Tuesday, July 29, 2014

3D Printed Nomadic Fungus Hits The Streets

3d printing nomadic fungi
Sprouting from the back windshield of a 1978 Monte Carlo, this Nomadic Fungus is Batman black, with mouse ears and a large blunt lobster claw that reaches over the front hood in eager pursuit of it's next host. There's no doubt this muscle car can burn some rubber and lay down some serious spores.

nomadic fungus 3d print
This union of fungus and machine is the result of a collaboration between NFI and the 3d rapid prototyping company SculptCAD. It's a 3D resin print that stands 8"x 3"x 10" tall.

It will be on display at the Rapid 2014 conference in Detroit as part of the SculptCAD Rapid Artists program. Big thank you to SculptCAD for this opportunity and to their fantastic staff for all the help in getting this project done.


Tuesday, July 22, 2014

3D Nomadic Fungus Ready For Printing Part 3

Nomadic Fungus
The Nomadic Fungi Institute has been working with SculptCAD on a 3D computer print of the NFI logo. This week, after some quality tweaking and back up support from the SculptCAD staff the NFI sculpture was sent to the printer.

Nomadic Fungi
The digital sculpture was printed in a semi opaque white plastic resin with overall dimensions about
8"x 3"x 10" tall. The NFI team sanded it smooth as seen in the photo above and applied the first of several coats of semigloss black lacquer .


Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Generating a Computer Printed Nomadic Fungus Part 2


Nomadic Fungus 3d printing
As previously reported, the Nomadic Fungi Institute has been very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in the SculptCAD Rapid Artists program. With the help of the staff at SculptCAD we are creating a sculptural print of the NFI logo.

Using the Freeform surface modeling software and the heavily dog eared copy of How to Generate a 3D Model manual, we spent the afternoon carving away bits and bites, slowly turning our digital potato into a 1978 Monte Carlo and then attaching a Nomadic Fungus to the back windshield. 

Nomadic Fungi sculpture
To help clearify the design, our friends at Studio Six Art Conservation created a small oil clay model, seen in the foreground. This really helped to visualize the digital construction of the 3D model.

Next week, we delve into technical tweaks such as shelling, sizing and refining the surface.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Collaboration On A 3D Print

Nomadic Fungus
It's a bit outside the Nomadic Fungi Institute's area of focus, but when offered the chance to transform the NFI logo into a computer printed sculpture we decided to jump at the chance.

The 3D sculpting company SculptCAD has been sponsoring the SculptCAD Rapid Artists program since 2010. Each year they collaborate with a handful of artists to create sculptures utilizing rapid prototyping and 3D printing.  Once printed and finished by the artist, the sculptures are exhibited at the national Rapid Conference.

Nomadic Fungi Institute
The first step in the process was to create a pile of drawings using old fashion pencil and paper. Our goal was to translate the NFI logo into a sculpture that is quickly readable and can be understood even by those who are not familiar with Nomadic Fungi.

Nomadic Fungus
The next step was to head down to the SculptCAD studio and dive into the world of 3D modeling. Fortunately the Freeform software is structured more like Photoshop and less like the number heavy AutoCAD programs, so within moments the computer screen was covered in melon balls and cheese doodles.