Monday, August 10, 2009

blender fluid text in 2.49 plus some cool inspeck stuff

I'll lay off the blender tutorials after they seem better answererd on the net.... until then... blender fluid text is really fun and cool, however getting it to work correctly is a task that's been nagging me and my student at http://computers4kids.net for the last two weeks.... well the first real decent news is that in response to several threads out there you don't need to up the bake resolution to 300 (requiring several gigs of ram) you MAY however need to enter every letter as an individual mesh.... it's a chore, however the results are great...

The leaf in the picture is actually an inspeck 3d pic of a piece of lost styrofoam sculpture made a few weeks ago... am very pleased with the outcome, however there seems to be some artifact in there somewhere....

hope to update this video once the artifacts are gone (and once I figure out how to get the alpha chanel ipo's a little nicer....

Saturday, March 14, 2009

slingin green bling

More bling...
It all started one nice sunny day.... walkin down the tracks catchin some graffiti goin up



kept walkin down the tracks and stumbled upon some excellent green foam and very fine sand - knew it was gonna be a blingin day.



paid a visit to the job site to process some blingless rims that have some bangin aluminum...

if the small track hoe doesn't work...


Then use a bigger one.


Carve a few designs up


and crank out some bling

Monday, March 02, 2009

Inspeck 3d camera, Gaston & Wyatt CNC, and Monticello's doors....


The image straight from the camera with the bitmap overlay in place. Notice the beading visible around the horns....

The model as sent to the CNC machine - the beading is there, however some of the detail is missing... at 1/4 scale this translates in to less than a 64th of an inch... it should be ok



The doorway in miniature waiting for the freeze and doors to be mounted. The miniature hinges designed to open both doors simultaneously were created by hand here in the valley. These doors were designed by Thomas Jefferson and are in use presently at Monticello


The painted 1/4 scale model - notice the hand carved beading on the angle - another local artisan recreated this. Great attention to detail - it matches the horizontal beading, however includes the ~33 degree angle.

The unpainted detail


In perhaps a giant effort to get a great pic of Trevor - one of Gaston & Wyatt's de facto mascots - the Inspeck 3D digitization scannerfinally got cleaned up and put to work... The first pic shows the original image, the second shows the detail in 3d... probably need to put some polish on this, it's a start though... In the first picture (taken from a 3/4 scale model made by a local artist...) the beading around the bison's horns can be seen in clear detail - there's definitely some work to be done in the conversion if a full scale model is going to be usable, however for reducing to 1/4 scale (ie the final model is about 1" in diameter... ) and further having a layer of paint applied.... these models are quite sufficient. As they are carved in wood and MDF board the finest expected resolution should be in the order of 1/16 - 1/32 of an inch. In aluminum the results may be superior...


All told almost a dozen people came together to make this project a reality - here in no particular order is credit where due

Fred Wilbur - Carver of the angled Egg and Dart
RWA - Machine Shop who delivered the miniature door openers
Decorator's Supply - Supplied the Moulded Egg & Dart
Wes Leach - CNC CAD/CAM work
Mike Horan - Craftsman
Mike Saunners - Finisher

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

R&R = Rest & Relaxation = Rock & Roll = Retail Relay


There's not much more to say - it is the best business to burgeon in C-ville in many moons - Retail Relay. Like ordering a pizza with everything on it - 'cept instead of ancient canned anchovies it's fresh catfish. Instead of plain pepperoni it's stuffed sausage. Instead of cheesy cheddar it's blessed brie. It's Retail Relay - fresh up from the hard working brute brothas of the C-Village.

From Reids to Rebeccas and the Freshest of Fishersville Farms
  • 5 of: Reid's Fresh Catfish 1 lb
  • 5 of: Yellow Eye Dry Bean-1 Lb.
  • 3 of: Mahatma Brown Rice Natural Whole Grain 28 oz
  • 4 of: Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Non-Dairy Beverage, Original, 32 oz
  • 4 of: Reid's Pork Tenderloin 1 lb
  • 5 of: Reid's Ground Beef 1 lb
  • 5 of: North Carolina Sweet Potatoes, price per pound
  • 5 of: Jumbo Baking Potatoes-local Grown-app. Total Weight 3 Lbs.-2 Per Each
  • 2 of: Local White Onions 1 lb
  • 2 of: Local Sweet Yellow Candy Onions 1 lb
  • 2 of: Local Hamburger Red Onions 1 lb
  • 1 of: Eight O'Clock Coffee French Roast Ground Coffee 12 oz
All scored for under $100 US Dollars... whattup and when was the last time you went in to a store and spent the time to get EXACTLY what you wanted....

Go get you some http://retailrelay.com and score some Real Relative Rest and Rockn' Rolln' Relaxation @ Retail Relay