Presentation

So I didn't have time to finish the model to make it look the way I wanted it to look. Mostly because I feel asleep last night, but we manage with what we had.

Overall it was a good presentation, here is a render of the model after I did some simple texture for it during class.

Next time I will try to finish my homework first before I go to sleep.

That's all, thanks for reading.

New Trash Can

So after presenting our many ideas we had for a new trash can, we talked about which features would be more realistic and which would be possible. So we decided to create one final version.

Dan Turchenko sketched out the idea over the weekend and emailed them to me so that I could make a "prototype" of our new trash can in Maya.

I'm still working on the model, but I can probably say that it's about 75% done at this point.

I still need to put in a few more details and whatnot, but I should have it ready before class tomorrow.

Also, if I have time I'll a really simple texture to the model so it's not all grey.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.

Sketches for Homework 1

So here are the sketches that I made for Homework 1.

They illustrate the design enhancements that I talked about in my earlier post.

This trash can has wheels made of plastic.

My design would replace the plastic wheels with rubber & metal.

This illustrates my idea about putting a heavier base.

The trash can is almost completely made out of plastic which tends to brake after a while.

This design would replace the fragile parts with metal to make the trash can last longer.

One last thing that we can also do is change the design of the trash can from round to square to fit more garbage.

That's it, thanks for reading.

Homework 1

So for my group we were tasked with looking at the trash can and see what we can improve in terms of design.

I have to be honest, at first I didn't really see much stuff that we could work with as far as redesigning a trash can. But I think that we have a few areas to work with.

This is what I've found so far:

1. After a while, the trash can's wheels can fall off. This makes it so its hard to move the trash can around or the owner has to buy another from the city.
2. They are not heavy enough, even when they have trash in them. This can sometimes lead to a trash can tipping over and scatter the contents everywhere. 
3. The lid tends to break.
4. They have to remain cost effective.

So most of what I've mentioned can be solved by just making the trash cans out of a heavier/more durable material., but that would increase productions cots.

So I think that the best solution is to try and make only some of the parts out of a better material. This might increase production cost just a bit, but in the long run a trash can would be able to last longer.

Maybe instead of having plastic wheels, we could add rubber and metal for the wheels. Maybe we can also add metal to where the lid moves to open and close.

And for the last thing, that trash cans tend to tip over, we can try to re design the look and shape of the container. Right now they are round and even most of the time. We can maybe try and make them a little wider at the bottom so that they have a better base.

But what I was thinking instead is why not build a separate compartment underneath where it would be full of sand. The compartment wouldn't have to be very big, just big enough to hold a few pounds of sand so that its heavier at the bottom. We would be able to make up for the lost room by extending the trash cans to make up for the room.

This would also make it so that the current garbage trucks wouldn't have to be re-worked to be able to pick up a new container instead of the current one.

The weight of the components wouldn't make it heavy enough that people with back problems wouldn't be able to move them, and it would solve all of the problems that we have with current trash cans.

I will also try to scan my sketches to illustrate what I'm talking about.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.