3D PRINTING
- Identifying The Problem
Our topic for this is to design a toy, and my target is for little children. I choose to design a dog, as i want childen to show more concern and care for dogs. I also like dogs a lot, and I know how dogs look like, so I can design a dog toy.
The problem is that children are buying pets, and especially dogs, without thinking of all the effort that will be needed to take care of the animal. So after some time when the puppy grows bigger and is not so cute, many children don't want to take care of the dog anymore, and they will give it away or throw it away somewhere.
- Research The Need/Problem
In China, 5000 dogs were killed in Seeptember 2014 because the govenment was scared of a sickness from dog will pass to human. If many people give away their dogs, or let them go in the wild, this will make more wild dogs that can become dangerous for people.
So it is important for dog owners to show love for their pet and take care of it for the whole life, and don't throw it away when it is not cute anymore. I will design a dog which the face is kind of pity, to make childen want to have more love for their dogs and take care of them responsibly. The color I choose is white, because white is innocent and pure colour, and the animals are innocent and pure and do not deserve to be abandon by their owners.
- Develop Possible Solutions
I drew 3 different faces with different emotions and different poses of the dog. One is sitting there and looking cute; the second one is in a normal standing position and looking strict, with no face expression; and the last one is like normal standing position with a pitiful face expression.
- Select The Best Possible Solution
I finally choose a pity face one, because i want to let the childen know they need to love and care more about dogs, if not the dog will look pitiful without their love and care. If I used a strict face, children might not like the toy and won't buy it, which will not teach children how to love their pets. If i used a cute face, children might want the toy because it is cute and they won't care about the message which is to take good care of their pets.
Hence, the pitiful face dog is the best design to tell this message to children and make them love and care for their pets better.
- Reflections
I realise after I finish making that I forgot to make tail for the dog, so next time if i can improve the design, I will add a tail to the dog, maybe can have different pattern like normal tail, wagging tail, long tail or short tail. This will make the toy much cuter to children, if not they will ask "Why does this dog toy don't have tail?" and they might not want to buy.
Next, I feel that the 3D printing result is not so good because the size is too small, so next time i will try to print bigger so it is more accurate. Because it is so small, the face is also difficult to see.
To improve the toy, next time i will use sandpaper to make it smoother and closer to what the Computer Aided Design looks like. I can also paint it white, because the 3D printer only prints green which is not so nice. After I paint it white I can also paint on extra features to make it cuter and nicer for little kids, like paint eyes, eyebrows, nose, tongue, and maybe can paint a pattern on the dog body to make it more cute.