Work In Progress 2015/2016

[trilobyte]

Looks fun!

[trilobyte]

Progress on the printing project front. Hooray for the company I'd booked the order through turning it around quickly - the banner arrived today and was a pretty solid quality (nice hemlines and grommets on the corner, etc). There weren't any issues with the colors, either. Unfortunately the print quality just isn't what I'm looking for. While they had assured me that as long as I uploaded a 300dpi file everything would be fine and look great, what I got back was printed at a much MUCH lower DPI.

I'd abandon the notion of having them done as vinyl banners altogether, except we're really liking the idea of them being more durable and re-usable. So, after a little more research and getting in touch with support people from another supplier, I found somebody that will fit our needs. The upside of starting so early on this project is having plenty of time to be able to work out the details and logistics, and not having to fork out extra dough for shipping or rushing anything.

[Ratty]

I can't wait to see em. The techy guys at work were reading over my shoulder about how detailed these projects are. Now everyone is waiting for an unveiling.

[MyDearFriend]

I've been working on a new monkey hut. Entirely covered in crochet. I've made sleeves to cover the pvc and am a little over a third of the way through the cover. It will take 18 roughly 3'x3' granny squares to cover the whole hut. They'll be stitched to bungee cord for support and tension and secured over a white tarp.

panels.JPG

The cat likes them.

OMG, VC, that is BEYOND AWESOME

Can't wait to see that, in the dust!!!

[trilobyte]

I'm taking a crack at a full resolution render in Maya on the latest project. Where the first "giganto-render" had a lot more unique textures and surfaces (it was a big space-ship), this one (a shallow lake) is proving to be much more complicated. I'm having a lot of fun learning all about fluid simulation and playing with the bifrost engine in Maya, but sure wish I could just snap my fingers to see the result. Even with a pretty powerful machine, it'll probably be few days before it finishes. Here's what my activity monitor looks like...



The snippet on top is CPU usage, and at first glance it looks broken - 2,366.4% doesn't add up. It's not so much that it's broken as much as it's mind-boggling. The computer's processor has 12 cores and supports a technology called hyperthreading, which basically doubles the processing power for certain applications that can take advantage of it. Maya (the app I'm using for this piece) can do that, so the potential maximum is 12 x 2 x 100%, or 2400%. Since the OS and web browser windows and email and stuff eats up some computing time, it winds up getting less than all the CPU time.

The snippet on the bottom is memory usage. It's using a whopping 52.34GB of RAM, but this is a big machine and even with that big render and all the other programs running, I've got 5 or 6GB of memory free. Thank goodness for that, if you've ever been using a computer that runs low on memory you know things can get painfully slow.

Over the weekend we also made some progress on other projects... talked through a couple other art pieces, tinkered with ideas on a playawear project or three, and started working on some of the new stuff and changes I'll be doing for the camp infrastructure. That's all still early days, but I'm glad that things are pushing along slowly.

So, off I go to work on other things while the computer continues to do its thing.

[Tin Halo]

I just started a new job two weeks ago, and in the meantime my partner and I have decided to split...so projects, as such, are pretty much on the backburner until I can find a new place.
That said, my job is chock full o'cool shit that can somewhat satisfy my project jones; for the past week I've been deciphering an older motion-control system that's been used on several major motion pictures. (One of the friends of the business is a guy that runs a company called FXWest; he"s always off working with someone like Scorcese or the like.) Trilo's computer experience is in stark contrast to mine: I've been battling a 486 AT/PCI machine running Win 98 when not in DOS. That's how this Kuper Motion Control system rolls, yo. We're expanding the motor system capabilities by adding four servos, but I can't get the 9-pin serial port to communicate with the motor driver boxes so I can run the tuning software. 98 says the ports are working fine but the tuning software sits and picks its nose. Doesn't see the boxes at all.
When not doing that, I'm working on a multi-plane camera system for organic SFX, or testing out designs for the website re-do, or shooting automotive products for Gates Rubber and NAPA.
Oh, and we have a gourmet chocolate shop at the front of the place, open to the public.

Some days, I can't believe I'm getting paid to make shit, take pictures, and eat chocolate.

But all of my projects - including the stuff I was getting ready to make out of bowling pins and balls - are on hold due to life changes and unless I can find suitable, affordable accomodations and workspace, stuff's gonna hafta sit in storage for some time. FML.

[Joeln]

Wow Tin, good luck to you. I'm 14 months into the process of a split with no sense of when it will be done. Thank god we aren't doing the nasty adversarial thing. My daughter is taking it pretty well, just today she brought up a serious issue about my girlfriend. This is good, she is starting to normalize the new situation.

Sounds like you are having fun tinkering with cool electronic stuff - I'm jealous.
Be well! - Joel

[Tin Halo]

It would be more fun if there wasn't the looming deadlines and still no place to rent, yet. Since my job is in LoDo - 34th & Walnut - finding a place anywhere near there is fucking impossible due to gentrification.

Thank bearded angry sky being for Paxil.

[trilobyte]

That render is still ongoing, believe it or not. A part of me wanted to stop it a few days ago, reduce the settings and then try again to get something possibly usable in a 24-hour window... but I held off on doing that. It'll easily be the biggest and most complex render I've done to date, and as an arty nutjob I think I've got something pretty special and I really want to see how far I can push it. So I've been letting it simmer on the backburner as I do other stuff.

That stuff sounds like fun, Tin Halo. The motion control stuff and old serial connections bring back a lot of memories, and gives me flashbacks to when I was still doing event production and trying to work with bizarro lighting systems. But interface and adapter issues never really seem to go away.. the standards and the adapters just change over time. Good luck in finding a new space, and I'm sorry to hear about the split. I hope things go as amicably as possible, and that the new chapter just starting proves to be even more amazing than the one that's ending.

Joeln, sorry to hear it for you too... and man I hope things continue to stay amicable.

I got the vinyl banners back from that second supplier, and let me tell you that really helped strengthen my resolve to let that crazy render keep going. They are perfect, the colors are completely spot on and every last detail looks amazing. My girlfriend was beginning to think I was crazy for wanting to work on these pieces at the detail level we've been working at, but now she sees it (literally). Cheers and kudos to her for leaps of faith and humoring me and playing along anyways, but it's nice to finally be able to show something for the effort. In the last few days we've cleared a third piece (in the series of eight), and are making pretty solid progress on three more.

[trilobyte]

The massive render continues, plus we've finished a third and are getting really close on a fourth (we're rendering other elements for #4 on separate machines). We're also going through some of the signage we'd made for internal use within the camp, and figuring out what's good to go as-is, and what we want to change or update for 2015.

We're also working on some playawear, progress on that is in the playawear thread. Beyond that, I'm tossing around a couple ideas for some shelving I need to make for around the loft. I was just going to do something really simple, but I had couple ideas for making it more artful and I want to play around with that a bit.

[robbidobbs]

30 more buttons in the bag.

[lucky420]

love my "omg its huge" button. I wear it to events at the morris and i get lots of good comments...yes i do

[robbidobbs]

1/2 of the buttons are done. My elbow is sore though, Prob need to let it heal for a few days then get back to it.
It's sore from when I press down on the button maker and I have to lock my elbow and press down from the waist. I need to invest in a kerchunker.

[trilobyte]

Hooray for the monstrous render being all done and dusted, I finally got that part finished over the weekend. There are a few more elements to work on, but the piece should hopefully be finished this week. I also spent the week playing IT guy for our studio setup. My darling girlfriend finally pulled the trigger on a much-needed replacement for her laptop, so I got everything configured and installed for her, then got her backups all sorted out. We also finally got around to a big update to one of the 3D modeling apps we use. It came out last fall, but we hadn't pulled the trigger on that yet. Today I'm reformatting the girlfriend's old laptop and will configure that for me (woohoo for hand-me-down upgrades). I'm also getting ready to dive in deep on some testing projects, as well as working out plans for a clean install of everything on two of the three bigger machines we use around our space. Geeky stuff, but I like to put in time between projects to make sure everything running smoothly and whatnot.

In other work-in-progress news, I loaded up on sugar recently in preparation for working on my batches of limoncello. It's time to move from phase one to phase two, hopefully I'll get to that later this week.

[FIGJAM]

I'm in need of about 2 cups of genuine playa dust for a project.

PM me!!!!!!!!!!!

[ygmir]

I'm in need of about 2 cups of genuine playa dust for a project.

PM me!!!!!!!!!!!

what did you decide about your blue water heater water issue?

[Patsh]

looks like he might try to plug it up with Playa dust....

[FIGJAM]

I'm in need of about 2 cups of genuine playa dust for a project.

PM me!!!!!!!!!!!

what did you decide about your blue water heater water issue?

It wasn't the water that changed color.

I emptied the water out of the lines in the heater, then did a recycling flush with pure white vinegar using an RV water pump to keep the vinegar flowing.

It went from clear, to milky opaque, to transparent blue.

I think the final blue was a reaction with the copper lines.

I just found it a little odd that the milkyness was completely replaced by the clear blue.

[Tin Halo]

(woohoo for hand-me-down upgrades).

Word. My stream for that seems to have dried up considerably; I'm hoping to find a laptop for XP and a 9-pin serial port so I can configure it for servo tuning and a couple of other moco projects.

[trilobyte]

I finally got the chance to work up my shade topper design for pre-viz. Working in VCarve, the first thing I needed to do was work out the changed dimensions for the two shade structures I build on either side of the ziggurat (I'm making them bigger this year)....the gray bit are the locations where conduit frame poles will sit. Then I worked out the approximate size and length of each of the four inter-connecting pieces....they're in red.



With that done, it was time to work on the shape of the part. I had already worked out a few different sketches, so it was just a matter of dialing that up in VCarve. From there, I needed to optimize the curves and lines (so that when I'm cutting parts everything flows smoothly), add a few fillets and minor details.



Using Cinema 4D, I made a 3D model of the part, so that I can virtually assemble the pieces and make sure my math all works out and that everything fits together. Here's the single part with my plywood texturing on it.



Everything looked good so far, so the next step was to take it over to my 3D model of this year's camp. I had to make the new shade structure design in C4D and double check the measurements, then added the topper parts and assembled the piece above. I'm torn between the plywood's natural color (as shown above) or using the same red color that I use on all the ziggurat connectors.



I like where it's headed. I'm may do a little more tinkering and tweaking, but that's pretty spot on for what I wanted to do.

[Ratty]

It's ingenious and beautiful. bravo.

[southern crone]

Beautiful. Will there be sun blocking window panels on the sides, gathered to drape at the four poles?

[trilobyte]

Thanks, guys. BTW, not shown in the render are the ball bungees that I'll use where the toppers meet the conduit to secure the piece it to the structure. And southern crone, the plan is to use fabric at each of the corners to help evoke more of a tent feel. I may eventually get around to rendering fabric and decor elements, but right now I'm still working out part designs and layout stuff.

[trilobyte]

I did get the chance to re-work the design (subtle changes), then model it and render another image...



I'm liking the idea of clear-coating the plywood finish instead of using the connector color.

[trilobyte]

This morning saw a bit more work on them, and I'm thinking this makes for my final revision. As I took a look at how the parts would lay on the board for cutting them out, I realized I could make the peak a little taller... so I did just that.



Then it was time to build new parts based on those designs in Cinema 4D



And finally assemble and give it a render...



Thanks again for the kind words, I'm really pleased with the final design. I'll end up filling the unused space on each sheet of plywood with other parts I'm working on to get the most out of each piece of wood. I should be ready to get them cut in the next few weeks

[Oldguy]

Love your designs. I remember climbing your ziggurat and declaring "Made It". A small feat for me, but worth it for the view and the experience of that year.

[Elderberry]

Love your designs. I remember climbing your ziggurat and declaring "Made It". A small feat for me, but worth it for the view and the experience of that year.

It was definitely one of the easiest and safest things to climb out there! I think it was the only thing I climbed!

[Savannah]

I've been working on a new monkey hut. Entirely covered in crochet. I've made sleeves to cover the pvc and am a little over a third of the way through the cover. It will take 18 roughly 3'x3' granny squares to cover the whole hut. They'll be stitched to bungee cord for support and tension and secured over a white tarp.

panels.JPG

The cat likes them.

I love the colors!! . . . They will even go well with the dust.

Yours will be the prettiest monkey hut on the playa.

[motskyroonmatick]

Just finished my latest warming stove last night and tested it. It won't work for the person who has slightly windy spots I originally intended it for but its going to work really well on playa. It passed the hot dog roasting test with flying colors(none of them charred) and is as expected a wood hog. Best warming stove yet. Going to free range it by making a steerable wagon for it soon.

[Molotov]

Speaking of ziggurats, I wonder how one would work as a grey water evaporator if each level was water tight? Discharge nozzle at the top, pickup from the lowest level piped to the discharge pipe at the top. Each successive level from the top would drain to the nest lowest level.