laser cuts!!!

Just back from the laser cutters. Sorry the images are quite terrible, as i took them on my phone. But i think that the pieces look great:)

I also managed to quickly self learn some corel draw today as there were many issues with importing an adobe file to a printable eps. Little frustrating- but good fun!

aaaggghhhhh

Making the head for the sand filtering rakshasa. (Tisha we need to name them!!!)

This guy turned out to be quite a toughy to make. Template after template. The wire frames kept moving and changing the pattern, as tried to stitch it. And somehow the shape we wanted just wasnt coming.

However, after many tries, finally we got something that we are reasonably happy with.

laser cut on rubber

Initially we tried cutting rubber that was 2.5 mm thick (used in car tires), however, these results weren't very good. The cuts weren't neat.

This is cut into rubber 1.5 mm thick. This thickness worked well. However, we should stay away from very fine designs as the machine melts the rubber, and so the thickness of lines it creates is a lot less accurate.

little creature tags!

Exploring the size and shape and finding the easiest way to depict the function of each.

making a rakshasha

Illustrator specifications for the rakshashas

""""""SPlasH""""""

Air Rakshasas

These guys teach children about air pollution!

They hang on chimes and create music all day. It's a rakshasa with many heads and personalities. The heads are detachable and each has a different activity to do!

Some test pollution visually -turns black where there is more pollution, some with a smoke detector alarm, two of them test the temperature by changing their colour, one is a sun dial!

And these are made with waste textiles!

Really quick sketches for the rakshasas. As they belong to the same series as the water ones, they look a little similar. Sibling Rakshasas if you must!

User test videos

User test

Today we had amazing fun! So we decided to test out the underwater creature costumes we designed. It happened to be Holi today as well, the festival of colours and water games! So perfect timing!

Have a look at the costumes. They're inspired from different underwater creatures and have little horns, spikes, tentacles, eyes like them. Just like how some of the underwater creatures glow, these costumes have parts with reflectors on them! There's a water tank that you strap on like a bag, which keeps collecting water. This is connected to two hose pipes! In the front there are pockets to hold water balloons and sponges. Sponge fights are awesome! The sponges have been cut out in different shapes inspired from underwater life -fish, star, shell!

The slippers are huge to increase the surface area when one jumps over a puddle to splash water! Walking in them is fun as well!

The costumes are made entirely with waste plastic at home. This is a Do It Yourself Product which can be easily constructed by a child at home! They can be creative and make their own creatures according to their preferences!

thinking about the creatures

For the time we had, we realised that we should just focus on bringing in some very simple but fun interactions. We thought of things that would make playing in the rain a safer but more fun.

Initially we decided to include only three mechanisms. One that would collect rain water and then lead it through hose pipes to spray people.

there would also be sponge weapons that could be used to target with wet sploshes.

The third we thought could make jumping in puddles and in the rain fun. This was done using giant feet.

The aesthetics are based loosely on sea creatures. the spikes, the neon highlights, the large strange eyes.

the water creature rain fun

bubble wrap sea monster

shark?

rain costumes!

Rain is fun! from Toy Lab on Vimeo.

quick prototype

Quick prototyping with the costumes to see if it interests children and the observing the playability of the costumes. What sort of interactions which can be incorporated?

water costumes!

The next idea was to create funky rain costumes!

Brainstorming about ALL that one can do with rainwater! Remembering childhood memories- sailing paper boats, jumping on water puddles!

Just about anything to make the experience in the rain more fun!

Jal Rakshashaas!

The Rainwater rakshashas have lurked in the bottoms of oceans since the time of the churning of the ocean. They live hiding between the blackness of rocks, as still as rocks. Some of them have been called back into the light to help save and protect the water of the earth.

Rain Gauge Rakshasha: He is the most sincere and serious about work. He has been made in charge of the jal saving. He stands still, using his gada to collect water. He measures this water. Sometimes when his companions get naughty or arent doing their jobs properly, he spray them with water to wake them up and get them back to work.

functionality: the weapon(gada) can be upturned and fit on top of the head. The straw slides into the bottle. It has markings to gauge the water getting collected. There are little hole on the bottle cap which allow fun spraying from the bottle.

Water Filtering Rakshasha is paranoid about cleanliness. His giant mouth has a special weapon to clean out impurities and non- satvic stuff from the water. After patiently and slowly cleaning the water he gives it to plants or uses it to clean things around the house.

Functionality: The Rakshasa opens it's mouth to let the water flow through a funnel into the bottle. The funnel is filled with sand and it's mouth is covered with muslin cloth/organza, which lets the filtered water seep through.

The water test rakshasha has been assigned to test the waters of the earth. He loves food has an extremely sensitive tongue- he can tell good from bad. When he eats or drinks anything the colour of his tongue changes. By seeing what colour it changes, we can find out whether the water is safe for drinking, or how contaminated it is.

However, this guy is a naughty guy. He easily gets bored of standing in one place and has restlessness- o-mania. He loves eating, and keeps snooping around into other food, fruit, and yummy things too. However his tongue gives him away :P , and he gets sprayed by the rain gauge rakshasha!

Functionality: The creature's head can turned upside down. The crown becomes it's tongue, it's beard becomes it's hair, it's horns become it's tusks. The tongue has a clip which can hold litmus paper to test the acidity of rainwater. The inner portion of it's beard has the colour range of the litmus paper to depict the level of ph.

the filtering rakshasha

making the water rakshashas!

These are the water rakshashas. They were called out from the deepness of the ocean from between the rocks.

We created them from waste rubber tubes and old plastic bottles.

each one had some mechanism attached to it. All three collect rain water. one can measure how much rain water it collects. One has a super sensitive tongue and can check the purity of the water. The third can filter the the water making it suitable for use.