OVERVIEW
A pointillism drawing machine for fabric
We developed a CoreXY-based drawing machine capable of creating pointillism-style art directly on t-shirts. The team handled the complete chain, from image processing to motion-system design and the fabric-specific drawing process.
MOTION SYSTEM
CoreXY platform
The 2D belt-driven motion platform was designed and built around CoreXY kinematics, borrowing the compact, coupled XY arrangement common in 3D printers. The frame and motion system were built specifically for this project rather than adapted from an existing machine.
IMAGE PROCESSING
From image to dot sequence
Python tools converted source images into thousands of dots suitable for drawing. Path planning then optimized travel between dots to reduce non-drawing motion and shorten total drawing time.
- Image-to-dot conversion.
- Dot placement for pointillism-style output.
- Shortest-path optimization between drawing locations.
FABRIC
Drawing on a t-shirt
The system was adapted to work on fabric rather than a rigid substrate. That required treating the shirt and its support as part of the machine: repeatable placement and a reliable drawing surface were necessary for the motion and image-processing work to matter.