Clay Wolfie

This was done a few weeks ago. My first attempt at clay modeling. Absolutely no clue how to do it then (still not too sure how to do it properly but so long it doesn’t fall apart, I guess something is done right).

Basically I rolled the clay into round shapes and started sticking them together. I scraped and wet the surfaces that required joining (not knowing how it would hold). Well it’s dried and still holding together. Only air-drying required.

I had something vague in mind when I started but didn’t sketch anything on paper. Just mucked around with the clay, adding one piece to another and winging it as I went along. It was supposed to be a bear but by the time I got to the head, I decided it was to be a dog, and then it looked more like a wolf in the end. Hence, Clay Wolfie!

[View the pictures as a Flickr slideshow]

Technorati Tags: clay modeling, art

Flying ‘V’ Guitars - Three more colour designs

Three more color designs for the Flying-V guitars I made in SecondLife.com.

[Click on the images to view details at SLexchange.com]

Technorati Tag: second life, prims

Flying ‘V’ Guitars - constructed in Second Life

I made a few guitars while mucking around in Second Life. I’ve put up a few for sale over at SLexchange.com. Have sold two as of this post. Decided to price them at L$50, which is equivalent to USD$0.10 each. I don’t intend or expect to make any serious money (real or otherwise). It’s more to experiment with the creation/ buying/ selling process.

Here’s the link to a video of how one was made. In Second Life (SL), you build things by using something called “Prims” or “Primitives”, i.e. “Primitive Shapes”. Everything in SL is built out of Prims.

The information provided at the SL website on creating stuff is sketchy at best. I’ve not found any blogs that provide a tutorial (I have to admit I didn’t search very throughly). What you might want to do is to ask if people can explain to you how it works. Most people I’ve encountered in SL are very willing to share what they know, but always be polite and don’t push your luck too far, if you know what I mean. There’s also a great place to learn how to build stuff (I’ll add the link as soon as I can log back into SL).

I made one basic guitar shape (modeled after the Gibson “Flying V”) and subsequently played around with textures and colours. I was advised to use as few prims as possible. The one I’ve made has 37 prims. I think that’s not too bad. Most guitars I’ve seen in SL so far are made with less and usually with a texture/ image (which reduces the need for more prims).

Technorati Tags: second life, SL Exchange

Machinima: Building my first guitar in Second Life

Kevin produced this video, while I showed him how I constructed a guitar in Second Life. The background music was from this song that I composed earlier.

He’s blogged about it here, and here’s my post at Rambling Librarian.

Technorati Tags: machinima, second life, gibson guitar

Extreme Origami

Holy folded paper dragons! This is amazing! (via Lucian)

BTW, this was designed and folded without the aid of any computer program (inspite of what the article title says). Read the whole story, here — The Extreme Sport of Origami: A physicist’s computer program speeds the creation of stupefyingly complex paper sculptures. By Jennifer Kahn. DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 07 | July 2006

Technorati Tag: origami