This page is about my interests, projects, and profession (technical artist in the video games industry). Most of my hardware\software projects are coded in Python, Processing, Arduino, or MEL (Maya Embedded Language), in addition to 3d printing stuff on my Makerbot Replicator: You can find my latest prints for download over on Thingiverse.
Speaking of Processing\Android\Python, you can link to my various programs\apps via the above title bar.
All information on this site is copyright under the Apache Licence v2.0, unless otherwise noted. Which means you can pretty much use the information here for whatever you like, but I always appreciate credit where applicable.
I’ve been interested in Voronoi diagrams for a long time: I really like the organic cellular structure they create.
I ran across a set of pluigins for Maya called SOuP that allow for the ‘shattering’ of 3d mesh via a Voronoi algorithm. I set about to writing a Python script I could apply to any volumetric polygonal solid in Maya to apply this shatter (the by-hand process is over on my Mel Wiki), and this vase was the first usable version I came up with: I modeled the smooth “interior” section of the vase first, and then generated a slightly larger version which I ‘shattered’, and booleaned the two together. It is now a trendy art-piece in my bathroom window. For the pics with the blue-glow, I just dropped a small LED in there .
Note, it is not water-tight: Just for fun I filled it with water: There’s still some sloshing around now inside the print…
Printed with ‘natural’ PLA on Makerbot Replicator, using “medium” settings in Makerware
Extruded at 210 deg, HPB off
2 shells, 5% infill
Printed in about 5.5 hours, weights 85g, which works out to $1.91 in filament cost (for a $45 spool).
You can download the .stl for printing over on Thingiverse
I had some other experimental prints dealing with Voronoi shattering that led up to this one, which you can see in the below image:
The print on the far right was my first attempt: That was 12 hours in, before the printer stopped extruding But it shows off some of the cool infill patterns and support materials: It was a little over 3″ cubed, had it finished.
The print 2nd from the right printed successfully: I did a full volumetric shatter on another smaller cube. I duplicated the object in Maya: One of the objects I did the process where I convert the wireframe to a polygonal solid via blobby-particles. the other object I strategically deleted different Voronoi chunks, and then merged the two together. The final version looks like random polygonal volumes held together by spider-webs.
The remaining prints are unrelated, but make a nice backdrop
I got the idea to model the bust of a rhino, and print it in a “wireframe” style like I’d done with previous designs. This one is produced with a different wireframe creation technique however, where I instead generated blobby particles along the polygonal edges, and converted the results back into polygons.
I tried to minimize overhang issues by tracking the angle of the edges via a Python script in Maya. Very little cleanup was needed after print: No raft or support material needed.
The frame is actually a pattern I drew on some scrap MDF (nothing 3d printed there) , jigsawed out, and then routed the edges plus slapped on some white paint. Print is affixed via epoxy.
Modeled in Maya while sitting at a coffee shop near Stanford (man did I feel like I fit some sort of stereotype). After working on “Geo Necklace“, I wanted to try something slightly more complicated. This “bracelet” is two combined tori: The base is 8-sided, the top is 6-sided. No overhang issues, but I did have to pick out some interior loose filament. Spray-painted it two-tone blue/red.
Final Step: Building the enclosure, putting it all together…
There are a lot of Raspberry Pi enclosures over on Thingiverse ready for printing on my Makerbot Replicator. But I needed something to also support the Makey Makey. I knew I could modify one of those files, but I was interested in trying a different media, my MicroRAX kit. I’d done some mockups with it earlier (bookholder, quad-copter frame), but nothing permanent, and this seemed like the perfect use case. And it turned out great… other than the fact I actually had to have the Raspberry Pi in another enclosure, so that it wouldn’t short-out with all the exposed metal. Luckily I had an acrylic laser-cut case that came with my Maker Shed Raspberry Pi Starter Kit. Had I not had that case, I probably would have printed out a minimal one.
Other things I learned is that the Makey Makey can be driven directly off the RPi’s USB port: No external powerd USB hub needed.
The final hardware setup was thus:
Makey Makey connected to Raspberry Pi over USB.
Raspberry Pi powered via wall-wart.
Raspberry Pi connected to internet via Ethernet.
Raspberry Pi connected to stereo system over headphone-jack.
Whole thing wrapped up via MicroRAX.
The current on\off functionality is just pluggin\unplugging it : After it boots up, the first station in the play list fires off, and you’re good to go.
Going further…
If I was to extend this project, these are some things I’d think about:
Switch out the tethered Ethernet for WiFi.
Hook up a battery-pack and speakers: Make it a portable boom-box.
Splice in a toggle-switch for on\off.
Have some sort of better integration with MPlayer & Python, or use some other music player entirely: Have LED’s that represent each station in the playlist that light up showing which one your on, or even a simple LCD screen broadcasting the station name and volume level.
Hook up awesome fruit to the MakeyMakey to make it a fruit activated radio turner. That one should be pretty easy
Overall it was a great learning experience for me to grasp the basics of linux, the Raspberry Pi hardware, and streaming internet radio.
I recently ran across a post showing what looked like (to me) “low poly wireframe 3d-printed jewelry”. Inspired me to try something similar on my Makerbot Replicator. Half an hour of modeling later in Maya, 51 minutes of printing (PLA), and I came up with the below design. Just a conceptual prototype of what could be in the future. I spray-painted it two-tone black\red so that it could be reversible. My lovely wife graciously let me photograph it on her neck: Wouldn’t fit on mine
Download the .stl and get other info over on Thingiverse.
But it shows off some of the cool infill patterns and support materials: It was a little over 3″ cubed, had it finished.
