This page is a log of research, notes, works in progress, and experiments. Images are all of my creation. Tagged by topics. For my reference, and yours.
This page is a log of research, notes, works in progress, and experiments. Images are all of my creation. Tagged by topics. For my reference, and yours.
An exercise in remembering anatomy, sculpting without reference. I relied on intuition, letting the figure shift and take on its own sense of weight and softness.
3d Modeling
Digital Fragment
I found this tiny knot while investigating a pinched twist of hair (from the figure in the photo above). With all but the last two rows of the mesh selected, it looks a bit like a shell.
3d Modeling
Digital Fragment
Spending no more than 30 minutes, practicing in sculpt mode with some of the general brushes (blog, pinch).
Sculpt Mode
3d Modeling
Watched:
- Blender Guru: “How to Learn 3D in 4 weeks (self-taught curriculum)"
- Curtis Holt: “What is BLENDER?! (Crash Course)”
- BlenderGuru: “Beginner Blender 4.0 Tutorial” (classic donut tutorial)
-
The CG Essentials: “WORKSPACE WINDOWS in Blender - How to Add, Adjust, and Remove Blender Windows!”
-
Grant Abitts: “Blender 3 - Complete Beginners Guide - Part 1”
-
Josh Gambrell - “THIS Is Hard Surface Modeling!”
-
Josh Gambrell - “Beginners introduction to Hard Surface Modelling“
-
Grant Abitt - “Sculpting Beginners Detailed Guide”
-
Grant Abitt The Complete Beginners Guide to Animation in Blender 2.8
To Watch:
-
Grant Abitt Beginners Guide to Nodes
-
CGMatter - Beginner Geometry Nodes
-
For all things to do with 3D printing with Blender
- The Blender Manual
3d Modeling
YouTube Education
Images made in Blender
Testing matierial settings to mimic glass
In material settings, use stills from Touchdesigner for image texture (color variation in glass). Set transmission to 1
Similar setings on the plane below the orbs make the floor reflective
Shade flat produces crystaline structures while shade smooth looks like blown glass
Translucemcy
Quick study of bevels on basic shapes in Blender (using the bevel modifier)
1. cone, 2. cube, 3. cylinder
a. original
b. chamfer bevel (1 segment)
c. fillet bevel (multiple segments): 5 edge segments
d. fillet bevel (multiple segments): 5 vertices segments
Bevels
Museum Career: aam-us.org
“the trends museums must navigate in a complex, layered future: the DEI backlash, changes in volunteerism, and digital vulnerabilities.” (from an advert for their Museum Magazine)
Signs of a bot from article: Botting: Methodology - a 2024 annuel survey of museum-goers data story:
- cluster of surveys started/completed at the same time or within seconds of each other
- a large number of responses from the same IP address
- a larger than normal number of responses from out of state and/or country
- email addresses that consist of jumbled letters and numbers or have names/numbers in a pattern
- inconsistent and/or contradictory answers to questions
- ratio of completed surveys and partially completed surveys is out of normal range (it is normal to have between 15%-20% of your surveys only partially completed)
- repetitive, patterned, nonsensical, irrelevant, and/or less than genuine responses to open-ended questions
- results that don’t make sense for some museum types
- surveys that were taken very quickly, sometimes in seconds
takaway: “data cleaning becomes a subjective process”
A program alone cannot reliably detect bots (e.g. deciding which results simply do not make sense is a nuanced process)
article written by Wilkening Consulting
Data
Touchdesigner
aam-us.org
Modeling a Parasol Mushroom using just the tools from the previous tutorial, going as much from memory as possible.
3d Modeling
Completed this from a donut video tutorial as my first deep dive into 3d modeling software. The plants and utensils are imported models from Poliigon. The plate and donuts are modeled starting with basic shapes (torus, circle, sphere).
3d modeling
Optoma ZU500USTE - short throw, 5000 lumen. Image hits higher up on the wall (the photograph is with the projector tilted)
epson EX11000 - 4600 lumen. appeared brighter than the optoma, perhaps due to a newer bulb
Practicing embroidering on astro terf carpet, following the texture
Astro Terf
Recycled Materials
Accelerometers can be calibrated as with or without gravitational acceleration. A sensor that measures “acceleration with g” will detect motion when sitting still. The motion detected is the motion of the earth spinning in space.
Gravity
Motion of the Earth
Search Engine that prioritizes non-commercial content:
marginalia-search.com
Free equivalent to photoshop:
photopea.com
Image:
digital collage of noise objects, created in Touchdesigner
Search Engine
Images created while making the video for Future Biomes.
Noise
Rotation Matrix
Today I had a curious scenario where a file copied to a drive on a Mac couldn’t be seen on a Windows. The drive was formatted FAT16, which I’ve learned is outdated. Reformatting to exFAT solved the problem
Images are stills from the file I was transferring (an experiment with using instancing and noise in Touchdesigner to create algae-adjacent forms). The forms are created using Touchdesigner Noise Top passed through a rotation matrix equation
Digital Storage
Mac to Windows Compatibility
Touchdesigner Stills
First image taken at a lab, where I saw algae being grown and samples tested . Second and Third images are flattened samples of algae from the ocean.
Research
Embroidered using a Brother PE700 and formatted using the Inkscape extension Inkstitch.
The first image is a generated image, painstakingly converted to a simplified, 2 color design. The image generator in Adobe Illustrator resulted in a complicated vector made up of thousands of layered shapes. Inkstitch has an option to remove shapes smaller than can be stiched, which took out several hundreds of unnecessary layers. (IExtenstions -> Inkstitch -> Troubleshoot -> Cleanup Document)
Converting shapes to bitmaps and then using Image Trace in Illustrator or Trace Bitmap in Inkscape sometimes helped. While in pixel format, color ranges were easier to select.
The second image is a QR code I generated, with rounded shapes and a cloud at the center. This particular QR was temporary, but I’d like to repeat process with a permanent QR.
Trails of thread between shapes can be minimized using auto-route options, and by changing the order of layers.
Inkstitch
Illustrator
Generated Images
Trace Bitmap
Image Trace
Digital Embroidery
In Photoshop, video frames can be converted to layers, meaning all the seconds of a video can be collaged together.
Earlier in the year, I created a 10 second video in Touchdesigner that fed my love for glitch. The shapes and colors remind me of a type of texture I love seeing in paintings - small spatters of complementary colors mellowing each other out to an intriguing grey.
Using Photoshop, once the collage pieces are selected and rearranged, then I can add some shadowing and highlights, tweak the colors, and sharpen the edges
Touchdesigner
Photoshop
Video Stills
Image created in touchdesigner, composite node (the equivalent of Photoshop blending modes)
Photoshop
Composite Images
Blending Modes
I created a number of these. I feel responsible for them now
Circuit Roots
Synthetic Biomes
In 2023, I created postcard images for a project with CETI focused on imagining a hopeful climate future for Multnomah County. As part of this process, we reflected on what could be preserved—like trees, ecosystems, and shared resources—and considered the changes needed to achieve that vision. One of the images began with a photograph I took of a pigeon perched on a water fountain in downtown Portland. The scene felt symbolic—a free resource supporting one of our most familiar wild birds. I reflected on access, care, and the small ways humans coexist with urban wildlife.
Public Resources
Fresh Water
Environmental Technology
Sometimes tne images I create don’t fit cleanly into a project, but I like them anyway. The first is from the original photograph of the pigeon from the Postcards project, edited in Touchdesigner to add a white edge and black background. The second is an AI generated image, resulting from a prompt about diatoms. It makes me think of an egg. There is something about the composition of the two next to each other that makes me feel badly for the bird. It seems to be longing to go back in time to life as an embryo, or perhaps horrified by the thought of having gone through transformation.
Touchdesigner
Generated Images
Pigeons
The Axidraw is a plotter that follows vector designs. Any drawing utensil that is somewhat pen shaped can fit into the holder (pencils, paintbrushes, markers, lasers, etc.). Axidraw has an extension for Inkscape that allows for visual controls like hatching.
I found the micron and muji pens effective. Micron pens smaller than 01 wore out quickly, but larger sizes were sturdy and had consistent flow. By matching the size of the micron to the hatch width, I created a flat, solid background. For these examples, a size 12 micron was used. This took far too long and spent half a pen of ink, so I suggest a larger marker.
The settings for hatching can be set at precise angles. In Inkscape, two duplicate vector shapes can be stacked on top of each other. Each of the shapes can be given a hatch fill with angles off by a few degrees from each other to create a moiré effect.
Axidraw
Inkscape
Micron Pens
Muji Pens
Hatching
Moiré
During the 2024 Teardown Conference, I had the opportunity to try out some imaging technology. I brought along some flattened samples of dried plants, and the presenters set up the imaging for me. I attended a workshop about electron microscopes, and now have a general understanding of it. It’s a bit like photography. Focusing machines, one for electrons, the other for light.
Xray
Electron Microscope
Designs are AI generated in Adobe Illustrator, using my own art as the stylistic sample. Prompts include diatoms, algae, roots, circuit boards.
Images are converted to 3d models using Hue Forge, and printed on a Bamboo Lab X1-Carbon, which allows for automatic shift between multiple colors of filiment.
Resource:
filamentive.com - brand that makes filiment out of algae
3d Printing
Hue Forge
Bamboo Lab X1-Carbon
Generated Images
I took a photograph this disgruntled looking crow while on a walk in downtown Portland. At the time, I was learning about how to convert photographs and other pixel art into vectors. These are samples of results converting the photograph using Inkscape’s Trace Bitmap function, and Adobe Illustrator’s Image Trace.
Bitmap to Vector
Inkscape
Adobe Illustrator
Trace Bitmap
Image Trace