New brand J!

After my last post I found time, and implemented the changes I suggested. However once it was done I found myself staring at the finished products and not being happy. The problem is that I was trying to add onto a theme which I had not created for the long term, and one which did not reflect what I am about or where I wanted to be. The only reason that I can think of for doing this was fear, fear of the unknown. I have never had a stab at making it in this discipline before, so wanted to stick to the basic skill set I have learnt so I wouldn’t fail, but by doing that the results were no better. So I took a step back, decided what I really wanted, and drew up the rough ideas to start achieving this, I will worry about the how along the journey and hopefully improve my skill set exponentially.

Below are my basic designs which I plan to act upon over the next few months.

Arduino project example three

A more practical, ahem, example of modding a modern piece of equiptment using an Arduino board to make it more fun/easier to use

Arduino project example two

Using the board with another package to create an interactive video game

Arduino project example one

This is a cool little segway robot which uses the Arduino board in conjunction with, my favourite, Lego parts and motors

Arduino Boards

"Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments."

The boards can be both bought or made, and the software is free to download. The arduino software is very similar to processing in both appearance and usability, and can be used in conjunction with one another. The software can also be used with other software like Flash, MaxMSP. There are numerous sensors which can be easily plugged into the board to create a very versatile tool.

The five main reasons to choose the Arduino board are:
· Inexpensive
· Cross-platform
· Simple, clear programming environment
· Open source and extensible software
· Open source and extensible hardware

There are copious amounts of websites on the internet which deal with Arduino based projects, and tutorials for the boards and software. Two of the best I have found are ‘Hack a mod’ or ‘Practical arduino’, the next few posts are going to be some examples of projects using Arduino which I have found interesting.

My 3D model final

Below are a selection of screen shots taken of the 3D modeling process, followed by the posting of the movie on YouTube, and the final movie itself. Hope you enjoy, I was proud of it when it was completed, and really enjoyed working with 3D.

Final storyboard for TV bumper

Below are scanned images of the final storyboard which I will base my TV bumper upon, I apologise for the quality, as these were done with pencil which doesn't scan very well. The idea focuses on special moments from my life so far, presented in an animated comic fashion. I just wanted to place these on my blog to document the whole process of my TV bumper from start to finish.