A proof of concept for building helmet blanks in Rhino using Grasshopper.
For building helmets in Rhino, I start with a closed manually built shape with a defined beltline, dial in the volume in conjunction with the foam thickness and headform, and then start detailing and adding feature lines. This has been a slow process, but critical for the aesthetics and volumes. These closed shapes resemble almonds, so I have called them “Helmonds” and conceived a Grasshopper process to quickly iterate on the shape in real-time. This is the freshly working demonstrator of the latest approach.
Intersections of the volumes with the cutoff surfaces are the defining lines and are hard to know upfront, this roughing tool helps see that quickly. Currently, the profile cutoff surface is static but will be added to the touch control workflow.
OSC Pilot running on a laptop and touchscreen, sending OSC messages over local network to another computer running Grasshopper into Rhino, GHowl plugin.
I think of the helmet structure as layers of an onion, each layer can be different shapes that are cut into and revealed, for example in a bike helmet, or encompass structural and material changes, shells, foam, padding, fit systems, etc. This interface is the first step in describing the shape of a helmet and its layers and manipulating larger sets of controls with minimal inputs. Eventually aiming to tie this structure into a AI system, such as chatGPT. ( note the spelling errors in the UI background as the Dalle system interpreted this project description )
The UI is for an audience of one right now, so just experimenting.
The touch screen and Grasshopper connection is ten-point multitouch, although the system can keep up, I get lost quickly over two or three simultaneous adjustments.
