Updates & News

Let’s take a quick look at a personal project that I just recently finished. One morning, I woke up with an insatiable urge to design a miniature scene inside of a pocket watch. There’s nothing like being slapped upside the head by a Muse.

I scoured eBay for a cheap pocket watch, and suddenly, there it was! I was pretty simple, with zodiac symbols circling the face. It immediately reminded me of the zodiac that surrounds the Magic Mirror in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Guess what scene I created.

The materials used were acrylic paint, Mod Podge, watercolor paper, plastic, and an epoxy glue.

First off, the pocket watch has to be gutted. Duh. Once opened, I had to constantly keep the interior clean of fingerprints, smudges, and lint. Constantly. A watch full of lint isn’t pretty.

Image outlines were produced with Adobe Illustrator, then transferred onto watercolor paper with acetone.

Using a pair of magnification glasses (I highly recommend them), I painted the mirror frame and glued a piece of plastic to the back as “glass.” Using some scrap paper as spacers, the mirror was glued to the backdrop. The spacers (unseen underneath the mirror’s frame) add a bit of depth. Wiping the watch’s interior clean, the mirror assembly was glued into place.

For the two layers of “smoke,” I painted onto clear plastic. I used a mixture of Mod Podge and white acrylic paint. The Mod Podge adheres to the plastic very well, and the white paint makes the Mod Podge (dries clear) cloudy. Layer after layer, using various opacity levels, the cloudy Mod Podge looks like swirling smoke.

Using various embossing styluses, the slave was rounded and shaped after soaking in water for a couple of minutes. It was painted, and glued onto a dark disc. The white tabs sticking out from underneath rest along and edge, keeping the whole piece from falling into the watch.

Lastly, the film’s title was painted and glued to the back of the watch’s rear cover. An artist’s signature and date are written, and the parts are all snapped together for the final product.

I’ve added a new Sketchbook/Fun gallery. It will highlight sketches, doodles, and other fun things. Right now, you can check out a funny Mother’s Day gift, featuring my Nephew.

Oh, eBay pirates are fun. I’ve been fighting them for years. They like to sell my paper models, and the photos that they use to promote their auctions are my own. They don’t take them from this website but from my Flickr photo album.

Most pirates leave the Disney Experience logo and copyright notice intact, but place their own logo or trademark on top. They’re typically unwilling to Photoshop anything out or, better yet, build the models themselves and take their own photos. But, today, I finally found one who not only Photoshopped my logo out, but placed their own logo, in a similar design, on top of the area to help mask any imperfections. It’s a nice try, but that doesn’t stop me from reporting the violation.

While I design a better watermark for all 174 of my Flickr photos, I’ve made them private, and I have temporarily closed the 3-D art gallery.

Yes, when it comes to layout designs for this website, I’m fickle. But, I’m very pleased with how it turned out, so it should stay for quite a long time.

There are still a few minor tweaks to make, but everything should basically be in its final form.

I never thought I’d ever consider using two mice at the same time. Yes, two mice! The SpaceNavigator is used for navigating through within 3-D programs like Google Earth and Blender. It’s basically a camera control.

One of the things that I find annoying as a paper engineer is moving the camera around in Blender to see different angles of the model that I’m working on. It’s slow and cumbersome to do it by hand. The SpaceNavigator is supposed to be more fluid and intuitive, so I’m strongly considering investing in one. Although, I haven’t made up my mind just yet.

It’s compatible with over 100 3-D applications, allowing control over panning, zooming, and rotation. There are other versions (they kinda look like tricorders) that are high-priced, but would help eliminate having to use the keyboard as well. The SpaceExplorer and SpacePilot are both good contenders because of their programmable keys that are within reach of the fingers, hence lowering dependability of the keyboard. That’s a big plus!

Right now, the SpacePilot is the same price as the SpaceExplorer ($299), but it has as many as 21 programmable keys (versus the Explorer’s 15) that automatically change functions to match the open application. Neat! It has an LCD screen, too, but I’m not sure what it’s for. Product details on the website are sketchy at best, and they leave many questions unanswered, so I’d better do my homework first.

YouTube is a great resource. I can typically find several product reviews on just about anything. It’s great to get pros & cons, see products in action, and discover the little things that the manufacturers’ websites never tell you.

The Halloween papercrafts that I’ve been working on are now available for sale through the first week of November. Grab ‘em while you can!

There are also two new videos of the piranha and vampire bat in action.

Photos are now online of the first three Halloween papercrafts. I’ve decided to really run with this new trick-or-treat idea. Each toy is printed on 4×6 sheets, and is both pre-punched & pre-scored. The only tool needed to assemble them is a very small amount of glue.

These treats are packed in resealable polypropylene bags and stiffened with some cardstock. They are free to trick-or-treaters (one per person), and I may offer them as an online purchase in the future (maybe around October).