Behind the Scenes #3: RGB Light Modulation

'Floss Cascade'? 'Swivel Pipe'? 'Russian Nesting Cubes'? Who named these things?!

Welcome to yet another Behind the Scenes look at one of our many Foundation 2-D Design projects. We'll be taking a look at the planning that went into the RGB Light Modulation Project - more specifically, the planning that went into making the 3-D model, rather than the composition itself.

What have we got here?

To begin the outlining of this project, I began to brainstorm some paper layering techniques that would look visually interesting when light was applied to the surface. Many of these ideas relied on cutting shaped holes our of various pieces of paper, and then separating these sheets into layers to create the lighting effect. After planning 10 different elements I wanted to add to the model, I began to mock up a bird's eye view of the model in the bottom left corner of the page. I tried to pick my favorite elements from my list of 10, and then tried to place them across the board in an appealing way. As a final precursor, this model did require a bit of math, especially when it came to lining up a visual element that I called 'The Circle Spiral', which consisted of a series of receding circles whose radii decreases as they get further away from the viewer, and are arranged in a spiraling pattern as they recede in space. When it came to aligning the centers of these circles, this is where the majority of the number crunching took place.