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Virtual Clay Turns 3D Modeling into Child's Play
17 Dec, 2009 By: Cyrena Respini-IrwinToy design firm Hot Buttered Elves uses SensAble's FreeForm to create greener decorations for nurseries and children's rooms.
Powerful 3D modeling applications are often put to use in designing the nuts and bolts of life — objects that are essential, but often prosaic. Occasionally, however, the items being modeled are whimsical playthings, and the designers are, well, elves. If this description calls the North Pole to mind, envision someplace a little warmer instead. Hot Buttered Elves is a small Los Angeles company that uses virtual 3D modeling to develop toys and collectibles, sculpt product prototypes, and create special effects for movies and animated characters for games.
The Elves recently designed a new line of dimensional wall decorations for children's rooms using SensAble's FreeForm Modeling Plus system. FreeForm is a touch-enabled, sculptural CAD system that is used to design complex, highly detailed organic shapes for industries ranging from jewelry to dentistry. Unlike traditional mathematical-based modelers, FreeForm is based on voxel technology, which removes the constraints of topology (mathematical definition, geometry format, and order of operation). As a result, it provides unparalleled creative freedom, speed, and flexibility when modeling intricate organic shapes, according to the Elves.
Originally introduced as part of a fundraiser program for children's hospitals, the stick-on wall decorations — called Wallables — have since grown into a diverse line of consumer products. They depict a range of shapes, including letters and licensed characters. The Elves credit the FreeForm modeling system for allowing them to develop the complex designs quickly and cost-effectively.
Virtual Clay
According to Matt Gavlick and Markus Maciel, the two lead Hot Buttered Elves designers who created the Wallables, SensAble’s FreeForm system is a natural fit for any company that has its roots in hand sculpting. Maciel explained that it's easier for a traditional sculptor to transition to the "virtual clay environment" of FreeForm than to other types of CAD programs. "If you're a traditional sculptor," he said, "FreeForm is one of the easiest software programs to use to move yourself into the 3D world ... it's kind of like the stepping stone from hand-sculpting to the digital world.”
FreeForm enables digital sculptors to design with virtual clay by using a PHANTOM haptic device instead of a mouse. As designers push, pull, deform, and extrude virtual clay to sculpt the on-screen 3D model, they actually feel the force feedback on their hand, just as if they were working with real clay.
The PHANTOM haptic device enables users to interact with the FreeForm software as if they were holding a sculpting tool and working with clay.
Digital tool palettes allow users to experiment with form creation, add sculptural details and textures, and make adjustments from the inside of the model. This type of 3D modeling speeds the product design process by allowing sculptors to first create whatever they desire, and then work interactively with the engineers on their team to prepare the model for manufacturing.
One of the Jungle Sweeties Wallables being designed with FreeForm, left, and the finished product after manufacturing, right.
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About the Author: Cyrena Respini-Irwin
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