fae_alba

Send it on over. This gov't shutdown deal has me sitting around with nothing to do, so I might as well do some 3d printing!

I use netfab all the time. Works fairly well with a:m stl exports, but I find reversed normals are a real issue with 3d printers. Mark, if your like, I can run thru my 3d,printer to get a comparison.

What if my grandma got run over by a reindeer? I mean dealing with that could eat up a lot of my time.

I feel your pain/angst/desire to get something done! I've spent more time traveling for work this past year, and each time I hit the road I bring my laptop with me with the sole purpose of spending some quality time in the evenings with A:M. Never happens. The hotel bar always seems to have a louder siren song! New year, new leaf. Let's hope that we get something done!

Thought as much.

I played with decals a bit this afternoon. Every time I applied one to the model . on am (19f) am crashed. Im going try it again later this evening, hopefully with better results.

I'm looking for thoughts on the best approach to weathering a truck model. I am trying to get this to look something like this No entirely so ratty, but not so brandy new either. I figure I could bring it into photoshop and paint up a decal, but I'm not all that proficient with that so am looking for a down and "dirty" (pun intended) way.

wonder if that would work as rain drops falling in a puddle, and generating concentric circles in said same puddle. I seem to remember a thread along those lines many many years ago.

thanks all for the insights. Finally got all of the 5 pointers closed, I decided not to cheat and use the samples you all attached because I felt it better to slog through this as a learning moment. The 3d printer is busily printing as I type and has about another 5 hours to go.

I've been spending a lot of time playing with my 3D printer, and started down the rabbit hole of using AM to model some parts for an animatronic projects I've started. The below screen grab is for an eyelid mechanism that i need to print but the infamous 5 point patch has reared its ugly head. Below is a patch that I cannot seem to close. The patch across from it did close as a 5 pointer, the one that won't is a product of extruding the closed patch. I cannot for the life of me figure what is wrong with it, having tried the lasso tool, hiding all other points then selecting, selecting in different orders... you name it. I've attached the model for anyone wishing to have a go at it, I would appreciate it. eyelids_V3.mdl

I get it. I work in IT at Boeing SC. I work do for information builders. Currently in loan to the department of justice.

I'm a "enterprise systems architect" by day, but by night i'm, well off the clock and want Nuthin to do with programmin!

so...Flying....Back On Track....and Hit the Road. Perhaps all clues to the next topic? Already the wheels are turning!

I have a local rig that uses motion sensors. Tried to get it to work with I think the saucy rig, but couldn't figure which bones to constrain the bvh bones to. But the ability to do the constraints once, then swap out the big file (in my case from the same mocap suit, so same naming) was the major selling point.

Say it aint so!

Any idea on when you would have the Skype sessions? I'm in, hopefully traveling for work will slow down to only one week out of the month and I can carve out much needed time with a:m.

I tried simcloth on papa bear some time ago Ang wasn't happy with the results. Looks like I have a reason to revisit the idea.

They're not bugs. They are undocumented features....

Creating joints like that is a most excellent use for 3D printers. It has taken a lot of trial and error to get even close. The idea was to put a ball and socket part in series and use a strong looped thru each, attached to a servo to move it. In practice its not working out as well as hoped since when added to a silicone skin will put more stress on the servo than it can handle. I might look into a piston setup, which will require some more,modeling, but that's the fun of making.

It's interesting, I've spent a lot of painful hours sweating over the details of my Papa Bear model. But it wasn't until I 3D printed it and held that in my hot little hands did I notice that his wrists are way too skinny! I have a lot of 3D printing projects I want to do, and I'm forcing myself to finish one before starting another...that's a tough battle. I just want to crank stuff out! But, discipline. I need to complete what i started, so the next step is to create an A:M model of an alien man-eating worm that will be 3D printed, then used to create a mold for ultimately will be the form for a silicone skin for the armature I printed earlier. We'll see how that goes, it will be my first foray into silicone molding.

I actually did that early on, and they provided a good starting point. I'm (slowly) getting the hang of the workflow using A:M to create printable models. It has been a bit rough, with the biggest issue being that unit of measure being so different between A:M and the slicing software (I'm currently using cura since that is what the printer shipped with). I've gotten to the point of not worrying about the size of the model in A:M since the slicing software can scale up and down without too much of an issue. The other problem is the export to stl wizard, which isn't really a problem. I've learned that if I wanted to pose a character to print (see the latest below) I either need to do it in an action or a chor. If done in an action and I want to do more than one model in a pose (say Papa Bear holding a Christmas tree) I have to do them separately since the wizard will only do one. Also, if done in a chor, all models get exported, including the ground plane, which really mucks up the scale in the slicing software. What I've been working on is an armature rig for an animatronic project I am working on. It is a ball and socket joint for an alien worm and required about a weeks worth of experimentation to get it right. But now it's done, and I'll be building it this weekend. I did Papa Bear last night just for hoots and hollars. I'm impressed with the level of quality that this printer can crank out. His toes, eyes, etc and clearly visible on the print.

Santa got me a new monoprice 3d printer and I just started to have some fun with it. Decided to see how papa bear would fare inn the 3rd world so I tossed an older model over to the printer and came up with the same below.... It certainly is not the greatest, and there is a lot that can be improved, but hey, it's still kind of fun to see him in a more solid form!

All too true...

well, I finished the movie clip. But mother nature conspired against me and I couldn't get the screen up to show it outside. Winds were gusting up to 30 mph all Christmas day, and I wasn't about to put up a $175 rear projection screen only to have it blow away. Here's the youtube link https://youtu.be/FKtQwLk3YV4 A lot of issues became apparent after I had rendered out the bulk of the video. One thing I truly hate is seeing "floaty" movements, and this clip had a lot of that. But, all in all, it's in the can, which for me is a milestone, so I'm taking it.

The problem of courting local advertisers is that you need to be local yourself. And yes building up an inventory of content is the toughest but to crack. For,this to be a viable business model you couldn't restrict to just am users. This would have to be an independent filmmakers distribution channel to get enough content. Or, go it alone and spend the next two years producing a dozen shorts and keep it all in house. Take the long view.