sito - cube - orientation guide

Create a cube in five easy steps

Create an origin square
Someone has to start it. Create a square image and save it as cubetitle-1sid.jpg. Where cubetitle is whatever name you've given to your cube and sid is the Synergy ID of the person creating the square. The number represents which face of the cube the image depicts.

Make connecting squares
Now two articipants can create squares that connect to the origin. I'd recommend working on 2 and 5 simultaneously. If you look at the diagram above, you'll see that 2 is on top of 1 (the origin) and 5 is on bottom. Use the guide to create templates by using the image showing the piece-to-be-created in the center.

For example, one would use the diagram with 5 in the center as a guide for the orientation of pieces around it. Since only square 1 has been created so far, 5 only needs to worry about blending with that square. As you can see in the diagram, 1 sits right-side-up on 5. No rotation needed.

The same goes for 2. But 1 sits underneath 2 instead of on top.

When finished, crop the images down to size and save them as: cubetitle-5sid.gif and cubetitle-2sid.gif (replacing cubetitle and sid of course).

This part is tricky
Now that 2 and 5 are created, we need to move on to the next available empty squares. I suggest 3 and 4. They can be worked on simultaneously since neither relies on the presence of the other.

As you'll notice, we will now need to be rotating our blend-partners. In the case of 3, square 2 sits on top of it... but is rotated 90° clockwise before blending begins. Square 5 is also rotated 90° clockwise before blending begins. Square 1 sits unrotated to the right of square 3.

With square 4, the direction of rotation and the orientation are reversed. You'll see that square 2 sits on top of 4 rotated 90° counterclockwise and that square 5 sits rotated 90° counterclockwise beneath.

The trickiest part about this is that you now have to create a square that blends the edges of three previous squares into it.

When completed, crop and save the files with the appropriate filenames (as outlined above).

Almost there, last piece!
All that remains is square 6. The guide shows that squares 5 and 2 sit right-side-up on top and bottom of 6 respectively. You'll also notice that squares 3 and 4 are each rotated 180° to the left and right of 6 respectively.

Zowy! This one has to blend four squares into it. It's a challenge, but the rewards can be great. Once completed, this square will be saved following the naming conventions expressed earlier.

cube skin

Put it together
Now that all sides are created, you need to put them together somehow. You can print them each separately and glue them to a specially constructed box or you can put them together digitally and print out a "skin" you can cut, then fold into a cube.

Alternately/additionally, the more techno-savvy of you could create actual three-dimensional rotating virtual cubes!

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