Interactive Resource:

 ”It’s like a webpage but must run offline…”

Digitising Artwork:

 This was part of a lesson plan for uni.

Beauty Website:

 Started creating a website for a friend.

 

Local Server:

International Server:

More to come as the project progresses…

• 1x Skewer
• 1x Straw
• 1x A4 piece of paper
• 300mm of sticky tape.
• Some type of box

So the challenge is to build a wind powered device that lifts a pencil/pen the height of a desk. The fan is placed 500mm away with 3 speed settings. Ideally you want your design to work on the lowest fan speed. Sounds easy, but that’s because you’ve already seen my solution.

New & Improved Prototype

Moved the majority of my stuff into my new room. Had to shuffle a few things around but got my bed and desk setup with the help of Noor. So much nicer than the room I had last year.

So we started off with a CAD file, this one is made in Graphite.

Then we used a laser cutter to cut it out onto 3mm MDF.

Showing the pieces cut from the laser cutter and the final product after turning.

That’s not me in the pic but it’s pretty much the same object that I turned on the lathe today. Here’s a few things I learn’t that hopefully I won’t forget by writing them down.

1. Cut diagonals into the end of the job to identify the centre point and give the spindle something to bite into.
2. Mount into lathe.
3. Adjust tool rest so it sits slightly above the centre.
4. Adjust lathe speed.

• Slow Speed – Used for balancing and larger jobs.
• Fast Speed – Used for small jobs.

Technique is all about finding the right cutting angle as it varies between tools.

Sanding / Finishing

We worked our way down from 80 grit to 400 grit sandpaper then polished with the saw dust we created.

The final product.

]]> http://petesmedia.com/2009/09/cad-laser-cutter-wood-lathe/feed 0 http://petesmedia.com/2009/08/how-not-to-learn http://petesmedia.com/2009/08/how-not-to-learn#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:47:17 +0000 Peter http://petesmedia.com/?p=1577 Continue reading →]]>

So today I went to class as a 2nd year uni student. I walked in, sat down and logged on to an iMac desktop computer. It didn’t take long to realise that the good old Mighty Mouse didn’t have right click. That’s okay, only a slight annoyance, I know how to work a MAC holding control every time you want to right click. Anyway, the teacher is trying to download Quicktime Pro on her laptop and doesn’t realise that the projector is already on and that Quicktime Pro is a paid program so no matter how many times she googles for “Quicktime Pro download mac osx” there’s a good chance that the uni has blocked all crack/warez sites.

This gives me an indication of what to expect… not a great deal, but that’s okay. It’s the first tutorial so everyone has to get familiar with the MACs and stuff. She explains that in todays lesson we’ll capture an image and apply an effect using Photo Booth. Then we’ll add some text using Photoshop and finally import the image into a html file. Luckily tutorials allow for two hours to complete this task.

Now I have to admit that using Photo Booth was impressive, there are multiple effects that you can easily apply to your image which is taken from the inbuilt web camera inside the mac. I was also impressed with the quality of the camera. It was outputting a fairly crisp 640×480 image. Photo Booth can also record video with effects. So within a few clicks I had saved various images with the built in effects.

Then we moved onto Photoshop. We were shown the clone tool, healing brush and the inbuilt filter gallery. Advised to add some text and change the colours around. Then we had a lecture on saving files. I can’t believe people still don’t understand where to save their files to… Like hasn’t everyone else in this class used a computer before? Next we move onto Dreamweaver.

If you’ve ever used Microsoft Word, than the basics of Dreamweaver aren’t that hard to grasp. Basically you can type text, change colours and insert images. OMG wow! So my stuff is arranged all messy, how do I organise it? We were taught to insert a TABLE and make things fit inside the rows and columns. FFS tables were out of fashion when I was doing TAFE 4 years ago. Why don’t these courses just teach what is now a standard in the web design industry from the start? Yes, I’m talking about CSS.

So after all that I ended up with this awesome website which made me feel like I was in primary school again.

I picked up a SMC Pentax-A 1:2 50mm Prime lens off ebay. I haven’t really had a chance to use it but I had a go at photographing some of the concept stuff in my design workbook. I find the photos of my artwork better than the actual artwork, haha. Thought I’d post them here so I can’t lose them.

To this…

Into this…

I’ve never done any true model making other than R/C cars but they’re all pre fabricated. Actually cutting and glueing is a totally different story. This took me about 3 hours to make and as it’s my first balsa model I reckon it turned out alright. It’s missing a door but it wasn’t on the plans.

This is for another assignment, well not really the finished product as I went off track. Since I can’t draw that good I figured I’d setup a photo and apply some effects so that I can trace the image. I didn’t quite have an iPod to use but with a little photoshopping that could be fixed. Here’s the original photo and the edited iPod.

I didn’t actually create the logo knowing it was for a competition. Noor was having a crack at it and he sent me his logo design. I had a bit of a play to see if I could improve it and sent it back to him. A few days later I was googling isupply4u and came across the thread on the mactalk forums. I figured since I put some effort there was no harm in posting it up. There were some really good logo designs posted by others and it was a wait and see game. A few more days went by and he announced the winner, I was stoked!

After a long hard think with my partner, we have both agreed on this logo.
Why? We’d felt that the logo represented us, a simple company who’s main goal is to deliver. As simple as that believe it or not.

Here’s a few colours variations.

I’m doing an assignment on typography and layout. Basically choosing fonts and a grid layout that will suit a particular word. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far…

DANGER – San Serif

SENSITIVE – Script

HISTORY – Blackletter

Venom – Serif

Machine – Decorative

More attempts at “art” however this time we had to create a design using the point, line, plane and volume principles.

Download here (4.15mb RAR)

Requirements

For your first Gamemaker game, you must construct a new game targeted for the iPhone that is suitable for kids in the 8 to 14 age group. For the assignment this does not mean you have to build it on an iPhone – your prototype game needs only to look like it is while running on a PC for the time being so your customers can provide feedback before moving ahead and deploying it on the iPhone later on.

I made this over about 3 days. Even though I had the assignment since the start of UNI, it was hard to think of a game that I could actually create without having any prior knowledge of Game Maker.

Result: JetBoy Got 97% (Top In The Course)

My initial ideas included a combination of Asteroids and Tetris whilst calling it Testeroids however I was unable to figure out the handling of physics. After messing about getting boxes to move around the screen and behave nicely with each other I started thinking what I could run into. I came across this helicopter game and really liked the gameplay for such a simple idea. In order to appeal to the age group of 8-14 I remebered as a kid thinking how cool it would be to have a jetpack. The game was going to focus on getting JetBoy to school by collecting fruit to power his jetpack. Once I found some sprites of fruit and added them into the game it looked really lame. I swapped the sprites for aliens and went for the whole space theme. At the moment there’s only the one level but I think I’ll work on it a bit more once I’ve got more time.

1. Security
2. Location
3. Cost
4. Space
5. Noise

1. Security

A pretty important and obvious aspect to consider is security. There are two parts though.

Your Room – Ensure that your room has it’s own lock and key. Inspect the windows and check that they have some type of locking mechanism so they don’t slide open easily.

Your Food – Ensuring that your food remains your food is a bit hard. You basically have to trust your housemates. If all is good then this shouldn’t be much of a problem however I’ve been told by many, that people stealing your food is quite common in share houses.

2. Location

This is reason why you moved into share accommodation so you want to make sure that it’s close to wherever you need to be. This includes the essentials like your workplace, universities, shops, public transport. Some people are sold on being within walking distance to the pub. This list can go on to include recreational facilities like the beach or sports ovals.

3. Cost

Knowing how much you can or want to spend definitely changes your options in regards to location. Some advertisements make it difficult to know what is actually included in the cost. I had to question every landlord and real estate in regards to cost as the details were unclear. You want to make sure you answer these questions prior to agreeing to any type of lease agreement. If you get these questions answered easily the ability to commit to a room will also be beneficial. I missed out on a real nice place as I took an hour to think about it before calling back.

The common cost per week should include:

• Room
• Water
• Electricity
• Gas
• Phone
• Internet

4. Space

Your Room – This may not be an issue for some people but as this is my list and I’m 6″6′ I need space. The first thing I notice in any new house I visit is the ceiling height.  I’m not comfortable with low ceilings with ceiling fans… Although I only looked at 5 houses in the $120-$150 a week range, it did not take me long to realise that room size was a major issue for me. I looked at places where the landlord expected me to sleep and study in a room no larger than my bathroom. They offered me a “students desk” the size of a kitchen sink.

The Kitchen – Squeezing 4 to 5 people in a house cooking separate meals each night requires a decent sized kitchen with a large fridge possibly two stoves and adequate cutlery.

5. Noise

This got me by surprise. When I inspected the house in the daytime the traffic noise wasn’t too bad. HOWEVER from 6:30am onwards there’s a heap of traffic noise. As I’m near the uni there’s a lot of buses that go passed and I reckon they make the most noise. I’m experimenting with different types of earplugs to find the most effective.

So this is just a few things to consider when moving out of home. I’m no expert on the subject, I just felt like sharing my experience.