Termite hill like structures - Lamp in progress

Hello guys,

I'm Jasper, student at TU Delft, architecture. I've got to make a lamp and I would like to work with grasshopper to make some 3D printed models.

I'm inspired by termite hill like structures and made clay/wax structures of what I've in my head:

Now the problem is, I've no idea how to make such structures in grasshopper, I was hoping for some instructions how to begin/where to look at/tutorials (I googled on terms like 'grasshopper organic structure' but it's a little overwhelming for beginners like me).

Sorry for my spelling/grammer and thanks in advance!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on September 14, 2013 at 5:09am

What's wrong with the models you made out of clay and wax?

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Tirol, Austria

Permalink Reply by J Stallenberg on September 14, 2013 at 5:14am

Hey David,

With clay and wax I'm limited to the measurements of my fingers and the randomness of how the wax solidifies. I would like to make more complex, controlled forms. Besides, in the end, I would like to print a mold to cast ceramic into. I love the idea of combining new and old fabrication processes.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on September 14, 2013 at 5:32am

I see. The shapes you're after are indeed very organic. That means that certain types of geometry are more suited than others. I think especially Voxels are very good at making shapes like the ones you posted. Unfortunately Rhino and Grasshopper do not support voxels as a primitive geometry type.

The next most suited type of geometry would be meshes. Although Rhino supports meshes, it doesn't provide the kind of organic effects that you might need, although the Weaverbird plugin may be a great help here. Cellular Automata are algorithms designed to operate on voxel spaces, there are some Grasshopper plug-ins for this as well but I do not know them well enough to comment.

Up next: T-Splines. Good for organic smooth shapes, not good for fractal levels of surface detail. I.e. don't use T-Splines to add tiny ripples and dents to a base surface. However they may be useful for creating the base geometry.

Lastly, Nurbs surfaces. Not suited for this at all. The topologies of your shapes mean you have to deal with polysurfaces, and they need to have smooth edges all over. This is very hard to accomplish (and, in fact, it's what T-Splines were invented for).

I think Grasshopper and Rhino are probably not the best tools for this. We simply don't handle organic shapes well and there are lots of other programs that do.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Tirol, Austria

Permalink Reply by J Stallenberg on September 14, 2013 at 6:37am

Thank you for the detailed description!

I think for the first step, T-splines is my best bet. The details will come later, first I've to compose a base, that's why I tought of grasshopper, that way I can make a lot of variants.

Really appreciate the comment, hopefully it will get me closer to my goal!

Permalink Reply by Peter Kompier on September 14, 2013 at 6:10am

Hi Jasper,

Have a look at Clayoo or T-Splines for a solution in Rhino. For clay like "sculpting" look at Modo, Mudbox or better: Z-brush.

Groeten, Peter.

Permalink Reply by J Stallenberg on September 14, 2013 at 6:43am

Hey Peter,

Thanks for the comment! I downloaded the Calyoo trail to look at it but I doubt it is compatible with grasshopper? The clay sculpture programs would be usefull If I had a concrete idea of what I want but I'm not at that point yet, first I need to research what forms/structures I like best.

RSS