The third studio was the Interactive body/motion games. In this studio my group was asked to create a game that would involve some motion elements and incorporate our bodies. We were given a sketch of a game by another group within this studio in which we determined the sketch was about a “bat” and a lighting up “ball”. Once we came to this conclusion the group began to brainstorm. My partnered decided he wanted to create the baseball bat, which meant I was left with the ball.

Creating a ball was not so simple. It had a very long process into making it. Firstly, I had to calculate the size of the ball with the container it was going to be molded with. Once all of these calculations were done, I created a clay version of the ball. The making of the mold was very tedious mainly for the fact that the ball and the container had to be completely covered in vaseline. This would prevent the plaster sticking to the container and the ball. When the ball and container were done being vaselined, the plaster mixture was then put into the container with the ball. The plaster could only cover half the ball so that there could be two halfs to the mold.The plaster needed to dry for the molding process to continue. When the plaster was dry it also had to be covered in vaseline so it could be cracked open. With the plaster being completely covered in vaseline, the second amount was then added until it completely covered up the clay ball. Straws were added in with this process to make holds in the cast for a different mold later on. The plaster was done drying, and it was then cracked open to create the mold. The clay ball was then removed.

Moving onto the second step of creating the ball, the electronics inside of it had to be built. The main ingredient to these custom made electronics is the momentary switch. It is a switch in when its pushed all the way in it closes the electrical circuit and when it is not pressed the circuit is closed. Summed up, when its pressed a light with turn on and when its not in contact with anything the light would be off. Wires, solder, watch batteries, and L.E.Ds were the other materials in this contraption. Using precise soldering the wires were connected to the momentary switch, then soldered to the L.E.D and battery. Four of the lights were made. The purpose of these lights and the way they were made is that when the ball was hit by the bat the ball would light up. The focus of the game would be what colors you could get to light up: blue, green, red, orange.

After the construction of the lights, they were then used in the final molding process. Having the mold all ready to go the custom lights were put inside of it. Then a see-through liquid rubber substance was poured into the mold. When the rubber was dry, it was taken out of the mold creating a ball. When the ball was squeezed or hit the lights would light up. The ball came out as a success and did not break when hit by the bat. The mold is still intact for any future projects that may involve a custom made ball.