Designing the perfect Jack-O-Lantern using PTC Creo
What do a
PTC Marketing Manager and a Mechanical Engineer using 3D Software have in
common? The answer is Halloween jack-o-lanterns. Ever since I was a
child I have always loved Halloween. The images of ghosts, vampires and
endless piles of orange pumpkins have always been very appealing to me.
Or could it be the candy corn and candy apples? I was excited to see that
3D CAD software users also have an interest in designing Halloween
jack-o-lanterns using PTC Creo.
Can you
build a better Jack-O-Lantern using PTC Creo? We think you can and with fewer seeds.
PTC is
hosting the 3rd Annual Jack-O-Lantern Design Contest so if
you participated last year, start designing your 3D jack-o-lantern design
now. For some of you, this might be your first year to join so Ian
Pilkington, PTC Technical Manager recently provided helpful suggestions for the
PTC Community that will get you started.
Ian’s
Tips and Tricks for designing the perfect jack-o-lantern using PTC Creo:
- Start by using a sweep with a graph-driven profile to generate the ‘segments’ of the pumpkin
- You could use a relation to work out how wide each segment could be so that it can be patterned round into a circle (to form the main bit on the pumpkin.
- Do all of this as a surface and then join all the surface segments together to form a ‘skin’
- Add rounds between each segment
- Solidify the skin into a solid with a relatively large thickness (i.e. as thick as you want to ‘scoop’ it out)
- Model the stalk on the top (Freestyle in PTC Creo would be great!)
- Project a cut into the side of the pumpkin from a sketch (scary face etc etc)
- To render, use one of the standard scenes but change the wall colors to dark or orange type color
- Use an environment light or a skylight to light the externals of the pumpkin
- Assign the color of the pumpkin to be yellow, and the external surfaces orange and green for the stalk. That way it will look orange on the outside whilst the scooped out bit will be yellow. You can play around with reflectivity etc to get the right result. You could also use a pre-set material like stone (but in yellow) to show the outside as a ‘rough’ texture.
- Place an additional light bulb light inside the pumpkin (with color set to yellow) to simulate a candle etc. (you could even model a candle to make it look more effective.
- Set perspective view and you are good to go!
Are you
inspired? Take a look at the great designs from PTC’s 2012
Annual Jack-O-Lantern Contest and 2011.
The
rules:
- PTC Community members are encourages to design the most creative, scary or funny Jack-O-Lantern (In good taste of course).
- You must be logged into the PTC Community to comment or add photos to our submission gallery.
- Post your creation on the following link and the community will vote of their favorite design.
- The contest concludes on November 14th at 12pm noon EST and PTC will review the submissions and select the top 3 designs with that have the most “likes”.
- The three winners will receive PTC swag. The requirement is that all designs must be created using PTC software in order to be considered for eligibility.
If you
have a passion for Halloween, jack-o-lanterns and 3D design take a break and
unleash your creativity. Challenge yourself and win some PTC treats.
Source: http://creo.ptc.com/2013/10/25/designing-the-perfect-jack-o-lantern-using-ptc-creo/
