For my project I used the Grapics3D function to model Garfield in Mathematica. I started with the head and body which are both ellipsoids, and I then labeled them as fig1 and fig2 respectively. This allowed me to plug the figures into the show function and display them together, overlapping in a way that demonstrates Garfield’s shape. I was able to repeat this process successfully with a couple other body parts such as the ears and feet, however I ran into difficulties as more figures were added into the brackets of the show function. The struggle came with plotting smaller ellipsoids such as the nose and eyes, and the other shapes I used forthe legs and tail. I was able to get the shape I wanted with these figures, however when I inserted the figures into the show brackets they would appear on the wrong parts of the body. What I did to fix this was I inserted xshift, yshift, and zshift into each entry that I was having trouble placing on the final body and was then able to toggle back and forth between values of x, y, and z until the figure was in the desired position.
The reason I chose to graph Garfield is because I think it connects animation to calculus that is often not thought about. I wanted to learn more about digital rendering through this processand the project demonstrated how difficult the process is, especially with the amount of detail expected from viewers in animation. Garfield is a relatively simple character and still I wasn’t able to get all of the details onto my final project that I had hoped such as the black stripes on his back, his pupils, or a half ellipsoid for his ears. Despite this, I still like the way my final Grapics3D image turned out because I feel that even though my rendering is simplistic, it still captures the defining features of the character well.
