# Wow, just wow. Look at this carving project I found on a 3d model forum (ST Voyager)



## roaminggnome (Feb 24, 2009)

I'm pretty young here, just 21 but my grand dad was a woodworker and I've always wanted to 'carry that torch'. Due to a recent move, I found myself renting an apartment until I see some sort of rebound in the economy to save money but I hold a great deal of admiration for all the work you guys do and frequently log-in so that I can get ideas and take notes. 

Anyway, I was browsing a 3D modeling site the other day since I do some modeling on the side (trying to segway into 3D animation as a career) and I saw a project a guy made with a CarveWright machine.

http://www.resinilluminati.com/showthread.php?p=128439#post128439 












I don't even know what to say about something like that except that it'll certainly give me an edge when I finally have a garage. For those of you don't know, the guy did it using STL files which you can download millions of them for all sorts of things online for free. In essence, when I model my own works (say a monster for a video game, or a short animated film) I'd be able to print it out, paint it and stick it on my desk.


I'm blown away.

mods, let me know if this should have been posted elsewhere but it's a project and I'll update it when the user posts more images as he completes it. It'll be interesting to follow for damn sure - I can't wait to see what he makes next.


----------



## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

Looks like computer skills not woodworking skills. Ho hum.


----------



## roaminggnome (Feb 24, 2009)

cabinetman said:


> Looks like computer skills not woodworking skills. Ho hum.



I figured someone would say that  I'm sure the beauty and craft will come in the finishing, and since it's all done in slices I am sure there is sanding, gluing, etc. It's not all just click and print : P


----------



## nzgeordie (Apr 25, 2009)

If it teaches you some wood skills along the way, then all well and good. Not really my cup of tea though.


----------



## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

roaminggnome said:


> I figured someone would say that...



Sorry I had to be that someone. You might say that the degree of innovation and insight towards the finished product for both the hand craftsman and a keyboard commando are admirable. We had a thread on the art aspect of the finished product considering technology. I must say that some of the artwork produced by electronic fabrication can get a wow factor.

I think I lost my fascination with technology when furniture began showing up made with plastics. Granted, walking through a furniture store and from even a short distance, headboards and intricate mouldings on cabinets were in fact plastic to look like wood. Actually they looked very good. Couldn't really tell unless ya went right up to 'em and tapped on them with your fingernail. They had grain definition just like real wood.

Are those plastic formed fakes being sold cheaper than real wood? Not in the store where I was. So, I said to myself, this is probably the way of things to come. Fast forward...computer generated carvings. What will happen to the creativity of our using our minds and hands at the same time? Will we lose our incentive to carry on and promote a craft hundreds of years old? I sure hope not.


----------



## roaminggnome (Feb 24, 2009)

cabinetman said:


> Sorry I had to be that someone. You might say that the degree of innovation and insight towards the finished product for both the hand craftsman and a keyboard commando are admirable. We had a thread on the art aspect of the finished product considering technology. I must say that some of the artwork produced by electronic fabrication can get a wow factor.
> 
> I think I lost my fascination with technology when furniture began showing up made with plastics. Granted, walking through a furniture store and from even a short distance, headboards and intricate mouldings on cabinets were in fact plastic to look like wood. Actually they looked very good. Couldn't really tell unless ya went right up to 'em and tapped on them with your fingernail. They had grain definition just like real wood.
> 
> Are those plastic formed fakes being sold cheaper than real wood? Not in the store where I was. So, I said to myself, this is probably the way of things to come. Fast forward...computer generated carvings. What will happen to the creativity of our using our minds and hands at the same time? Will we lose our incentive to carry on and promote a craft hundreds of years old? I sure hope not.



I don't think so, I think that as the market progresses towards general crap there will be backlast and a demand in quality. I've actually thought of an interesting business model where using CNC and Open Source Design a franchise could be setup to make any furniture in an online catalog out of any requested material. The designer would be compensated for their design through a "tip jar" set up through the franchise, of course singe the project is open any joe could easily do this himself and avoid compensating the designer, just like most shareware in the software industry there would be those who would pay and those who chose to not. Anyway the advantage of something like that would be that it would compel a new generation of craftsmen and designers to use all the tools that tech has given us and allow the consumer to simply pick out materials such as wood, paint, etc. and then the craftsman goes to work charging what ever he thinks his work is worth. This would hopefully cut out the middle man and the delivery truck since the franchise would only have to stock raw materials.


----------



## Streamwinner (Nov 25, 2008)

cabinetman said:


> Sorry I had to be that someone. You might say that the degree of innovation and insight towards the finished product for both the hand craftsman and a keyboard commando are admirable. We had a thread on the art aspect of the finished product considering technology. I must say that some of the artwork produced by electronic fabrication can get a wow factor.
> 
> I think I lost my fascination with technology when furniture began showing up made with plastics. Granted, walking through a furniture store and from even a short distance, headboards and intricate mouldings on cabinets were in fact plastic to look like wood. Actually they looked very good. Couldn't really tell unless ya went right up to 'em and tapped on them with your fingernail. They had grain definition just like real wood.
> 
> Are those plastic formed fakes being sold cheaper than real wood? Not in the store where I was. So, I said to myself, this is probably the way of things to come. Fast forward...computer generated carvings. What will happen to the creativity of our using our minds and hands at the same time? Will we lose our incentive to carry on and promote a craft hundreds of years old? I sure hope not.


_In preparing food never view it from the perspective of usual mind or on the basis of feeling-tones. Taking up a blade of grass erect magnificent monasteries, [35] turn the Wheel of Reality within a grain of dust. If you only have wild grasses with which to make a broth, do not disdain them. If you have ingredients for a creamy soup do not be delighted. Where there is no attachment, there can be no aversion. Do not be careless with poor ingredients and do not depend on fine ingredients to do your work for you but work with everything with the same sincerity. If you do not do so then it is like changing your behaviour according to the status of the person you meet; this is not how a student of the Way is. 
_

-Zen Master Dogen

Full text: http://www.wwzc.org/translations/tenzokyokun.htm


----------



## roaminggnome (Feb 24, 2009)

cabinet man, does joe get any respect for this great paint job he's been putting on it?


----------



## wolfmanyoda (Apr 10, 2009)

I think that paint job took it down a notch. Looks like a pretty shaky/unsure hand did that.


----------



## b00kemdano (Feb 10, 2009)

I just realized it was cut on a CNC.


----------



## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

I'd have to agree with wolfman on this one, that isn't a quality paint job so far. Modeling requires multiple layers to really get a realistic look, though, so maybe the project will eventually get to a point where I'd say wow. So far it hasn't caught my eye as anything spectacular.

That said, 3d printers and CNCs have a place in these types of industries (modeling that is). I still won't buy particle board furniture and won't settle for inferior build quality, which is why most of my real furniture is antique, passed down from my great-grand parents. The style isn't as clean but I'm slowly building my skill set and supplimenting the antiques with more modern looking, home-made furniture. Creating mouldings with CNCs and special cutters, to me, is no different than creating a special moulding plane out of various plane blades as I've seen was often done in the past. Technology isn't the devil. How much that technology takes over the art side is where the problem lay, in my opinion.


----------

