D
Use Camera ⇒ Standard to display flat, frontal views After the shapes are joined, draw the windows,
of the room’s non-skewed faces (the side walls). doors, and floor. Here’s how to draw an 8× 8 check-
For the skewed ones, use the Rotate tool to show erboard tile pattern for the floor. First, find the
the face such that its width and height are at their midpoint on one of the short, undistorted sides.
maximum. In this position, 2 of the axes will be Then draw 2 diagonal lines across the floor from
aligned, and 1 edge of the original cube will be aligned corner to corner. Draw a line bisecting the floor,
directly behind the corresponding edge of the face. from the side midpoint, through the point where
For example, a flat view of face D2-E2-C2-B2, the the diagonals cross (the yellow dot), and across to
back of the room, results when the red and green the other side.
axes are aligned, and line B-C is directly behind Follow the same procedure recursively to bisect
line B2-C2 (Figure C). My floor and ceiling shapes each half of the floor, then all 4 quarters of the floor,
turned out to have corners measuring 45°, 105°, for 7 total lines (Figure D). Then do it all over again
75°, and 135°, while my trapezoidal walls had cor- from the perpendicular short side of the floor, to
ners that measured 80° and 100°. draw the other 7 lines of the grid.
Export each flat face view as a 2D graphic file (File Finally, add tabs to the outside edges of the
⇒ Export ⇒ 2D Graphic). Then bring all 6 files into template to help with taping the box together. Your
an image editor. I used Photoshop. Use some image template is complete.
editing skills to erase any text or unwanted lines,
then bring all 6 clean faces together onto 1 large
canvas. Orient and join the faces together to obtain
your template. You might have to resize some of
them so that everything fits.
2. Construct the room.
The larger the room, the more noticeable the illusion, so it’s best to print it big. Use your template, or
download mine at makezine.com/14/amesroom.
62 Make: Volume 14
