New Update: To see the latest renderings, go to bottom of post…
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To do a graphic that was spurred in part by cbullitt and part by McGoo – I tried to find a needle. Not just any needle but a cool looking one.
Alas, unless you want to steal one, you have to use crappy pics as photo-fodder. And I didn’t want to do that. I wanted an antique needle (hypo). So what is to be done? Don’t got a time-travel device, obviously, since Hitler didn’t go away – that option is out.
So I’m modeling one. Here’s the initial model. Next put some knurling on it. Then import it into blender and do a raytrace. THEN pull it into gimp and post-process it. Simple, no?
An example of Blender3D using YAFRAY as an output renderer. The caustics in this one were turned way too high up but I can’t find the folder with all the final renders from before my computer switchover.
Here’s another where I was goofing around and seeing what-if-you-do-THIS kind of stuff…
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Hypo first renderings… v0.2
Last one for today – I think it looks better.
You gotta steampunk it!
You gotta steampunk it!
Antique brass coloring! Silver trim!
Lots of knurling!
Rivets! Rivets! Rivets!
Gears! Pistons!
Fleming valves!
Seriously, that is a kickass rendering, LK.
Nice solid modeling, dood.
Outstanding start. I’d need a CAD program to do even that much–if I knew anything about CAD. Or is that stone knives and bearskins?
I am so far out of practice with Blender that I did this in SolidWorks. Yes, Blenderpros out there will sneer at me but there’s only just so many hours in the day.
Gimp, Inkscape, blogging, work, eat… That’s about my limit. Plus the Blender folks never intended for units (mm, in, m, ft) to be a part of the Blender universe so it is really hard for me to go from opto-mech design to art design (3d). So I stuck with SolidQuirks.
That’s all the rationalizing I care to do right now. 🙂
And yes, I’ll shoot for steampunk.
Go for it, LK.
I was thinking Solidworks, but didn’t know what you were familiar with and had on hand.
Does Gimp do 3D? I have the thing loaded – I guess I should play with it – ya think?
Sorry, ‘Goo. Gimp will only do photoshop type images, but my honest assessment is that if you know how to do things without pre-set filters and the like, it is very very powerful and amazingly so given it’s low low price of freakin’ free.
Blender 3D is something that allows 3D but it has a curve to it. Hang on, and I’ll post an image I did of a 3D scene I built in it for my sister.
Definitely Steampunk. My heart desires it so. And hubby’s provenance demands it 😉
And so your wish shall be my command, Oh St. Aggie of the Knife.
Didja all see that nixie clock photo that Climate Audit (or was it WUWT?) posted the other day?
It wasn’t steampunk, but it did look good. Pricey, though.
I’m probably gonna have to design and build one sooner or later.
A coworker of mine has one of them cool little nixie clocks. It’s wicked and I lust after it.
LK – I needn’t tell you – the circuitry is trivial, although the Nixie tubes and driver chips aren’t carried at Radio Shack anymore. I think I’d go with discrete HV driver circuitry simply because its prettier. Imagine three-dozen TO-5 can transistors, double that number of nice color-coded resistors, and a half-dozen TTL OC driver chips lined up in six columns behind the Nixies on a circuit board. Pretty.
The important part, though, is the case – the Presentation.
I like Cherry wood.
Make that over 40 transistors. 3+10+6+10+6+10 ?
I found this wood at the sort-of-local quality wood pusher… errr… dealer. Maybe it’s common and I never knew it, but African Cherry. Beautiful dark wood, and I suspect it is carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratragenic, and hyperallergenic. Harder than sin, too. Bet it would make a beautiful base for niskies if polished to a shine.
Full speed ahead with the Fleming valves. Yeah, it should have the Walt Disney Nautilus feel.
As for the wood–if it ain’t teak, it won’t eat your tools. Go for it–although Hawaiian Koa is nice, but then I’m a guitar head.
I’d love to have one of those ball-weight steam regulators on it but since never was one on a hypo I guess I had best not try to do so now. It’d look like mail socks on a chicken.
Not sure I understand, cb… not my tools I’m worried about – more my lungs, skin, privates, etc. Stuff like Rosewood – the exotics – will nail your testicles to the wall if you aren’t careful. Having worked in a plywood mill for a while and forest fires as well, it doesn’t take a lot of fine dust to necessitate a pull on the albuterol.
Teak is very gritty, dulls saws at light speed.
I hadn’t worked with enough exotic woods to learn their corrosive/mcgoo-o-genic properties. I’m intrigued about the african cherry…
LK – we really think alike: the classic spinning regulator thingy (spinning balls on hinged levers) is (in my mind) the perfect representation of steampunk. That, and any configuration of pistons and sleeves, like a steam engine wheel drive mechanism.
Try cutting Pergo, CB! It throws off actual sparks and will ruin a carbide blade in no time!
Ooooh, great job on the syringe, and very pretty green, too! Is it Soylent Green, or antifreeze?
That syringe still needs work.
“An Injection of Soylent Green will Help you STFU.”
Oh I like that.
I like it! With a tiny lethal drop hanging from the needle….the drop has a reflection of Obama with a facemask….maybe too much to do.
That looks awesome, LK! Almost real…..ok, I’m a bit creeped out now.
Glowing Radioactive FU. Cool
Perhaps a bottle of said goo with the radiological triangle and a suitably snarkable product name, dosage etc. “100 Percent STFU” or “99 and 9/10 Pure STFU” something along those lines.
The syringe is awesome.
You know, for some reason your comments weren’t being forwarded like usual, so I only saw them just now. Shoot.
Aggie – creeped out is good.
cbullitt – A bottle with said goo. I like that. A lot. Take a bit more time. I’ve already sent one graphic, but that can just be a preliminary one. I like the bottle idea bunches. More on the way then.
Yeah – bottle good.
I like the reflected glow from the drop. Makes it more evil-like.
Good work, LK!
Just to be clear–because I wasn’t. I’m recommending the bottle be part of the current work (not a separate graphic). Perhaps to the left and slightly behind?
Of course that would require a slight reframing of the image–aren’t critics wonderful, LK?
And oh yeah, the the goo-drop reflection is awesome.
Oh, I understood, cb. Reframing is easy in virtual reality – *poof* – just did it.
Critics are good, otherwise the world would be fulll of even more shitty art than it already is.
What will be fun is a vial of glowing green crud and somehow making the label use a realistic subsurface scattering model. The examples I see always feel slightly fake. Like they’re on the right track but perhaps too uniform.
Wow….the glowing is….
Crap, I gotta go look at something cute and pretty. My hair is standing on end again.