This week I've started to focus on the overall body of the mouse. Using some tools that I've not used before. These are the surface tools in Solidworks, which allow for the creation of faces with no mass.
The approach so far has been to create completely curved surfaces from traced splines. The first step was laying out photographs of the mouse which were taken from a fair distance to reduce any perspective distortion. I used a camera with a 50x zoom lens which I borrowed. It worked a treat I Think. Once they were imported into Solidworks I began tracing important features
First up was the gray area through the centre, just because it looks fun. I started with a couple of splines that follow the side profile of the gray band, then followed with outlines from the top view and also the bottom. The bottom outline is just the overall outline of the mouse.
Using the outlines and the profile lines, I projected curves in 3D space that could then be used as surface loft guides. There are also some splines which arm from the top and bottom of the gray band which serve as the loft's profile.
The bottom chamfer of the mouse was next up. This way I could use the top and bottom curves of the chamfer and gray bands respectively to create the middle section. The same process is repeated through the rest of the model as it stands for now.
This is the middle section...
To evaluate my model, I've used the Curvature and Zebra Stripes tools. The Curvature tool shows the rate at which curves change. If the colours indicate a smooth transition between curves, the part will look sleek, if not it will look like a boring bunch of polygons. The Zebra Stripes tool shows how the light would reflect around the object. Very fun to play with.
Finally, just because renders are fun, this is what it looks like so far...
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