J. Willard Marriott Library Blog | VR Pottery: From the Virtual to the Tangible

Feb 09, 2022 VR Pottery: From the Virtual to the Tangible

Posted at 17:06h in Creativity & Innovation Services by Justin 0 Comments

1 Like

By Tony Sams

As an undergraduate working on my BFA in Fine Arts, my first, and only, ceramics course brought tears to my eyes. While I enjoyed the tactile feel of wet clay, my struggles with “the wheel of misfortune” became personal and tortured me throughout the semester. Fast forward, many years, I once again have found myself at the mercy of the wheel. This time, it’s virtual.

Giving a tour for VR Services, I offered up an off-the-cuff response to a student about how VR might be applied to a ceramics major. I threw it out there, “as a ceramics major you can create virtual pottery and then export the model and print it here in Protospace” I have tried many VR applications that allow the user to visually design & create 3D art, including virtual pottery wheels, so I just assumed it was possible. I took it to task to find a pottery-specific application that would allow the user to virtually “throw” a pot and then export a printable file to output to our 3D printing service.

Yaddi, yaddi, yadda…Dojagi: The Korean Pottery. The app is the only one I found that allowed me to export an .OBJ file. Dojagi is available on Steam for $14.99 or in the Oculus store for $29.99 (https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1709774229054709/). The app gamifies the creation process by rewarding the user with trophies and virtual currency to purchase better tools, colors, etc. The models you create are saved to a cloud source where you can download them. The exported models are nearly ready for print, the user just needs to select the scale and a few other minor tweaks.

Given my past experience with pottery. I sat on this project before taking the plunge. Producing a tangible object from a virtual creation was worth it. If you want to give it a try, I am more than happy to help you discover VR pottery and then help you print it.

Tony Sams | New Media Projects Specialist
Creativity & Innovation Services
tony.sams@utah.edu