Sculpture

NO NO NO NO NO, fixed the Mobile App for readability & am learning what things mean in codeland…

| GroveCanada

So…

Late last night I go to check our new Mobile App I’m so proud of…

Realize…Can’t read a thing…

Icons are pretty but words are microscopic…

ARGH!

Confirm with Joseph…He’s like:”Can’t read it”…

“I know”…

So late last night I’m creating all new Icon assets in high contrast black text on white snowy backdrops with some ice for texture…

Thank God my Mum took that awesome iPhone pic of me with the two swans last week!

I needed some blue light, Northern, sunny, & the look she took was perfect…

Used this for every icon backdrop…! Yay MOMs!

Loaded it all up, republished the APP, went to sleep…

Woke up 6:30 am…OH NO…Have to re-record the contest submission video…Redo whole thing…Resubmit all…

Waaah…

But did it…(I actually stuck it in the APP after…It’s a good video I did…You can see the video within the APP if you do the first QUIZ, click SUBMIT, the page then whisks you to the entry submission video with an awesome SONG(by Ryan Huston, called Do what you love, from the album THIS LIFE)…

The APP is at bwell.mobi/grove

Now if you go to the APP on a desktop you get this page on the internet…

It has a Flash Gordon Icon, it has a description of the APP, it has a screenshot which is buggy & is not showing right now, & it has some weird choices which I am trying to figure out…

Ok first choice is DOWNLOAD the APP…

I got something called an APK file…Couldn’t open it…It was labelled grove.apk

Found out if I just change the apk to ZIP I can open it…

I’m on a Mac snow leopard desktop…10.6.8

So just change the name of the ending of the file from APK to ZIP…

Double click now it opens & you get all the ASSETS of the APP…

Neat…All my custom icons, their custom icons(their is Infinite Monkeys the App creator service I use…)

next choice is…

email link…

That one opens up my email server on my computer & puts a whole message in it…

You can see in the picture what it will say…2nd picture from the top…

The third choice is send link by SMS which means short message service, or something like that…

I don’t use SMS so I am not sure what to put in the box…Their phone number? Their email address? I’m guessing a phone number maybe that this is a text message thingy…

I will update this post when I doublecheck that…(ok, yes…From a desktop computer, just type in the cell phone number of the person you want to send the SMS to…That will send them a text message with a link to this awesome App…)

Last choice is View HTML APP…

That gives you the whole app but you can see it right away, from your Safari or Firefox or whatever browser you are on & it is totally interactive & totally works just like the app will on your iphone or other mobile device like Ipad or tablet or Android like your Samsung Galaxy phone…

So that is neat…

grovebodypartchart app

bwell.mobi/grove

sari grove

joseph grove

So you want to design something in Blender to 3d print at Shapeways

| GroveCanada

http://youtu.be/ZnCf-5G7DYc This is the most excellent tutorial by Jonathan Williamson about how to model for 3d printing in Blender…My steps come from this video…

Blender is a free 3d animation software…

Shapeways is a company that will 3d print a design you make in Blender…

Very very basic first steps in Blender(WE are using the default cube as an example & the sizes of things are based on a  teeny tiny minimal size 3d print-really the smallest thing you might want to have made):

Step 1: In SCENE -change your UNITS to METRIC

Step 2: In the Properties Panel (N) change your DIMENSIONS to x: 4 cm  y: 4 cm z: 4 cm

Step 3: In VIEW, ALIGN VIEW, VIEW SELECTED

Step 4: In Properties Panel again (N), in View there, at CLIP: Change START: 1 mm (change start to 1 mm)

Step 5: Add Modifier, SOLIDIFY (Also change to Wireframe mode to see the inside of the cube)

Step 6: Hit CONTROL A, SCALE

Step 7: In Solidify change THICKNESS to 0.7 mm (Shapeways minimum thickness) (Note, Blender will change that reading to 700 um don’t worry)…

Step 8: (Go to solid mode), Go to Edit Mode, SELECT the BOTTOM FACE, Hit “I” for INSET, that creates an inset that you can adjust the size of…

Step 9: Your ESCAPE HOLE (the Inset at the bottom face) has to be minimum 2 mm …You can make it bigger…(Say 4 mm)…

Step 10: If you are measuring your inset hole, use S to scale, Hit SHIFT S, SELECTION TO GRID (this will snap your inset hole to the nearest grid edge)

Step 11: With your Inset Hole (Escape Hole) Selected, the face, Hit X, then DELETE FACE…This makes a hole in the bottom of your Cube…

Step 12: The hole in the bottom of the cube is important, integral, because the cube should be hollow & the 3d printers need a hole for the middle stuff to be removed from…So you MUST have a hole in the bottom of your sculpture for it to be hollowed out!!! (Escape Hole it is called)…

Ok at this point you can EXPORT your file according to what Shapeways wants…File, Export, then choose the one you want…(OBJ, STL,COLLADA)…

Note: Shapeways has specific parameters of what they want from Blender…They also have a tutorial…Must read! Really…

3d print
Here is what your hollowed out cube looks like in Wireframe Mode in Blender…Notice the hole in the Bottom…This file is ready to print…

learning to Animate using Blender 3d software(free):Attaching Bones to Mesh Shapes(4)

| GroveCanada

So this is like the biggest lesson I learned today…

You create say a cylinder shape, 3d, in Blender…

Then you put a bunch of bones in it…A skeleton…

Now you want to attach the bones to the skin so that when you move a bone one way, the skin also moves…

 

This is how in the new 2.66a Blender version update…

In OBJECT MODE, you press SHIFT then right click on the cylinder & also on the bones…

THE ORDER IN WHICH YOU SELECT THE BONES & THE MESH IS REALLY CRUCIAL…

OK, SO YOU HAVE TO SELECT THE ARMATURE LAST TO MAKE IT THE PARENT!!!

Then you press CONTROL + P

A menu appears with the word Object at the top…From the drop down menu choose “with Automatic Weights”…

Choose that…Wait…

Tadaah…

Now when you go to POSE MODE you can move each bone, & the skin will follow…The shape…You can see my all day’s work big accomplishment in the video above…

Really…This took me all day long to figure out…Wow this is hard…

if you do try to learn animation using free Blender software, remember that each version is slightly different, so be careful about which tutorials you are watching…Things may be different now…

Sorry this is so technical…But if you feel like learning animation with me, this was the biggest step…

I think after this hump, so to speak, I may be alright…

Warning: I have now been able to do this, then not…Then again for some reason yes…Then no again…I don’t know why sometimes it works & sometimes it doesn’t…

AHA…http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Bones Ok I checked the Blender WIKI & here is the reason…

Aha…THE ORDER IN WHICH YOU SELECT THE BONES & THE MESH IS REALLY CRUCIAL…

OK, SO YOU HAVE TO SELECT THE ARMATURE LAST TO MAKE IT THE PARENT!!!

This is why it was sometimes working & sometimes not working…Aha…

I created this video with the YouTube Video Editor (http://www.youtube.com/editor)

So, once you know how to model a shape, a mesh, in Blender 2.66a, then you are going to want to put a skeleton inside, bones…So then you are going to learn how to put the bones in, this is called Rigging…(rhymes with Digging)…Ok, now you have bones inside a mesh shape…How do you get the Bones to make the shape move? Well, in 2.66a Blender 3d animation, I did this…1)Very important first step by the way…Choose the shape first, FIRST, by clicking SHIFT & right clicking the shape with your mouse…Now…CHOOSE the BONE ARMATURE SECOND or LAST if there are several shapes…The LAST thing selected is the PARENT…The order in which you pick your things is crucial…If you ignore this you will be confused & sad because it won’t work…Armature LAST makes the armature the PARENT…2)Ok, the picking was in OBJECT MODE by the way…Step 1…So the very next thing you do, is CLICK CONTROL + P …CONTROL Button & the Letter P…This will bring up a menu(the Parent menu)…In that menu, choose “With Automatic Weights”…Ok that is it…3)Now go into POSE mode…If you click a bone in your armature, then rotate it, the bone will move & it will also move the mesh shape at the same time…If the bone doesn’t grab the shape you didn’t select your armature last…The bones have to be the last thing you choose when choosing elements…Promise…Took a whole day to learn this lesson…A very hard day too…Once you know this you have power…This, for me, was the major hump(so to speak…) I am posting this because I know how hard it was for me to learn & understand…(p.s. I have only been studying Blender for a week now…But this makes all the early grief worthwhile…)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT_udwOw-jQ I forgot to mention this video of how to rig a straw…This one was actually THE ONE that helped me to grasp the concept of what rigging was about…(rigging is like putting bones inside an object, connecting the bones to the object, then being able to move the bones inside the object & the object will move its parts individually…Instead of moving the object as a giant 2d lump!