- Apr 5, 2013
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Build your own planet
- Thread starter lizzienewell
- Start date
I've held off on posting out of concern that my work is getting repetitive and might be boring as I refine design. Here are the stringers going on. I use a pin as the center of each pentagonal stringer to get them to align correctly. The triangular stringers get sandwiched between arms of adjacent pentagonal stringers.
Here's the completed under structure of the model lit with an LED.
Here is with the inner skin. I may be able to tweak the design further to make the skin slightly smoother. Right now the stringers are 4 layers thick in some places and only 2 in others. I'm going to try making the stringers 2 layers thick everywhere. This will make the profile smoother. I also might try a version with gesso.
Ta-da! Here's what I've been aiming for--triangular pieces of paper which can be drawn on, then removed and scanned for maps of SF worlds. The outer skin goes on with poster putty. It's not perfect but it doesn't need to be. Next, I'll do tectonic plates out of tissue paper and acrylic medium. I hope it works. If all goes well, I hope to do maybe six finished pieces and exhibit them at the SF World-con art show in Kansas this summer. I might do some with glossy layers of pretty acrylic paint. I also hope to hang out at artists' alley. I need to go on line and arrange for lodging.
Here's the completed under structure of the model lit with an LED.
Here is with the inner skin. I may be able to tweak the design further to make the skin slightly smoother. Right now the stringers are 4 layers thick in some places and only 2 in others. I'm going to try making the stringers 2 layers thick everywhere. This will make the profile smoother. I also might try a version with gesso.
Ta-da! Here's what I've been aiming for--triangular pieces of paper which can be drawn on, then removed and scanned for maps of SF worlds. The outer skin goes on with poster putty. It's not perfect but it doesn't need to be. Next, I'll do tectonic plates out of tissue paper and acrylic medium. I hope it works. If all goes well, I hope to do maybe six finished pieces and exhibit them at the SF World-con art show in Kansas this summer. I might do some with glossy layers of pretty acrylic paint. I also hope to hang out at artists' alley. I need to go on line and arrange for lodging.
I like the Star Trek TV shows but haven't seen many of the movies. They seem to rely mostly on action sequences and special effects for interest, but this doesn't interest me, so I wasn't aware of Borg spheres. Following your comment I looked at the images. Borg spheres seem to be structured like traditionally built globes with ribs connecting two poles. I attempted this structure on my first build and was unhappy with the results. Here's the build. It was the first structure which presented itself to my mind. Put in an equator plate and then slot in longitudinal ribs. You can see that the result is lumpy. The ribs are in the wrong places and, if the skin were cut to put seams over the ribs, it would end up with skin sagging at the mid latitudes and not lining up at the poles. The Borg sphere designers seem to have gotten around this problem by locating a cavity at one pole and not showing the other. After this first build, realized that geodesic structure makes more sense. It's stronger and has less distortion since it has twelve vertices instead of two distinct poles. The distortion and error is distributed symmetrically. Geodesic structure more evenly flexible and so stronger with more efficient us of materials. I think my design would make a more realistic Borg sphere. But where's the fun in that? Borg spheres look nicely sinister.
The translucent piece looks like a new version of the Borg sphere.
- Apr 5, 2013
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All of these look great. Some look like they could be worlds, while others look like they could be textured to look like artificial worlds. Genius!!!
Onward. I haven't posted in a awhile for fear you folks will be bored as I refine the design. I'd planned on painting the surface with acrylic or doing decoupage, but I've become fascinated with the structure. Every time I build I think I can do it better: simpler, fewer pieces of paper, easier to put together, cleaner construction. I still think I can cut it down by 10 sheets of paper and get it under 45 sheets. This will cut down on time to build as well. Right now its at 3 stand+10 frame+20 triangle units+1 light mount+12stringers+4 stringer+5 skin=55. I've found I can tape two sheet together to cut two parts at once in some cases. I've been eyeballing Glowforge as a way to get cutting done faster, but I don't want to buy the machine.
Here's the bunch of them. The front in the latest build. I might put a skin on it.
Here the are lit up. I need to order more lights. I also would like to try out a plug in light.
Different exposure.
This is with a second skin held on with poster putty so that the panels can be removed. I need to screw up my nerve and start drawing or painting on the panels.
This is the structure of the most recent. I've worked out the light access door which you can see on the top. It hinges open for battery or light replacement. The joins at the centers of the pentagons will be cleaner in the next go around. They take a bit of size adjustment to adapt to the thickness of the paper used in the interior structure. I suppose I could do it mathematically, but for me it seems to works best if I get in close mathematically then build and tweak the size.
Here's the bunch of them. The front in the latest build. I might put a skin on it.
Here the are lit up. I need to order more lights. I also would like to try out a plug in light.
Different exposure.
This is with a second skin held on with poster putty so that the panels can be removed. I need to screw up my nerve and start drawing or painting on the panels.
This is the structure of the most recent. I've worked out the light access door which you can see on the top. It hinges open for battery or light replacement. The joins at the centers of the pentagons will be cleaner in the next go around. They take a bit of size adjustment to adapt to the thickness of the paper used in the interior structure. I suppose I could do it mathematically, but for me it seems to works best if I get in close mathematically then build and tweak the size.
- Apr 5, 2013
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Lizzie, none of this is boring. I've been waiting to see what you were working on. Looks like you have dialed it in. Kind of reminds me of a Buckminster Fuller geodesic sphere, or "Bucky Ball", yours is smoother, quite an accomplishment on your part, don't you think?
Mine has vertices in the middle of each polygon. Or maybe you get from one to the other by making the Bucky ball pentagons bigger so that hexagons become triangles. I'm delighted with the results. I had a copy of a book about Buckminster Fuller, but I sold it. I didn't think I'd want to reference it again. He had some interesting ideas.Lizzie, none of this is boring. I've been waiting to see what you were working on. Looks like you have dialed it in. Kind of reminds me of a Buckminster Fuller geodesic sphere, or "Bucky Ball", yours is smoother, quite an accomplishment on your part, don't you think?
View attachment 150149
- Apr 5, 2013
- 13,876
- 10,215
- 228
- Apr 5, 2013
- 13,876
- 10,215
- 228
Lizzzie, Would you put some of the pictures, of a larger size, of the spheres that are lit up in the "Renders and Illustrations" section. They are beautiful, and would make great Desktop Backgrounds. Your work astounds me, but in a way, I expect this kind of genius from you. I want the pictures there so they don't get lost in the vast archives of threads we have.
I would love to see you make a "Bucky Ball, with your own twist on it, a tribute to Buckminster Fuller.
If you can see in the above shape, with out the Balls attached, in the pic below, the pattern of six sides, connected to five sides. All the lengths are the same! This is what makes a Bucky Ball so amazing, and is used by the military, observatories, as their basic structure as the can be prefabricated. If all end pieces to connect are the same size, and all lengths are, you just follow the pattern, and you have a Bucky ball. By adding centers to each panel, you can smooth it out ad infinitum.
The picture below shows the 5 sided pattern, you can fill in the 6 sided pattern with your mind, as they share sides obviously with the 5 pattern. Sound right?
I'm putting the map skin over the model using acrylic matte medium in a decoupage technique. I'm going to use gel medium or acrylic molding past to build mountains as actual texture. It right now I'm working with getting the images from Google Earth. This is a challenge. I've placed markers on Google Earth at the vertices of the icosahedron then I save the image and use a Coreldraw powerclip to place it inside the triangular shape. I'm getting too much distortion on the edges. I've tried using lens adjustments in photoshop but I'm still not getting enough correction. I may get better results with Corel Photopaint.
I'd like to know about legalities of copyright and fair usage for these images. I know I'm fine if I use them for myself the problem may come up if I design this model as a kit.
Here are the markers on Africa. The bottom left marker is latitude 60 south, longitude 06 east.
I've added more markers to see it will help with correcting distortion. Red markers are vertices if the icosahedron. Green are the equator. Yellow and green are halfway between the red vertices. I may have to do each of the 80 smaller triangles one at a time to reduce distortion then merge them in Photoshop or Corel PhotoPaint. This view of the Earth always Amazes me with the size of the Pacific, since you can't see much land and you can see about half of the Earth.
I got the first panel wrong because I used zero for polar latitude instead of 90 and put the makers at 30N instead of 60N. This made Greenland too big.
I'd like to know about legalities of copyright and fair usage for these images. I know I'm fine if I use them for myself the problem may come up if I design this model as a kit.
Here are the markers on Africa. The bottom left marker is latitude 60 south, longitude 06 east.
I've added more markers to see it will help with correcting distortion. Red markers are vertices if the icosahedron. Green are the equator. Yellow and green are halfway between the red vertices. I may have to do each of the 80 smaller triangles one at a time to reduce distortion then merge them in Photoshop or Corel PhotoPaint. This view of the Earth always Amazes me with the size of the Pacific, since you can't see much land and you can see about half of the Earth.
I got the first panel wrong because I used zero for polar latitude instead of 90 and put the makers at 30N instead of 60N. This made Greenland too big.
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If it's a government picture, and you are a U.S. citizen, you paid for that pic, so you can use it. You just have to leave the source on the pic, I believe. Your not charging for the pic, you charging for the Ball and putting the "free' pic on it!!! (I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that anything paid for by tax payers is open game).
If you could do a tutorial on how you made those triangles to put on that ball, I would be so appreciative.
(I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that anything paid for by tax payers is open game).If you could do a tutorial on how you made those triangles to put on that ball, I would be so appreciative.
Do you want the tutorial on the shape of the triangles or on placing markers in Google earth to getting the image onto the triangles? With making the triangles it's mostly trial and error with the Coreldraw polygon tool. The globe structure is the hard part. It gives a regular grid for attaching the triangles. But not that I've don't it I think I can do how to get the grid onto an existing globe without building the entire structure.
If it's a government picture, and you are a U.S. citizen, you paid for that pic, so you can use it. You just have to leave the source on the pic, I believe. Your not charging for the pic, you charging for the Ball and putting the "free' pic on it!!!
If you could do a tutorial on how you made those triangles to put on that ball, I would be so appreciative.
THE DC
Highly Esteemed Member
That's magnificent globe in the works!
Given the NASA material available, you could do the whole solar system; even the planet, eh, Pluto!!!
Given the NASA material available, you could do the whole solar system; even the planet, eh, Pluto!!!
I just might do that.That's magnificent globe in the works!
Given the NASA material available, you could do the whole solar system; even the planet, eh, Pluto!!!
... even the planet, eh, Pluto!!!
source: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net...the_Dog.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130714133133
I'd love to see that!
