Work In Progress 2015/2016

robbidobbs · Post by **robbidobbs** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 7:14 am

Cut interior signs and collated the MORE TP signs last night.
Goal is to make or do something significant re prep every day.

robbidobbs · Post by **robbidobbs** » Sun Jun 07, 2015 5:29 pm

Just finished the Pottie Friend laminates. Blue this year cause I ran out of the other colors and I'm cheap.

Zona · Post by **Zona** » Sun Jun 07, 2015 6:36 pm

So what if (My work is you)...
And we already know that, do I have to remind you?

Asking in the wrong direction to show I have NOT been paid for all that.

Watch out for...life path taking...

motskyroonmatick · Post by **motskyroonmatick** » Sun Jun 07, 2015 7:57 pm

melodiousdirge wrote:
motskyroonmatick wrote:This was an experiment at making a fuel efficient people warmer.
This is a cool idea - I hadn't heard of such a stove before; I'll have to add it to the list. For the sake of interest on people warmers, I was able to make an 4xAA battery powered forced draft pellet stove for last year that would burn for about an hour on a couple of pounds of pellets and produce a huge amount of heat. This year I want to add a damper to it to increase burn time.

Instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Large-p ... /?ALLSTEPS

Photo of mine during a test run, prior to installing the battery holder. You can see why I want a damper - it throws hazardous amounts of flameage:

Nice! I've puzzled on a pellet fueled warmer since pellets are so energy dense. This gives me some great things to consider. I bought myself a plasma cutter over the weekend so warming stove creation/modification mayhem is going up a notch soon. The Rocket Stove based people warmer is going to get altered since it doesn't do well on non split fuel. I'll post the results.

melodiousdirge · Post by **melodiousdirge** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 7:32 am

trilobyte wrote:@melodiousdirge, if the wind from the fire were strong enough, then you wouldn't need the fans in the first place? I was reading it as being that the fire tornado art pieces you see are pretty fucking cool, what do you think it would take to scale that up to a size so that the burning of the man was the base fire? At least in my head, we're talking about a column of fire tornado going up hundreds if not thousands of feet. Crazy and awesome all at once.

I don't really know on the scale - haven't researched it enough, but I have definitely seen ones that don't use fans; the heat from the fire generates the upward draft, usually contained inside a mesh or glass tube, and at the base the air is let in through angled vanes, creating the swirling. I'm not entirely sure whether the containing tube is required; it seems advisable but impractical for something on the scale of the man. I'm actually having trouble finding examples of duct driven fire vortices online though... as you say most people seem to use fans, and/or a rotating base to get the swirling started.

Post by **trilobyte** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 4:48 pm

I think at that point, it's all way the hell outside the realm of practical or possible.

Moving right along, we made some fantastic progress on the art posters in the last week. Posters number 5 and 6 are done and off to the printer. Number 5 is the 'Aquatica' project I've been posting on and off in this thread for a while. It started last fall as a series of sketches, and then got fleshed out in a big way at the end of last year. I knew what I wanted to do, but realizing it was going to take a ton of work as well as me doing some research on figuring out how to achieve the result that I wanted. A big chunk of January and February went into that, as well as the tinkering and trial and error of getting the water element just right. Then we both got busy and it wound up on the back burner (so to speak).... and when we came back to it and got all the elements ready I just wasn't happy with how they were working together. That took lots and lots more tinkering, and banging our heads up against random walls, and to the point where I think we were each ready to scrap it and go do a completely different theme instead. Fortunately I hung in there a bit longer, and eventually cracked it. I spent most of last week making a bunch of new models and textures and getting all that to go, and it came together beautifully - we're both really happy with how it came out.

Poster #6 was also done in a series of sketches last fall, and I had my notes about the elements and things I wanted in the piece... but otherwise it's just been something I've been thinking about. I knew I wanted that one to be more abstract and surreal, and later came to the conclusion that I wanted fractal art. I've long been a fan, and have been dabbling with various programs that can generate fractals for years and years. As luck would have it, one of the apps I enjoy came out with a big upgrade last month, and that really opened the door for me on the project. I had just played with the free version in the past, and with this release they changed it so that the app itself is totally free, but you can buy an in-app purchase for additional key features. I took the plunge on that, upgrading to be able to create unlimited resolution and also to be able to use both the CPU's and GPU's (graphics cards) in my computer. That let me start playing around in a way that I've never been able to in the past. Working in 'normal' resolutions for computer-monitor sized images took no time at all, and then ramping things up to make larger images went pretty quickly too. I've been having a lot of fun tinkering for the last few weeks, and eventually came up with something that I thought would be perfect as the primary design element on the poster. Since a good fractal tends to get more interesting the bigger and more detailed that it gets, I doubled the number of dots per inch on this poster, making what is easily the biggest image I've ever worked on (21,600 pixels wide times 28,800 pixels high, totaling just over 622 million pixels). Using all my computer's monstrous horsepower it was able to create that image in around 6 hours - for kicks I looked at trying to make the same image on my laptop (which is no slouch), and that would have taken months to complete. From there, I had some other elements to work in, including a fair amount of 'hand painting' using a pen and tablet... and I think it'll be a dazzler. I ended up having to make special arrangements with the printing company we're working with to have the banners printed. They can print at that resolution, but the file size was way over what they can handle on their web site. They've been great to work with, got us taken care of quickly, and I approved the proofs on both banners earlier today. 6 down, 2 left to go - woohoo!

southern crone · Post by **southern crone** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 12:01 am

Post by **trilobyte** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:09 am

Thanks! I like that the printer I'm working with is excited about what they do. Not only were they all kinds of helpful and sounded like they were interested in the project, but they turned the job around and got it done and shipped in no time. We didn't express or rush the order, and they normally get it printed and then shipped in 7-10 days... but on that order they did both in less than a day. Man, I can't wait to see how they came out.

Meanwhile, my 'magificent simulacra' is starting to take shape...

That's a vague and ambiguous rough pass on an early version of what I'm working on... in fact it only looked that way on the screen for a few seconds before the next phase of the render started to get drawn. I like it, though... all abstract and blocky.

Post by **trilobyte** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 2:27 pm

#5 and #6 arrived from the printer yesterday, and I couldn't be happier with how they came out. The added detail on the uber-high resolution poster really looks beautiful, too - it was well worth the extra effort to make that one happen the way it did. I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel on this project. All the hard work is done on poster #7, we're just tweaking a few of the tiniest of details. Poster #8 is also well underway and coming together quickly. Then it's on to the rest of the stuff!

Jovankat · Post by **Jovankat** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 9:30 pm

I have no fun pictures but I just sent a signed contract back the BRC Storage Container Program. Starting this year my camp has it's very own shipping container! It's going to make year round storage and transport costs to and from the burn much cheaper in the long run and I'm excited about being able to put a couch on top of it to watch sunset/sunrises from!

No we've just got to finish paying for it

Post by **trilobyte** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 11:05 am

Congrats (though that might be a better fit for the one item a day thread). We waited a few years before getting on board the container program, just because our camp's growth and evolution meant that we were changing out a lot of different pieces from year to year and we didn't have very much infrastructure that we were content to lock up and not have any access to outside of the event. Well, that and the upfront costs were out of reach for a while there. Now that we have enough gear to justify it we'll be able to save a bundle on year round storage/transportation.

On the subject of Work In Progress, I'm really happy to finally be able to say that we've finished all the posters! I put another 5 or 6 hours into my Magnificent Simulacra piece yesterday, and then Pandorra and I worked on the final details (titling) this morning. On the other piece we had already both put in a ton of time considering reference photos, working on patterns and textures and other 'pre-production' stuff, so she was able to rip through that piece and get 'er done by the end of last night. Everything's been flight checked and #7 and #8 have been sent off to the printer, so now we can move on to other things.

Next up for me is to finish a design (currently in bar napkin and back of my mind mode) for a hutch to build for our workbench, that way we have a place to put tools and appliances we're not currently using. You probably know the drill, you use something often enough that when you're done you leave it out instead of putting away.. do that enough times and the workbench gets to be too cluttered and you don't have room to work on stuff. Since we're arty geeks, I didn't want to just do a utilitarian shelf... so now it's arty hutch time. Pics to follow as that one takes shape. Then I've got some ziggurat part designs to rethink and make, and then baskets and battery setups to sort out for our trikes. Pandorra had wanted to do the baskets with wood, so she could also use it as a platform to build/attach art to... but I'm leaning towards sheet metal to keep it strong and light.

robbidobbs · Post by **robbidobbs** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 6:42 pm

Camper shell cleaned, gap on the way to being covered in vinyl, spar varnish paint on one side of front "window" plywood, short sawhorse built for rear stability. My little house is coming along nicely.

ingvar · Post by **ingvar** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 3:03 am

torrey.smith wrote:

I want to burn something on the Playa this year

I'm working on a new way to join basic dimensional lumber (2x4's) for use in geodesic structures, possibly non-spherical in nature.

Unreally cool idea!
https://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic ... 6#p1047563

In my opinion you invented the most effective connection for mesh structures of wood struts.
No metal parts. Simple assembly.
It is possible to make auxiliary fittings with patterns, then ends of struts can be milled by manual milling machine.

Thank you very much, torrey.smith!

bigbluedoggy · Post by **bigbluedoggy** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:05 am

These projects are all looking really cool this year! Thought I'd give you all a little Vortex update. Been fun to have a bigger project to get into this year. I haven't built anything big and silly since 2011! I'm pretty much on schedule but its getting to be crunch time! Yikes!

ygmir · Post by **ygmir** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:16 am

wow BBD!!!!
can't wait!!

burner von braun · Post by **burner von braun** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 10:41 am

Great work everyone!

..and BBD, if I might ask, how did you go about making the big steel rings?

bigbluedoggy · Post by **bigbluedoggy** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 10:57 am

I don't work in steel, (I know, right?), so I had to farm it out. Presuming the 1.5" x 3" 11ga tubing went thru a very large press to become circular. Not the kind of equipment one keeps in the average garage.

ygmir · Post by **ygmir** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 12:48 pm

bigbluedoggy wrote:I don't work in steel, (I know, right?), so I had to farm it out. Presuming the 1.5" x 3" 11ga tubing went thru a very large press to become circular. Not the kind of equipment one keeps in the average garage.

or a roller, for round.

bigbluedoggy · Post by **bigbluedoggy** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 12:55 pm

Yup... a big roller presser thingy... yup that thing.

digital · Post by **digital** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:42 am

Just about done with my Arduino WS2812B LED Scooter. So far, 120 of 240 pixels added. Paint job complete. Next step is to harden the thing with either silicon or fiberglass -- not sure yet what to use to protect the LEDs and fittings. Also need to write a few more programs for the LEDs and assign each one to a rotary dial. So, for example, when we go out to light pyro I can enable a caution mode to blink full power orange / red. This is a problem we had last year and it will be nice to warn folks nearby. Another would be full power red green blue to act as a white light when needed.

As for the scooter, not ideal for BM but it was free. Should give me a bit more mobility at night instead of the damn bike. Maybe the budget next year will allow for a larger vehicle.

[media]

Post by **trilobyte** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:30 pm

Wow, Digital, that looks awesome! And cool idea for pyro/fire safety, too. And a free scooter's a great place to start, you can always scale things up down the road.

Posters # 7 and # 8 have come back from the printer, we're really happy with how they turned out. The whole project has really exceeded all our expectations, it feels like some of our best work. Our current plan is to reveal web versions of the art online next month, around the time that placement get announced. We've been posting pics of all the previous years' art theme posters on our camp thread and FB page, etc. in the run-up. I've been working on the next big update to our camp's website to go with the reveal, there are a few other things I want to either finish or update too. Then of course there's all the other playa projects... tis the season!

Post by **Elderberry** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:34 pm

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 11:59 am

There's no such thing as heavy duty struts for the suspension on the Land Yacht so I need to make my own. I'm going today to get some Chevy truck front coil springs to cut/torch until they fit these too-wimpy small GM front-drive struts I'm using as rear suspension. I'm guessing that since the boat's weight is similar to the truck these springs are coming out of, I should be in the right ballpark.

Post by **trilobyte** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 7:40 am

I take it back when I said we were really happy with how they turned out. Closer scrutiny of one of them left us with mixed feelings about how the colors came out. Everything looked fine on my end (that is, the poster perfectly matched what was on my screen), but not so much with my girlfriend's machine. I did some troubleshooting and found a discrepancy in the color correction setup for her computer's display and what the document was using. Normally when working on something for the computer screen such a slight discrepancy isn't noticeable (which is why she hadn't noticed it), but large format printing is a different beast. I got everything calibrated on her system, then fine-tuned the poster so everything was hunky dory. That's been sent off to the printer, we'll hopefully have that back within the next week or so.

We also dialed up four different postcards. In a perfect world the standard postcard aspect ratio would have been identical to the aspect ratio on our posters... but no such luck. So we took the elements from the 3:4 posters and re-worked them so they'd fit the 2:3 ratio of a postcard. We usually bring a couple fun postcards and stamps to either use or gift each year, and we've wanted to make our own postcards for a few years now, so this is a nice 'bonus art' project.

digital · Post by **digital** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 1:18 pm

That's great news with the posters Trilobyte! Can't wait to see them on playa.

LED Scooter programming complete. Programming modes to a rotary encoder failed. Instead it uses a simple push button mode selection. I might still wire the encoder such that it controls brightness.

[media]

Tin Halo · Post by **Tin Halo** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 12:05 am

I've been in San Diego - for the first time ever - this past week. Leaving tomorrow evening.

Been installing a recording studio in a private residence, for an NBA player who will (hopefully, if you listen to his wife) retire next year, and will pick up the sax and trombone he put down in order to be a baller. Bitch of a job; General contractor has had fluctuating deadlines so instead of walking away from a pristine showroom of audio gear goodness we're having to settle for paint paper on the floor and unfinished doors and frames. Frustrating. Flip side is a ginormous 10kSF mansion in the Santaluz 'community' that, while gorgeous and enthralling and all that, is hauntingly reminiscent of a Stephen King novel, or the Stepford Wives. Weird isolation. The guy next door is one of the founders of Qualcomm and the people at the end of the cul-de-sac are the inventors of some golf club grip material (can't remember the name at the moment but it's well-known). That kind of money. Big lots, huge homes, well-designed, rustic Med look... nice place, but for the exclusion. Completely out of touch. I honestly wonder how long it'll be before the clients decide it's not a comfortable place to live anymore and put it on the market.

San Diego, on the other hand, has me in a state of "mild crush" and I gotta be honest when I tell you that for the first time in 17 years I'm not terribly interested in staying in Colorado anymore. What I'll do here, how I'll get here, etc. I have no idea but the whole place (well, Solana Beach for the most part because that's where we're staying and I know it's kind of moneyed here but still accessible) has worked its way into my system so easily that I have found myself forgetting I don't live here.

Post by **AntiM** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 6:01 am

San Diego is marvelous; I have lived there three times thanks to the Navy (born, raised, joined, and married Navy!). Have lived on Coronado and in Birdland, and 32nd Street in Lovely National City. Unaffordable for us in the long run, and California seeps into my system and makes me crazy. But damn, I love SanDog.

torrey.smith · Post by **torrey.smith** » Mon Jun 29, 2015 1:42 pm

ingvar wrote:
torrey.smith wrote:

I want to burn something on the Playa this year

I'm working on a new way to join basic dimensional lumber (2x4's) for use in geodesic structures, possibly non-spherical in nature.
Unreally cool idea!
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=72616#p1047563

In my opinion you invented the most effective connection for mesh structures of wood struts.
No metal parts. Simple assembly.
It is possible to make auxiliary fittings with patterns, then ends of struts can be milled by manual milling machine.

Thank you very much, torrey.smith!

Thanks ingvar!

Following an increasing stake in the Temple of Promise, responsibilities to Sextant, and a thorough reality check from my team, I requested and was granted the pulling my Eggroll project from the 2015 Honorarium applicants (this was well before winners were announced, I do NOT insinuate that my project would have been funded!) in order to more fully flesh out the concept. I'm hoping to bring it back in an improved form in 2016.

Those wooden vertices look even cooler in 3D, by the way!

In the meantime we put up a Richard Felix ArtIsMobilUs art wall in San Mateo at 3rd & El Camino. Come check it out sometime!

Post by **trilobyte** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:34 am

Kudos to you for giving yourself that reality check and pulling back to a more manageable amount of madness, Torrey. I think a lot of people who get burnt out do so because they were doing too many things all at once, or at least trying to, and gave til they had nothing left for themselves to be able to enjoy it. Hell, I only learned it the hard way in 2007...

After several delays that may have been intentional, I finally got around to moving my batches of limoncello to phase 2 this morning (I'm doing 6 batches, so it may take me a day or two to get there). I could have done this two months ago, but had read someplace that if you're able to let the mix spend more time in phase one it'll result in an even better batch. It's a bit of a leap of faith (since I've never tasted something that had spent more time), but the logic made sense. I figure that the risk is that if it's wrong at worst it'll be really good limoncello (better than the store-bought stuff), and the reward if the logic is sound is something even better than what I turned out last year.

Post by **trilobyte** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 4:45 pm

Woohoo, all 6 batches sorted out. Based on the early taste, the extra time in phase one may really pay off!

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