Moogle Nametag

Originally posted at

http://stanfordmakersclub.ning.com/profiles/blogs/moogle-name-tag

I have always played video games, and in the past few years, I have realized that they are an art form like any other.

I started out with a Chocobo, a bird that is ridden like a horse from Final Fantasy, but realized that it would be too complicated to do 3d feathers. Then, I moved on to a Moogle, a cute humanoid creature with wings and a weird ball over their head from Final Fantasy.

To start out, I used a picture of a moogle online:http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iFRPl9EX3Gs/S9ZTdN0oGgI/AAAAAAAAAAM/Q8F5I....

Because I was still getting the hang of the laser cutter, I tried just etching / cutting it out on cardboard, using vinyl for the acrylic glued nose and for the name on its forehead. It looked pretty good.I realized that I would need to make a few touchups to the image for it to work. Since the cord connecting its head to the ball was too thin and fell off, I made that bigger. I also made some of the outlines thicker. To facilitate the snap-fit into the base, I also made its feet more like hooves.The process of cutting acrylic after having the good cardboard version was fairly straightforward. I needed to experiment with different pieces of acrylic because I wanted to use the spare room in a scrap piece rather than having to start a whole new piece. I ended up with some 6mm acrylics, which is thick enough for it to stand on its own even without a base. It also looked very cool to put the cardboard inside of the cut-out vinyl piece. Gluing on the nose with acrylic glue was also fairly straightforward. I tried some dummy pieces, but it was still very surprising how fast it dried.

The last step was to get the base done. My original calculations for the hooves were 3mm tall, so that meant that I needed to use a 3mm piece of acrylic. In order to account for the thickness of the laser, I did a fairly precise subtraction of .011 inches from the height and width of the squares, but because of that, I managed to get the fit tight enough that, with some forcing, it fit perfectly in without having to use any glue.