Chimera 3000: Surrealism and Science Remixed

"One could combine inside the same frame, elements not normally found together to produce illogical and startling effects," - Andre Breton - author of the Surrealist Manifesto. Breton included the idea of startling juxtapositions in his 1924 manifesto, taking it in turn from a 1918 essay by poet Pierre Reverdy, which said: "a juxtaposition of two more or less distant realities. The more the relationship between the two juxtaposed realities is distant and true, the stronger the image will be -- the greater its emotional power and poetic reality."

Openheim's most famous work was the fur lined teacup, or Object in fur produced in 1936 and it remains one of the icons of the Surrealist movement. It provoked the viewer into imagining what the fur lined cup might feel like to drink from and forces the disagreeable sensation on a mixture of the senses. Much of Surrealist work was an echo of everything this piece stands for, a mixture of humor, sexuality and provocation. <

Your next project is to create an Object Remix. This is essentially a remix of an object or living thing. Take two things, create 3D models of them, mash them up to make something new.

I'm a Mog! segment from the intellectual film Spaceballs!

This is Thomas Johnson's piece from Summer 2012.




Monday homework:
Listen to this RadioLab audio program titled (So Called) Life.  It's an hour long. It is about re-mixing life through biological engineering. It should get the ideas flowing.

Here is a link to Geeps which talks about other  hybrid animals. A mule is a hybrid animal after all.

American Museum of Natural History had an exhibit titled Mythic Creatures. It included many creatures which are a mashup of other creatures.

Great Creators Project article about remixing objects. Some excellent links in the article for additional reading. If you aren't familiar with the Creators Project, but sure to spend some time on the site. There is some really great stuff there.

Technical Stuff

Autodesk the maker of the super powerful Maya 3D modeling application also makes a very cool suite of free 3D modeling applications. The suite is called 123D.

123D Catch is an application that allows you to quickly make a 3D model using a series of photographs. You will use 123D Catch to create the first model for your mashup.




In order to create a YouTube video of you 3D model, you have to use the Desktop version of the software on a PC. There is an old PC in the digital lab. You an use it create the YouTube video. Just open up the desktop version of the program, sign in to your Autodesk account, download your model, make the video by setting key frames, and then export it to YouTube. This will require you to create a YouTube account. Once it is hosted on YouTube, making sure that it is shared publicly, copy the embed code for the video and use it to embed the YouTube video on your blog.&nbsp

TinkerCAD

TinkerCAD is a realitively easy to use online 3D modeling application. Wired magazine interview with TinkerCADs founder. You will be using TinkerCAD to mashup your models. Here is a Makerbot tutorial on how to import an object directly from Thingiverse into TinkerCad. The next article in the series explains how to make a mashup using TinkerCAD. **IMPORTANT NOTE** TinkerCAD only works with .STL files!!
TinkerCAD keyboard shortcuts.

MESHLAB is an open-source (meaning that it is totally free to use without any restrictions) application that allows you to do a number of handy things to your 3D models. You may need it to convert a .OBJ file to an .STL file for use with TinkerCAD. You may also need it to simplify a mesh so that it has less than 25,000 polygons which is the largest that TinkerCAD will allow you to work with.

Reduce the number of Polygons in your model

If you get the warning pictured above when trying to import your model into TinkerCAD, then you will need to use MeshLab to simplify it.
Install MeshLab then launch it. Go to File > Import Mesh then select your model.
Then follow the steps in this Shapeways tutorial.  Once you have done so,  go to File > Export Mesh As and choose .STL as show below. I suggest you add something to the name like 'LowPoly' so that you can easily distinguish between the the high and low poly count versions of the mesh.

Here is a rough mashup of a student's head (Jason) captured using AutoDesk's 123D Catch and a model of a sculpture I downloaded from Thingiverse.




This is a mashup of a student's head with a sculpture I made using 123D Sculpt on the iPad.

Sculpting in 3D

You will make your second 3D model using a 3D modeling program that is the digital equivialnt of sculpting.
You can make it using 123D Sculpt (only available on the iPad) or Sculptris which is available for both Mac and PCs for free.  Sculptris is nice as it allows you to import .OBJ files as a starting point. It will then allow you to export an .OBJ of the finished file. (This file must first be converted to a .STL file using MeshLab before attempting to open it in TinkerCAD. While in Meshlab, be sure to check if the model has too many faces. If it does reduce the number of faces before exporting the model as a .STL file).

If you use 123D Sculpt, in order to get your model onto your computer, you have to save it to the 123D Gallery. Then access it through the MyCorner feature of the web app on a computer. If you are going to work on it using TinkerCAD, download the .STL file. If you are going to work on it using Sculptris, then download the .OBJ file.

OPTIONAL MATERIAL THAT YOU MAY FIND OF INTEREST

Here is a nice Instructables article about how to use 123D Catch in conjunction with Mesh Mixer to create a 3D print ready model easily printable on a MakerBot.This article is a little dated now as you can now make the object 'watertight' (without any holes in it) using the online tools in 123D Catch.
Here is an article that tells you how to modify a mesh into a creature using the tools in MeshMixer. When MeshMixer works, it's awesome, but it is really buggy with a difficult user interface

Here is an Instructables article about using 123D Catch and other programs to make a figurine of someone!

Here is an Intructables article about how to add a 3D model of your face to another 3D model! It requires the use of Blender though. Next semester, i will be teaching a course on 3D modeling and animation. We will use Blender in that class.