[#7] Unrolling 3D Forms for Papercraft

As we prepare for our major papercraft project we are learning how to facet and unroll 3D objects in Rhino. This week we were tasked to create at least 10 different forms in 3D and unroll them into paper templates. To help narrow down what I would like to do for the larger project I created some objects that related to potential ideas from my last post. I also created some unrelated objects in order to explore how various shapes will unroll, if at all. 

Simplified Espresso Machine

The first form I created is a very basic shape of an espresso machine. I combined and cut away using solid rectangular boxes. When I tried to unroll the entire combined shape it unrolled in a complicated way with areas overlapping. In order to simplify the potential papercraft process I split the form into two parts. This will make it much easier to print and fold.

Espresso Portafilter

I wanted to try to recreate more of the potential parts of the espresso machine so I attempted a portafilter. I started with the cup part which I created with a solid tube joined to a very short cylinder as a base for the cup. It unrolled easily enough into two pieces. The handle portion proved to be much more difficult. I used sweep with 2 rails to create the funnel shape and appended a half sphere onto the end to create a curved, bulbous end. To see how it would end up unrolling I needed to convert it to a low poly faceted set of shapes. No matter my settings, the shaft of the handle would not unroll in an uncomplicated way. The half sphere looked possible but was likely too complicated to put together unless at a very large scale.

Simplified Espresso Portafilter

Since my other attempt was unsuccessful, I recreated a portafilter with simpler forms. This unrolled much easier.

Coffee Bean Grinder Bowl with Lid

Building on the espresso machine pieces, I created the bowl which sits on top of the espresso machine to hold the coffee beans and dispense them into the grinder. I included a lid for the bowl as well. I have colour coded the lid as blue and the bowl as pink. In the image I am displaying the original object form with the lid sitting on top of the bowl. I have also included the faceted versions of the shapes and the flat surfaces which I separated to get better faceting of the curves. In order to get the exact shapes of the flat surfaces after faceting the curves, I duplicated the inner edges after faceting and turned that edge into a surface. The resulting unfolded shapes look possible to create with paper.

Speaker with Knobs

This speaker is an approximation of one of my desk speakers. The brown represents the wood and the dark grey approximates the fabric speaker cover. I coloured the 3 control knobs on the side in pink so they showed up properly in the image. I started with a rounded rectangle for a side of the speaker, duplicated it to create the opposite side and then lofted between the two, ending by capping the edges. For structural integrity while creating with paper I kept this form mostly solid except the cut in where the knobs are. For the speaker fabric part, I created another rounded rectangle like before but offset it from the first one. I then used the original box to cut away the part of the fabric shape that we didn't need. I removed the inside surfaces from that shape to hollow it out so that it can just sit on top of the main speaker box. I used another rectangle box to cut away the area for the knobs then placed cylinders as knobs inside. When it came to unfolding I ended up having to move some pieces around to avoid overlap and extremely long sections.

Pinball Machine

Moving onto another one of my potential ideas from the last post, I put together a basic pinball machine shape. This one unrolled a little strangely with overlapping  pieces so I had to explode it to better organise the pieces.

Pinball Pull Knob

As an expansion of the pinball idea, I put together a pull knob shape out of a sphere and cylinder shaft. The shaft portion unrolls easily but will need adjusting to properly meet the edge of the sphere. The sphere had to be faceted in order to unroll. This is as simplified as I could go with Rhino's settings and though it unrolls successfully, I don't think it is feasible to actually put together with paper.

Pinball Paddle

Next up is a pinball paddle. I created the paddle shape out of 2D circles and polylines which I lofted and capped. To add the button on top that represents its post, I added a short cylinder on top. This unrolled very smoothly since the curves on it are not compound curves.

Pinball Bumper

This is a representation of a pinball bumper which a pinball bounces off of to collect points. It is created out of 3 shapes. I originally had combined them together but found that unfolding that complex shape was very difficult. To make it much easier to fold, I separated the objects and unrolled them. For the angled portion, I tried both unrolling the original, un-faceted shape and  also a faceted version. They both unrolled to the same shape for the angled portion so I went with the original.

Faceted Jars

For my last object I wanted to play with rotations and angles. I started with a 2D 13-sided polygon, placed a copy of it above it which was rotated 13 degrees. I then lofted between the two, creating angled facets and capping it (purple object). I then created a similar object in the same way except I also tilted the top polygon by 13 degrees to angle the top face before using the loft and cap functions to create the form. Both of these unrolled fairly similarly and don't look too difficult to put together with paper.

Following along with the tutorial videos and testing out similar processes on different shapes helped a lot with how to break forms down into fold-able unrolled templates. I ended up going back to some earlier designs later after I had found easier ways to unroll properly. Breaking things down into sub-shapes and considering how they would attach together was very helpful. I printed off a couple of outlines from unrolled objects to test and see how they come together with papercraft.