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Gizmo Week - Lasercut Models with Blender and Inkscape - pt.1 (Patreon)

Published:
2020-10-02 04:31:59
Edited:
2020-10-02 09:26:57
Imported:
2021-03

Content

Part 2 tomorrow! Or the day after!

So- as I mention in the video, I was going REALLY hard in the cg department for a bit there, and while I'm super amped to finish up the HyperBole sequence (and the Dynamo Dream episode!!!), I wanted to take a moment to stretch my legs with some other stuff, so I'm going to take a few days to try and refamiliarize myself with arduinos/electronics/projectors, and various things that might be useful to micro-budget filmmakers, and documenting it for anyone who might be interested.

I suspect it'll be fairly useless for anyone already familiar with the tools (cause I don't know them all that well), but hopefully could be cool for anyone who's been curious about diving into anything like this?

Today is part one, and tomorrow I'm going to try actually making an IK-based sculpture with servos and such, and assembling it. We'll see how it goes!

Again, HUGE thanks to Sean for helping me get everything running (and letting me use his laser cutter). Having someone walk you through everything that first time makes all the difference.

Apparently his lasercutter is the K40 ($300-400), which is a standard no-brand sort of thing. Here's a video he recommends if you're curious.

Also, I just typed it into google maps and found a handfull of makerspaces* nearby to me. I suspect it's not a totally global phenomenon, but odds are high you have one nearby! They're a great way to be able to try out CNC machines and laser cutters and 3d printers without having to buy one yourself, and usually full of the coolest folks.

*Not sure if makerspace is an organization or just the word for a type of place, actually. I think they used to call them hackerspaces? I'm not sure. 


Files

Gizmo Week - Using Blender for Lasercut Models - pt. 1

Comments

Anonymous

Oh man... I SO know what you're talking about with the subcontracting thing. I take a bath on so many projects because of that. Lately, when I quote I ask something along the lines of "How many people are in between me and the decision-makers on the client-side?" the more people in between, the higher the price. The math is probably something like add 10% of the quote for every step removed. Not to mention, it's like playing the game telephone, where it's so difficult to communicate to the final decision-makers as well. Tight timelines are also way more of a drag with more in between people. Man... you're a champ for still taking care of your patrons as well. Hopefully, you can get some rest.

Anonymous

In the before times I used to do projection mapping at nightclubs. The 'export paper models' add-on for Blender is great for making some fun mapping surfaces.

IanHubert
>>45118806

Oh sweet! What type of models? Like, cool shapes for projecting on, or specific models of stuff? I gotta check out that addon!

IanHubert
>>45111863

Yeah that makes total sense- I *always* forget about that aspect (the notes/review), and just think about how long it'd take me to do the initial thing. Honestly a lot of them were fun gigs, I just have to remember that even the small gigs can be as big as the big gigs, hahaha

Anonymous
>>45118806

I did a really low poly person with a floor and wall behind. I use a program called Madmapper to do the projection mapping and since V3 they've had OBJ support. It'd be great if there was an NDI output option for Blender for this usage live.

Anonymous

I have some mapping post on my IG /davewrath I can't seem to link the specific post in this thread

Anonymous
>>45118806

I gotta say I have used that addon, but never for the intended purpose; just to calculate the volume of objects to give them realistic sizes based on material (very rarely). But I want to try it for the real thing!

Anonymous

Very cool seeing the Blender workflow for this kind of fabrication. I've been doing this kind of work for years, but I usually use Rhino. In this case [for material tolerances] would you use a larger 'shelf' in the boolean modifier but use the original piece for cutting? Great work Ian!

Anonymous

I got a random tip that you probably already know, but I thought I would throw it into the comments anyways. The chip on the arduino can be taken off and cloned so it's cheaper to buy the chips individually for like $3 comes pre-programmed with the arduino boot. And the chip is equivalent to the whole arduino, minus the FDTI usb for PC connection, but after you write your program, you can pull the chip out of the arduino and put it onto a breadboard with the rest of your circuit, the pins should be exactly the same. I don't know if that helps anyone, hope someone finds this useful :)

IanHubert
>>45146300

Ah that's awesome! Yeah it's been a blast trying it out. I remember the first time I 3d printed something I modeled, such a weird feeling! Like reaching in to grab the chocolate from willy wonka, haha. Ooo- you mean, cheat the hole a bit bigger so there's for-sure room for the slot to fit in there? So far the only test I've done I randomly scaled the whole thing down like 10% (so it could fit on the board), and it was PRETTY snug, but workable (I had to sand a couple tabs)- my assumption is that since the laser has a margin of like .3 mm, that should hopefully be enough? But I'd also rather have the tabs too snug than too loose, since I can always sand stuff down.

Anonymous
>>45146300

Yeah exactly! I'm sure there's some super precise engineery way to calculate these things, but I've only come to those tolerance conclusions through trial and error. The question came up when I started working with metal and realized a 1 inch peg doesn't fit into a 1 inch hole. I think the kerf of the laser is plenty for small scale objects.

IanHubert
>>45118806

Dude yes! I loved that paper person! Small-scale projection mapping is somehow even cooler to me than large scale stuff.

Anonymous

it can be done easier in blender. At least in two ways. Method one: you can convert the shape into a curve and than you can export shape as a svg file directly from blender. Anyways chcekmarks are recomended. - to verify the scale. Method two: via DXF. Activate dxf addons in blender (both of them - there're two dxf addons available) - then you can export mesh as a dxf format file. The dxf file can be easily imported into almost any vector program like inkscape, corel or illustator. You can use dxf in CNC software as well.

IanHubert
>>45202682

Oh dang that's a lot more convenient than the "trace bitmap" option. So I could just export a 2d mesh as a SVG pattern. That's really cool to know, thanks! :D

IanHubert
>>45160164

Oh wait seriously? That's super cool to know, thanks! So I'm just using the board during the development process. That could save some solid money! :D

Anonymous

Oh do catch up Ian, we've been printing Ender 5 3D PLA donuts for days :-) Give me a shout if you need maker type help.