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A I RALGORITHMIC SKETCHBOOK

TIANYAO LIU · 582160 · STUDIO 7 · SEMESTER 1 2014

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CONTENT

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WEEK 1 04

WEEK 2 08

WEEK 3 10

WEEK 4 14

WEEK 5 18

WEEK 6 22

NTP 26

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WEEK 01

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The Grasshopper exercise introduces a series of basic commands, and especially focuses on lofting.

This command allows to generate a surface following a set of particular curves which are drawn in Rhino. I have had experience in using the command in Rhino itself to create a lofted surface, but unlike what I have done before, Grasshopper automatically records the history and the surface alters by every change that is made on curves. In Rhino command, when lofting the curves, an extra notice of the arrow shown is taking to make sure that all curves are lofted in the same direction. In Grasshopper, however the lofting direction is simply determined by the order in which the tabs are connected.

In order to add variation onto the surface, a series of extrude commands were tested. I firstly took Extrude-Point, which generates a number of core shapes along the point defined in Rhino. And then the final out-come is done by using the ExtrudeCurve command, which copies the surface in the direction of the curve defined with a extruded connection to the origin.

Grasshopper Definitaion

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WEEK 02

This week’s Grasshopper exercise introduces sections and contours.

Taking the AA project as the example, the online tutorial demostrates how to interrupt one surface with an-other surface to create a bonus effect. Technically I did not successfully create the demonstrated effect as my offset curves were always bending backwards. And as a result, I ended up to be manipulating with the extruded surface, not the original loft surface.

However, even though the result is unsatisfactory, the techniques of using vectors and meshes from this week’s videos are still helpful. Especially for the vector demonstration exercise, it explains to me how vectors could be combined through the process of breaking down and reforming, hence further helps me in under-standing the mathematics beyond grasshopper.

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Grasshopper Definitaion

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WEEK 03

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Grasshopper Definitaion

The Grasshopper technique of this week mainly focuses on the division and rebuilt the curves and the task is set to create a grid shell along a number of curves by using those commands.

The curves are divided to obtain series of points and then are interpolated for connection in between those curves to create forms.

This inspires me of turning one surface into sub surfaces without losing the original shape and might be useful when I consider designing a shed or other similar semi-enclosed spaces for my later project.

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WEEK 04Spiring

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WEEK 05

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WEEK 06TREE MENU

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FRONT VIEWTOP VIEW

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NTPGraph Mapper+Voronoi

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By doing simulations from B2 and B3, I have felt quite familiar with the basic menu of Kangaroo and spring force. Therefore I decided to take the graph mapper exercise instead of kangaroo exercises listed under NTP files, to construct a similar pattern to the week 6 outcomes I have done.

Instead of constructing polylines from tree data, in this case, the points deconstructed from the surface are used to make a Voronoi pattern, which is additionally shaped alone the curves built by Graph map-per.

This ends up to be a more flower-like outcome, where the previous week’s exercise is more geometric because of the polylines. To me, this method seems to have more potential as the pattern can be easily adjusted by changing either the slider input or the graph.