Project 2 Result!

 *insert video of project working for 30 seconds*


For this project I was inspired by the movie Spirited Away. I really enjoy Ghibli films, and when the project was presented, I thought the cam motion was very impressive, so I wanted to combine these interests into one project. (I also thought it would be good to have an idea from the start of the project, rather than take a week to figure it out haha) The idea behind this project was to take the wave motion created by cams and use it to make it look like a dragon - in this case, Haku from Spirited Away - look like it is flying. During this project, I learned about gear ratios by designing my own gears to slow the motion of the motor down. I also laser cut cams out of balsa wood, made a wooden box for the base, and cut into the box with a drill and a saw. My handmade and homemade object was a sewn dragon made to look like Haku, although he was missing his horns. The biggest difficulty in making this automata was getting the cams to work properly. At first, I made rails with a pool noodle to keep the sticks connecting Haku to the cams on the correct cams, but this did not work. I ended up taking the cam shaft out, removing the pool noodle, and replacing it with the plastic from an old folder to make the cams thicker and smoother. This ultimately worked, with some other adjustments to keep the sticks on the cams rather than just sliding to one side of the box and stalling the motion. If I did this project again, I think I would try 3D printing the cams instead, as that seemed to work for various people. The cams also didn't give me as much of a wave motion as I wanted, so if I were to repeat the project, I would try to stager the height of the cams more. I also wish I had more time to decorate the automata, but I prioritized the function over the sky background, poly-fil clouds, and character standees I wanted to include. However, I am pretty happy with how it turned out and I am proud of myself for getting it to work! I am tempted to try to recreate this project on a larger scale with a smother and more wave-like motion with the cam mechanism.

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