A while ago I wrote about Iterative Design and the potential of iterative design on how products are created in the future. Now Hod Lipson and his team brought this concept to the next level with their EndlessForms website.
They combine evolutionary algorithms and generative encodings with crowd sourcing of designs. The results are interesting 3D designs. You could argue the usefulness of many of the designs on the site but it does show a powerful new and easy-to-use way to 3D design and iterative design.
How does it work?
The user selects one of created designs in the gallery or chooses to start anew. The site then evolves this design in 15 different directions and shows the user 15 options. The user can then choose to explore one of the evolutions further, combine multiple evolutions and explore that, or save the 3D design. Optionally the user can choose to 3D printed his design — which is disabled at this moment for some reason.
Here is video on how it works:
Their inspiration was Charles Darwin and the evolution of species. They found their name in the Origin of Species.
“… from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.”
— Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species
I love these types of innovations for new ways to create 3D designs. It makes 3D design accessible and fun.
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