Next Fab Studio in Philly… NextFab Studio is a membership-based, high-tech workshop and prototyping center- it’s Philadelphia’s “gym for innovatorsâ€. Located in the University City Science Center, on Philadelphia’s Avenue of Technology, our brand new 3600 square foot facility provides comfortable, clean, and safe workspaces with hand tools, 3D printers, computer controlled machine tools, software, […]
Matthias Wandel made this rather tongue-in-cheek invention to help him shake pens. Using my gear template generator program, I was able to establish that a three-tooth lantern against a mating cycloid shaped gear should just barely work smoothly. I wanted a high gear ratio for my pen centrifuge, so this was a good place to […]
Tomorrow is Chinese New Year celebrating the Year of the Tiger! It’s a huge celebration across asian cultures and for me, it’s all about family and memories of red paper of all sorts. In our house growing up, the festivities were centered around food — an amazing feast filled with dish upon dish of Chinese […]
How to make a paper-based animation… not-bob writes – Have you seen the cards where there appears to be a moving picture just by using a piece of plastic with lines on it and an image underneath? This instructable shows you how to make your own with just a computer, printer, paper and transparencies. I’m […]
CDM sends word of a call for works utilizing the simplest of all interfaces – CALL FOR WORKS – KOKOROMI’S ONE-BUTTON GAME OBJECTS DEADLINE: MARCH 1 (receipt) What can you do with one button? In an age of ever-more-complex touch interfaces, we’d like to imagine what a single, tangible, hardware button can mean for a […]
Recently, I came across photographer Michael Paul Smith, who has an online showcase of his miniature scene photographs.
I asked him to tell of his process, influences and techniques.
I first start off with some very rough sketches on the particular building I’m thinking of making. Really, they are mere scribbles, but they capture the key points of the structure. I have to ask myself questions like: when was this building built and in what style of architecture. Has this building been added to over the years and if so, in what way.
If you walk down the center of town, and really study the buildings, you can see their history.
For what I’m doing, my structures have to be generic enough so they don’t look too unusual, yet they have to have some character to them to make them interesting.
I also study photographs from the past. There are books out entitled Then and Now, which show photographs of buildings taken in the 1890’s and also in the present at the exact same spot. These are very telling because you can see how drastically or subtly things have changed. I want my models to have the feeling that they have traveled in time.
The folks at HeatSync Labs, a new hackerspace in Chandler, AZ‎, look to be off to an excellent start.
