Rookie Mistakes: Learning to 3D Model

As an introduction to Autodesk Fusion, I chose to 3D model an LDC mug. As simple as that may sound, this was not an easy task to accomplish. Here’s how it went!

Initial stages of creation:

Adding the handle:

Hollowing out the center:

Adding fillets:

Final product:

Reflections:

Creating the body of the mug made me feel like a 3D modeling pro. It was simple to create the cylindrical shape and hollowing out the center was also a fairly simple task. Since we learned how to use fillets in class, rounding the edges was also intuitive for me.

I struggled the most to create the handle of the mug. I knew what shape I wanted to make, but I was very unfamiliar with the more complex operations of the software. I ended up creating a sketch of a curved path, and then constructing a new plane perpendicular to that path. This is my biggest tip for beginners: feel free to create your own planes! There’s no need to stick to boring old X, Y, and Z. On that plane, I created a circle with a diameter of how thick I wanted the handle to be. Then, I extruded that circle along the path I made, which formed the body of the handle.

Another issue I came across was text wrapping. I experimented a little bit with adding text to the mug to replicate one of my favorite mugs. However, I really struggled to find the correct plane to put the text on, and when I did, the text wouldn’t wrap to fit the curved shape of the mug. After some troubleshooting, I still couldn’t quite figure out how to make it look right, so I settled for a plain white mug for now. This issue was definitely the biggest compromise I had to make throughout my work. In the future, I want to learn more about the text feature and how I can use visual design elements to make my mug more interesting.

One way 3D modeling could be very impactful for the field of digital humanities and research could be for museum exhibits. It could be useful for interactive displays and public engagement, as well as for the education of researchers. If displays are created using modeling software, it means that research can easily be shared across the world, which also creates ease of accessibility for collaborative projects.