Group: An Kitamura, Erika Mino, Jadie Luo, Rodrick Lankford, Sonya Romanenko, Wyen Cai
For our final project, we are creating 3D models of the mascots at Carleton. These mascots have been a part of the experience of living and learning on campus. It is safe to say that even if the names and histories of these mascots are not that well-known among the campus community, almost everyone has seen them at least once during their time at Carleton.
During new student week, incoming freshmen are greeted by upperclassmen dressed up in cow costumes. When dining out, there are pubs and restaurants named after the Northfield slogan, “cows, colleges, and contentment.” At Sayles, students walk in front of the life-size Knight statue, and at the library, they walk past Toff the cat and Oscar the penguin. The more elusive Schiller bust is an ambitious dream that most Carleton students hope to see and hold at least once during their years at Carleton. Stealing and hiding Schiller is such a feat that when the Students Activities Office displayed an ice sculpture of Schiller in front of Sayles during the winter of 2021, students did not hesitate to steal the Schiller ice sculpture.
Despite their presence on campus, the history and backstory of these mascots are not well known. We take them for granted that they belong on our campus and rarely question why they’re here. By creating these models along with the history of how they arrived on campus, we hope to bring more appreciation to these mascots and how they belong to our community. Especially during the time of the pandemic when a lot of students are studying off-campus, we thought it our mission to deliver a part of the campus life to the remote-learning students. These mascots connect the experiences of the students in the past to the current students on campus. By making them available digitally, they can now virtually connect the on-campus students to those not in Northfield.
Here is the link to our website!
Team Mascots,
Your models are really coming along and I am excited to see your project come together. The basic structure of your website is in place, but I have a few suggestions to get you over the finish line in the best shape possible.
First, obviously, you need to finish the remaining models. The ones that are uploaded have shaded mesh models, but do not have their final image textures. Please do build those textures so that your models look as good as possible.
Second, I would encourage you to make those models downloadable so that others can use them digitally or 3D print them. You can do this on Sketchfab which will give you some digital ready versions, but I would also suggest running those exports (obj files for instance) through the netfabb online service to create a printable STL as well. That way you can provide a ready resource for visitors to hack and remix your work, and also reflect more directly on the benefits of taking this digital approach.
Finally, while I love the trial and error page, I would like to see a more detailed discussion of the modeling process using MetaShape pro, highlighting the basic steps and some of the challenges faced and overcome in the process. With these changes you’ll elevate your good work to date to a great project.