matanuki » artd373 http://matanuki.com Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:01:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 3D Printing http://matanuki.com/2010/03/17/3d-printing/ http://matanuki.com/2010/03/17/3d-printing/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:14:54 +0000 Tyson http://matanuki.com/?p=354

The School of Visual Arts at NIU recently acquired a 3D printer, which creates basic prototypes of digital models.  There are a number of different technologies that achieve this; our machine uses a special powder that is applied one very thin layer at a time.  A printer head moves across the powder, dispensing a glue binder in a cross-section of the model.  This way, the 3D structure is gradually built out of slices of bound powder.

Last semester, I designed this figure for an animation course.  After posing it against a wall for support, we exported the model as an STL file and sent it to the printer.  About 4-5 hours later, the print was complete and ready for excavation.  I’m really happy with how this turned out, it’s a kick to see something that once existed only in a computer turned into a real, tangible form.




]]> http://matanuki.com/2010/03/17/3d-printing/feed/ 0 Crabot! http://matanuki.com/2009/10/01/crab/ http://matanuki.com/2009/10/01/crab/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:36:24 +0000 Tyson http://matanuki.com/?p=109 My first 3D animation since high school! Very exciting.

Created with 3dsmax, sound coming soon.

]]> http://matanuki.com/2009/10/01/crab/feed/ 0 Pointy Things http://matanuki.com/2009/09/15/pointy-things/ http://matanuki.com/2009/09/15/pointy-things/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:07:41 +0000 Tyson http://matanuki.com/?p=146 My first 3D project of the semester. I was going for kind of an ambiguous biological theme, like something that could be the size of a sea urchin or only visible under a microscope. We’ll never know.

Click for big version.

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