Daniel Drecun’s Story

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Daniel Drecun

Research & Concept

Letterforms are an interesting art-form that simultaneously has strict rules but is still very customizable. Different fonts or styles can impact the way a letter is perceived by a viewer. Certain textures and lines might express a tone like playfulness through bubble letters on a children’s game, or a more antique feeling can be portrayed through script-handwriting letterforms. Working with letterforms is an art because the whole challenge is expressing what you want creatively while still maintaining traditional letter standards.

Glyph 1: Capital A

Capital A is a very symmetrical letter in most instances which makes it a little more constricting because whatever is changed on the left side will most likely have to be mirrored onto the right. I chose this letter because my middle initial is A and coincidentally, my girlfriends name starts with A in case I don’t have money to get her a gift.

Glyph 2: X

X is the most under-represented letter in our alphabet. It is seen in a lot of commercials for products with flashy names that appeal to kids. I chose this one because I love an underdog story. Theres a lot of surface area to X so I feel like I have a good bit of space to work with creatively.

Iterations

A

My first iteration attempt was on the letter A. I looked at the sketch in the bottom right and I thought of ring toss and I’ve been meaning to play ring toss recently, so why not center it around my middle initial? I think I made a pretty fun whimsical decision with this. I need to print this one out to see how big I should make the ring; I’m not a professional ring tosser. I tried Shapr3D for this one but my hands are so shaky it made it hard.

X

My second iteration was the letter X. My sketches for this one were pretty uninspired so I looked at the one in the bottom right, played around with it and tried to translate it into 3D. They almost look like puzzle pieces being put together. I think I did an alright job but I’m going to try drawing something new in Shapr3D because I feel pretty limited with Tinkercad and I think this letter has potential.

Final Prints

I had a very rough time dealing with my final prints. I tried to print my ring toss A twice before but they ended up turning into spaghetti right near the end. I think I just got unlucky because on my third print it came out beautifully. The only thing I changed from the initial design was increasing the size of the triangle hole in the center.

My X print came out wonderfully and I love the design of it. I thought it was a weak entry at first but I really like the way it looks and it was very satisfying to rip the supports off and be left with such clean lines.

Shapr3D First Models

Posted on April 6, 2021 by Daniel Drecun

Bracket

My first step for the model was to draw with lines in a 2D workspace which I would then make a closed shape to stretch out the model with. This was repeated for a lot of the pieces on this model. The whole process was a lot of making shapes that I would extrude out, then fillet all the rough edges to make them rounded and smooth. This was the first model I had ever done and it looked extremely complicated at first. The guide made it really easy to follow along because he split everything into manageable parts. I learned a lot about the fillet tool which came in handy for the second model.

Bench

I followed the bench tutorial from Shapr3D for this one. I drew out a couple 2D lines, which I would link together and manually type in the angle of separation. I learned how to use the tangent tool to link the corners with rounded edges. After that, I used the offset tool to expand the line I originally drew, and connected that original with the offset line at the bottom, making a closed shape which I could stretch into a 3D model. I made some handles and filleted all of the sharp edges. At the end I decided to use the same colors as in the video.

3D Scan

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Daniel Drecun

I didn’t even know that 3D scanning was something that existed before starting this project. I didn’t know how the technology worked or what to use to do the scan itself. It was even more interesting to learn that I can do it at home using my front camera. The process of scanning wasn’t the smoothest sailing because it took a lot of trial and error to get it right and there were still certain annoying imperfections but overall my scan came out well.

Below are some screenshots of my original scan.

Here is the model in Tinkercad.

In hindsight, I wish I had taken off my mask for the scan.

I finally got into the 3Space lab to plug the STL file into the 3D printer. While looking at my scanned model, I noticed a lot of inconsistencies in the bottom so I decided to put myself on a base of sorts in Tinkercad.

I have no idea what happened.

Daniel’s Self Expression

Posted on March 16, 2021 by Daniel Drecun

Research and Concept

Most toothbrush holders are very basic looking. They’re either a big cup or a rectangle with a couple holes to separate toothbrushes. They could use more personality that could make it more playful such as incorporating the toothbrush into the design. Even turning the design of the holder into something like a cactus would make it more delightful to look at.

This leads directly into my concept; I wanted to design a toothbrush holder that would have different arms holding the toothbrushes. The inspiration for my design was a cactus I saw online, which inspired me to make two big and tall arms that would be just the right size for a toothbrush to stand up straight. Not only does this look whimsical, but it prevents the heads of toothbrushes from touching each other, making it functional as well. The center cup could either hold a tube of toothpaste or other things like eyebrow razors or normal razors. I also added a funny face to give it more personality.

Iterations

Below is the model I constructed on Tinkercad.

I used shapes for the nose and eyebrows. Holes were used for the arms, cup, mouth, and eyes.

I tried to get my model as close to the concept sketch as I could. I was having a hard time with measurements and I miscalculated the scale of the object by a pretty decent margin. I tried to make a second print of the same model that was significantly larger and sturdier but something went wrong and the entire print was unrecognizable. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get another one done in time.

I think I’m on the right track with this design. Like I stated before, I need to up the scale a good bit so that I can fit toothbrushes in their designated spots. I also need to make the arms connecting the toothbrush holders to the cup thicker and maybe even cylindrical because it doesn’t look so much like a cactus. It doesn’t help that it’s yellow. Otherwise, it’s still accomplishing the goal that a toothbrush holder is supposed to accomplish. I’m able to put the things I use regularly in it but it would be nice if I could put my toothpaste in the center with my toothbrush and maybe my razor in the arms.

Final Print and Reflection

My biggest problem prior to this print was my lack of direction. My previous attempt looked like a robot but was inspired by a cactus and it wasnt pretty. The last one was also tiny. I overcompensated in Tinkercad to the point where I had to scale the whole model down in Cura just to print it.

Thanks to feedback, I decided to make its teeth look more prominent and have the body and arms be squared off. It was a pretty decent struggle for me to make a toothbrush holder that looked like a robot. I didn’t want it to be too boring but I didn’t want it to be too detailed because the point is for it to be whimsical. I increased the size of it by a lot. Instead of the center hole being only for the toothpaste, I made it so that it would fit multiple things. If I didn’t live in a house with four other people, I would probably use this to hold my stuff; it’s pretty convenient.

3D SVG

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Daniel Drecun

I decided to make my design something simple that wasn’t a generic smiley face. I’m not very good at using Illustrator so I just decided to toy around and see if this looks cool at all.

SVG in Adobe Illustrator

SVG in Tinkercad

Daniel Drecun’s Form|Function

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Daniel Drecun

The Thingiverse object that I chose was a cable organizer created by user @tjmck. It’s designed to hold larger cables such as ethernet or phone cords. I chose this design because it was something that I personally need, but I think I could improve upon the design. I’d want to make it more friendly for smaller wires.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:282474

To improve upon the original design, I’d want the object to be able to hold wires of any size without any external means. I created “clips” so that I could stick the wires in without them coming back out unless I lifted the clips.I didn’t like that it was just a circle and I’d want to be able to stick the organizer on a desk or something else so I can easily access the wires if I needed to so I created a base for it. I thought the waves would limit the amount of cables I could put in too much so I decided to keep the compartments in a line.

F|F Iterations

Original Object: This cable organizer, created by Thingiverse user @tjmck, is designed in a circle shape with wavy patterns on the inside with the intention on holding different size cables.

Below is a video of how the print is supposed to be used.

My First Iteration: I decided that since the original had trouble with keeping the wires in place and not having enough size variation for different cable thicknesses, I should try to address those issues. Below is what I came up with.

The intentions I had behind this design included slipping the wires underneath the wedges so that once the wire was in there, it wouldn’t move. I made the base flat so that way I could tape it down to a surface instead of leaving it hanging. I tried to give each of the spaces different sizes to allow for varied wire sizes. Below is what the print looked like in real life.

Unfortunately something went wrong during the beginning of the print but it sorted itself out afterwards. I think if I had made a base it wouldn’t have came out so strange. I was surprised by the durability of the plastic when I was bending it to insert wires. I accomplished the goal of having the wires stay inside the organizer. I regret making so many compartments though, as it took away space that I could’ve used to make less of them but bigger. I didn’t accomplish my goal of being able to hold larger wires so I’ll try to improve that design again in the future.

My Second and Final Iteration: Since the first iteration that I printed was affected by some printer issues, I used a different printer this time to avoid that happening again. I made some very slight changes to the first iteration. I deleted one of the wire compartments so that I could make space for compartments that would allow for thicker wires to be inserted. I also increased the infill density from 20% to 40% to make sure that it was stronger and wouldn’t snap if a wire was shoved in there.

This model did the job I wanted it to do perfectly. I unfortunately don’t have any wires thick enough to demonstrate the bottom portion, but the rest of the compartments work perfectly. The wires slip into the side with just a little effort and stay there unless they’re pulled out. Thanks to the wedge shapes, it’s easy to pull them out as well. My biggest concern with this entire build was that it would snap into pieces but after applying more force with my fingers than it would ever need to deal with, I’m confident that this is quite a strong bit of plastic, and I will definitely be using it next time I move my things around.

Daniel Drecun’s First 3D Print

Posted on February 5, 2021 by Daniel Drecun

This Thursday, I had the opportunity to do my first 3D print since middle school and it was pretty neat. I printed the JMU cube partially because everyone else did, but mostly because I didn’t know how long some of the things I saved on Thingiverse would take. After my cube finished printing I got a general idea on how long a similar sized object might take which will definitely help in the future. I kept getting distracted because I had a really fun time watching the printer do it’s thing. I wish the filament I used hadn’t been grey though. It still looked cool and it was a million times better than the dice I made in middle school that broke immediately.

The .stl file was created by @mathgrrl on Thingiverse

Hi, I’m Dan Drecun

Posted on January 22, 2021 by Daniel Drecun

I’m a 20 year old from Alexandria, VA with a concentration in Creative Advertising. A big part of my life consists of making and listening to music. I got started at a very young age and it stuck with me forever. When I’m not working on school stuff or cooking up some fire in the studio, I like to spend time with my friends or roommates (COVID-safe) and I also like to cook and clean things. I also love to drive around aimlessly a LOT; I just replaced my old car with something that doesn’t break down every month and it’s insane how much my quality of life improved.