Design Process
1. Identify the Need or Problem
The need for this project is to create a 3d printed toy design for the children age of 5 to 8. The design has to fit my target audience which are the children. More specifically, my target audience would mostly be boys, so I would need to create toys that suit for boys such as a toy car or a toy plane. As my target audience would be boys, I will have to use the colours that the most boys like such as blue or green.
I have organized my thoughts with a mind map shown above. There are three different types of toys and colours for my final choices. My choice for different types of toy are car, rocket or a plane; and for colors, I will pick either blue, green or black because those three are the colors that the most young boys like. This is just a brief summary of the design process for my 3D Printed Toy.I will show more details of the actual process of my toy design from resarches.
2. Research the Need or Problem
I have looked at some examples of the 3D printed toy designs of these three most popular toys: rocket, plane and car which are already made. As I know that I will be creating a prototype of the design which does not involve lots of details, I thought that a plane or a car are a bit advanced and complex when building a shape with sketch up and make it as a 3D printed model, because as I said, prototypes can’t show all the details, but as I have looked at different kinds of models, cars and planes are very hard to be made as a 3d printed toy without details. Therefore I decided rocket as my final decision of the 3D Printed toy.
After I have decided my toy as a rocket, I researched other 3d printed rockets to get the idea and make a rough sketch of the design. As I researched, I found out that there are actually many 3d printed rockets that are already made and there were few different types. From getting insipiration and thoughts through different types of researches, I could easily devlop the possible soultions of my design .
3. Develop Possible Solutions
These are the sketches of my design for the 3d printed toy. First image on the left side is my original plan. I tried building up the first design with the sketch-up and I found that there are not enough tools that fits the shape that I drew such as the wings because of the round shapes it has. As creating a prototype with my first design, I found it hard to make the perfect shape that looks similar to my design. Hence, I redesigned with the second sketch which is the second image on the right side. It has more sharper shapes than the first one which is much easier to design with the sketch up. After I changed my plan, I could finish designing my prototype much faster than the first time because I could find the tools that could make the shape that I drew. Therefore, I chose the second sketch as my final solution because it is much easier and simpler to design and build up on the sketch up.
4. Communicate the Solution
These are the images of my final prototype that I have created by using Google Sketch-up. Most tough part for me when creating this prototype was to adjust the size for each parts on every sides. As this was my first time using google sketch up as well as first time to make a prototype, I learnt lots of things and many different tools on sketch-up. I personally had hard time zooming in and out to add another shape on top of it, however I think it turned out pretty well overall.
5. Redesign
If I were to redesign this prototype, I would definitely add more details because although prototypes can’t include lots of details, mine had too less details. I also want to make it much simpler because although this is within very less details, the shape itself is very complicated, so next time I want to make sure to make it simple as it’s just a prototype.
Sources
[1] Top Toys for Kids of All Ages - Best Toys for Kids: Fat Brain Toys. Web. 8th, Novewmber, 2014.
<https://www.fatbraintoys.com/toys/toys_by_ages/ages.cfm>
[2] 3D Printing Isn't A Rocket Science Anymore: Deelip.com. Web. 8th, November, 2014.
<http://www.deelip.com/?p=8510>
[3] Retro Space Rocket - 3D Scenery & Landscape Tools for Cinema 4D: 3D Scenery Landscape Tools for Cinema 4D. Web.9th, November, 2014.
<http://c4depot.com/c4d_models/model-collections/ballistics/rocket/>
[4] Kids space + rocket craft ideas + planes: Pinterest. Web. 9th, November, 2014.
<http://www.pinterest.com/sammijjohno/kids-space-rocket-craft-ideas-planes/>
After this unit...
I have learned certain things from this unit such as how to use the Sketch-up. That was the big part of this project, which we used to build the 3d toy. Because it was my first time using sketch-up, I had many mistakes while using the program. However from many other's help, I got to complete my final model for the toy and got used to the sketch-up. Nex time, I will try to put more details into the sketches and make as simple as it could be on the sketch-up.