   The final size of the sculpture is measured at 5 feet tall, 9 feet wide, and 9 feet in length. I had designed the socket structure between the arms, legs, upper body, tail, and the main body. So everything can be attached together once its build up. Building process: Size example: ...

I began my work on the Zodiac constellation of Pisces after Virgo and Libra. According to one version of Greek mythology, “this constellation represents a fish which Aphrodite and her son Eros transformed in order to escape the monstrous Typhoon. The two fishes are often depicted tied together with a cord to make sure they do not lose one another.” During the design process, I modeled Pisces after a coelacanth, an ancient fish, and re-topologized the high-poly model as a low-poly wall relief. I also made a connection between the two fishes and painted each fish two different colors to represent the bond between the fishes. I integrated a waffle structure underneath the wall relief for support, as well as to lessen the warping caused by gravity. Concept art: Builds on details: Framing: Epoxy: Coloring: Finishing:

                 On this concept, I had structured two zodiac constellation "Virgo" and "Libra" together as one project since they are related to each other in the Mythology. In Greek mythology, “Virgo is sometimes identified as the virgin goddess Dike, Iustitia or Astraea, and is usually represented as holding the scales of justice in her hand. She is also the daughter of Zeus and Themis and the sister of Pudicitia, or Modesty. Although she went to the heavens due to the evils released from Pandora’s box, she still hopes to return to earth. The scales next to her hand are a representation of “Libra”. She watches over the sky with her scales and hopes that the balance of the world is once again equal so that she can return to earth.”  Using this mythology as inspiration, I created a wall relief to represent Libra, and also created an angel with wings to represent Virgo. During the creation process of Virgo, the structure itself...

    Originally we build the 3D model and send it out to Pepakura program for flat down the 3D model so we can export out to Rhinoceros 5 for laser cutting process. But since we got a Plotter we can totally send it out directly from Pepakura to Plotter  for printout. Question is " How " we set up the UV properly and import the texture in to Pepakura.     In Pepakura, we have ability to layout the UV, which is the same way we lay out the piece as we sliced them in to the table. But first thing is make sure the Table is " Square Size! " This is very important, neither way of the  size of table or the size of the 3D model, but the table must stay on square size. Also you may turn off the flaps so there are are more spaces you can use to fit in the table the way you can figure out that which piece is which Ex: Once its has been layout, File>>Export>>Texture Editing>>Map Image for Texture, by this process you will be export out...

Capricorn is the tenth astrological sign in the Zodiac, originating from the constellation of Capricornus. In astrology, Capricorn is considered an introvert sign, an earth sign, and one of the four cardinal signs. Capricorn is ruled by the planet Saturn. In Sidereal astrology, the sun currently transits the constellation of Capricorn from, approximately, January 15 - February 14. By the Middle Eastern Mythology: The constellation was a symbol of the god Ea. and in the Early Bronze Age marked the winter solstice. He has the lower half of a fish and the head and torso of a goat. The god lived in the ocean. He came out every day to watch over the land, and he returned to the sea every night. (source from: http://www.crystalinks.com/capricorn.html ) At beginning, I was wondering what would be this model look like, so I choose the Middle Eastern's thought and give a search online for reference and practice what can the basic shape be After deciding the base shape, I use "ad...