Chess Game Pieces

Software / Tools / Machines

• Onshape

• Blender

• Textures (Various)

• OptiX Denoiser

 

The Process

With this project, I wanted to create an accurate representation of a commercial chess set. However, the chess set should be unique to a certain theme that reflected me. I chose to have an engineering theme for the pieces, which ended up specializing towards mechanical engineering more than others. Some other requirements I had on the final product were:

 

• The following six pieces should be included in the chess set: King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, and Pawn.

• Each piece should have a consistent theme or design.

• The design of each chess piece should be easily identifiable.

• Size and measurements are critical factors to consider.

 

As such, the sizing was critical for me to be accurate if I wanted this to be commercially standard, I also designed the game board.
 

Firstly, I did research on chess rule standards and equivalent chess board/piece dimensions and aesthetic. Next, I conceptualized ideas and sketches until I decided upon the design I would model. This screw, washer, and nut based design followed through all my pieces

 

After its parametric modelling on Onshape, I would continue on creating an assembly of my parts before moving on to animation. I chose to use blender for my photorealistic compositing, textures, and animation. I wanted to create an advertisement like movements of the pieces on the board. As such, I used various tools blender provides as well as some external texture resources. The final render carried a lot of noise that disrupted the photorealism. Which I finalized by Using the OptiX AI noise reduction tool that utilizes Nvidia Tensor, before I got my final project.

 

Enjoyment

Overall, I was pleased with the outcome because I met all of the criteria I established. With more time, I would devote more attention to 3D design and rendering. More specifically, I am not satisfied with my knight design, as I believe that in my efforts to keep it simple, similar to traditional design, and with my own twist, it turned out slightly odd. I very much enjoyed doing this project due to its fun nature and commercial relevance it had, particularly as chess is high in popularity, I like designing items that could have a real practical or commercial use/need.

 

Lessons learned

As my second time using Onshape, in-depth, I had much to learn with this project. The detailing and design process of each game piece developed my skills with not only Onshape, but as a modeller in general. Moreover, using Blender is always rewarding as I gain new understanding of CG each time. My acceptance of my knight design equally taught my that some design can never be fully to my liking, but I can get as close as I can to it.

 

What I would change if I started over

My acceptance of my knight design equally taught my that some design can never be fully to my liking, but I can get as close as I can to it. If I could start over, I would do more research and attempt a few other iterations of my knight that matches the theme and looks more pleasant. By figuring out more clever engineering symbols, I am sure I could change my knight to a better liking. Moreover, I would explore the possibility of a new theme.