For the first week, our assignment was to design our idea for what our final project will be. We were meant to use different 2D and 3D techniques to model our idea. This took me a bit of time, since I wasn't quite sure what I should do for the final project. I wanted it to be related to wearable technology, but wasn't quite sure. I also was not quite sure how much I would actually be able to accomplish by the end of the semester, since I was expecting to struggle a lot in all of the weeks. So, I didn't want to plan for something over ambitious and then fail miserably.

In the end, I came up with a dress that changes length according to different input signals. At the beginning of the semester, I wasn't sure what input signals I wanted. In the end, I have chosen to work with an accelerometer, since I wanted it to be disney themed. So, after seeing how much of a struggle it is for the princesses to run in their dress, I chose to have the dress lift while the wearer is running. Although, this may not seem super useful, it seems like a good way to incorporate a lot of the assignments from different weeks. Due to my own personal tastes, I am hoping to make the dress similar to those popular in the 50s. The dress design is to be hopefully strapless and then have lace over the skirt section. I am hoping to keep a nice blue for the color.

For the assignment, I attempted to make a 2D design in both Photoshop (shown above on the left) and Illustrator (shown above on the right). I had never before used photoshop, this was a huge struggle for me. I couldn't figure out where anything was, and spent the majority of my time googling how to get simple things to work. In the end, I figured out how to make a pictures background white, which allowed me to add lace to my design. Although I thought I would do better in Illustrator, this was a lie. I had used it in my summer internship to create the figures for my research paper. But it turns out that had involved a lot of making squares and aligning things, which meant I didn't really know how to make a dress. I was able to figure it out (A lot easier than I did for photoshop). Though the pictures show that I am clearly not an expert.... But I am proud since that took me a long time.

For the 3D design, I used Fusion 360. Again, I had come into this super confident since I was able to create a lot of parts required for my research. However, it turns out that creating a human body is extremely difficult in 3D modelling. For this reason, I tried downloading a model that I could then use to create my dress. The three images shown above are the model that I downloaded.

The three images above show my attempt at creating a dress in Fusion 360. Sadly, even with the model, this was an really, really, REALLY difficult task. I couldn't find a way to use the model since it was an stl file and couldn't be converted for Fusion due to its complexity and size. So I tried finding a way to cut the shape into other parts, but that also didn't work. In the end, I went into the sketch path, and followed the curves for the sides and front. From there, I made flat sheets that followed those curves, and was finally able to combine all of the 4 sheets into a solid design. For this reason, the front and side view do have the proper curves. Although the proper curves are shown, the 3D model still looks very boxly, so I'm not too proud, but it is ok.

I also tried learning how to use Blender and Unity to make more figures. However, this was too hard to get done in the week. I googled for hours on end, but couldn't get anything even remotely working. Over the rest of the semester, I have improved my skills in Fusion 360 and Illustrator, however, I still haven't been able to get a great dress. Although, I did learn that using an actual mouse is SSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than using the mousepad on a laptop.