The task of making 3d models for games can feel daunting. In 2022, we have many tools to rapidly creating 3d models using scanning methods. I’m amazed how this robust computer science and computer vision technology has become accessible to makers and creatives. Let’s say you need to create a 3d model of a statue and 3d print a copy. In our post today, I wanted to connect our readers to a wonderful app called Trnio and a few others. For IPhone and Ipad users that have ARKit, maker can create impressive 3d models by recording a scan of their target objects or capturing pictures. The following video outlines the process for Trnio.
Under the hood, 3d scanning works by exploring each frame and computing the estimated camera position of the device. Using the camera position and feature points extracted from the frame, the system can do analysis of the movement of feature points over time. Using algorithms that extract 3d structure from motion, the app can estimate a model of the 3d object. Really cool stuff.
When testing this application with my kitchen table and few other car parts, I found the app easy to use with notable results. You can inspect some of the results of scans on SketchFab.
In the more recent editions of iOS devices, users have access to LIDAR scanners on these devices. The LIDAR sensor provides depth information more robustly to algorithms increasing 3d model quality. Fernado Herrera does a nice review of a few other scanning options that leverage LIDAR. He mentioned that the LIDAR scans worked best on large structures. I appreciated his comments on Qlone which focuses on scanning smaller items using a QR code template. The reviews looked a bit mixed on the app stores though.
We love to hear from our readers. If there’s another tool that you love for 3d scanning, please share in the comments. If you make something cool, please share that with us too!!
Like many other families, we really enjoy creating DIY Christmas ornaments. We collected a few inspirations for ornaments made with 3D printing, laser cutting, and origami. Hope you find something that inspires you!
Interested in Building Your Own Christmas Ornament using a 3D printer? Check out my getting started video here. In this video, we’ll help you build simple objects in just 5 minutes. TinkerCAD.com is crazy fun for makers of all ages. Keep in mind that your local library sometimes offers free 3D printing services.
This week we learn to fold a tropical bird, the very vibrant flamingo. Go all out with your creativity and make this #OrigamiFlamingo your own. Don’t forget to share your creations with us using #TimesPaperShaper and tag us for a chance to get featured. https://t.co/TD7I0LZaFo
Love organizing your little knick-knacks? Then choose the size and colour of your folding sheet & join us to fold your very own #Origami Star Box and remember to use #TimesPaperShaper & tag us while sharing your creations for a chance to get featured. https://t.co/yO8wBT8k4Z
As adult learners or students, we’re all looking for new fruitful activities that we can share with our friends and family. In this hands-on workshop, we’re partnering with Google Developer Group of Central Florida to learn how you can build 3D stuff for a 3D printer, a Unity game, and Minecraft!
WHO: Families, developers, tinkerers
WHERE: Online Google Meet
WHEN: June 20th at 1pm
In this workshop, we’ll build amazing stuff in Minecraft that will WOW your friends! You’ll learn the basics of 3D modeling using TinkerCAD, a free tool for modeling! You’ll have fun constructing 3D worlds and playing them in Minecraft. Using TinkerCAD, we’ll convert your 3D worlds into Minecraft schematics that can be imported using WorldEdit.
For families, we hope that you consider bringing your kids with you and learning together.
For developers, we’ll cover a few API’s to build 3D models using JavaScript too.
You’ll need to register for a free account on TinkerCad. You’ll also need to obtain the Minecraft Java Edition. You may want to install WorldEdit ahead of time too: Setup WorldEdit on Minecraft
Hey, Orlando Google Developers! Central Florida Google Developer Group wants to invite you for a fun road trip to Orlando Maker Faire on Oct 21st! Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. From engineers to artists to scientists to crafters, Maker Faire is a venue to for these “makers” to show hobbies, experiments, projects. MakerFaire events are called the greatest “show and tell” on the planet.
We believe that the road trip to Orlando MakerFaire will have the following impacts for our community: 1. It helps inspire our GDG tribe. 2. We want to expose GDG members to innovative ideas, tools, business concepts, and art that we leverage in the community. 4. It’s going to be REALLY fun!
Let us know that you’re interested in being a part of this meetup. We’ll kick-off with breakfast at 9:00am.
If you’re in the Florida area, I would like to invite you to the DevFest Florida 2017. All the Google developer groups in Florida have combined forces to throw an awesome developer party and learning conference. Join us for a great weekend of networking, learning, and hacking! Learn more at https://devfestflorida.org/.
AutoDesk TinkerCAD – This web-based application has become my favorite way to introduce 3D design to makers of all ages. It comes with accessible tutorials to help you understand the software quickly. I have used TinkerCAD.com to engage students as early as 3rd grade due to the high usability of this product. You can quickly export your 3D modeling content for 3D printing or online 3D printing services. Students LOVE being able to export their work to Minecraft too! Autodesk just added a “Minecraft” preview feature too! We also export “obj” files that we can use in Unity 3D.
Shape Shifter – ShapeShifter.io enables you to build artistic 3D structures with just a few clicks. While this app isn’t your traditional 3D modeling tool, some of the art forms that you can build are impressive. You might find this application helpful in building a decorative cup holder, vase, or home decor.
Sketchup – This application has become a standard in 3D modeling for home decor and building structures. Sketchup has content viewers for iOS, Android, and HoloLens. (not free) This mature 3D building tool comes with a robust set of tutorials and support community.
Blender: To be honest, I’m still in the process of learning Blender. According to Wikipedia, Blender is a “professional free and open-source3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games.” This open source software supports impressive features including soft body simulation, sculpting, rendering, and an integrated game engine. While this is one of the most challenging 3D modeling tools to learn, you can leverage a robust community of YouTube tutorials for Blender or the Blender manual.
Onshape: This relatively new 3D modeling tool has become a favorite for adult makers and professionals. Many of my maker space friends celebrate the robust tutorial system and standard parts collection. The tool can model the movement of assemblies of 3D parts. The OnShape team has designed their product to serve distributed professional teams who enjoy working an online cloud solution. You can learn more about on their YouTube channel.
Sculptris: This application by Pixologic provides an introduction to CG 3D modeling especially for artists. This product focuses on the “sculpture” metaphor of building 3D content. It seems very appropriate for building organic 3D structures, animals, or characters. Learn more at http://pixologic.com/sculptris/.
OpenJSCAD: I came across a tool called OpenJSCAD.org that empowers programmers to build 3D models using the popular JavaScript programming language or OpenSCAD language. It’s pretty fun! The tool enables you to export your creations to STL format for 3D printing or editing. Code and build 3D stuff! It’s that easy!
In our classes for young makers, we discuss how digital fabrication technology will be a game-changer. In future work, more jobs will involve converting digital content into physical things through technologies like 3D printing, CNC, and other similar technologies. Students love playing video games and enjoy the opportunity to learn how to make their own game worlds. At the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, GA, I had the opportunity to teach a workshop on building amazing game worlds in Minecraft using TinkerCAD.com. It’s so much fun to share these lessons with students! After guiding the students through some of the basic operations of TinkerCAD.com, we encourage the students to play and build projects that they care about. It was cool to see their finished work in Minecraft. While the students think about “playing and building,” they are actually exposed to many engineering and math skills too. The students learned how to displace objects in 3D space, rotate objects, scale objects, perform measurement, and many other mathematical ideas.
Some of the students attempted to build a Minecraft roller coaster structure. In a secondary step, we added Minecraft train tracks and red stone power rails to power our Minecarts. It turned out great!
One of our students decided to build a huge Minecraft creeper! A friend of mine from Ampersand Arts in MaconMacon, helped build the huge snow man shown below.
You can see a car, tie fighter, and rockets built by the students.
Very proud of the focus and work of our students. I’m also thankful to my friend Jake who helped coach the class with me.
To support parents, students, and teachers, I wanted to share a few tips to enable you to build stuff like this in Minecraft.
What’s a schematic file?
A schematic file contains 3D model data to transfer content into Minecraft. You can find schematic data files on web sites like http://www.minecraft-schematics.com/ . You can also create 3D models and convert them to schematic files using TinkerCAD.com .
How do you import schematic files into Minecraft?
I wanted to share a quick tutorial video on using MCEdit to import schematic content into Minecraft. Before doing the steps mentioned in this video, make sure to install Minecraft on your computer and create at least one world.
Steps:
1. Open your web browser and navigate to http://www.mcedit.net/ .
2. Click the “Download” menu option at the top.
3. You will want to download the latest version appropriate for your operating system. In this tutorial, we will download version 2 beta 6 for Windows. (64 bit version)
4. After the install program has been downloaded, execute the program and specify a location to store “mcedit.” For this demo, we will store MCEdit in “c:\games\mcedit.” Using our file explorer, we will navigate to the MCEdit folder.
5. Open the “mcedit2-win64-2.0.0-beta6” folder.
6. Run MCEdit
7. In the panel on the left, MCEdit lists the minecraft game worlds saved by your current user account. For this demo, we’ll open the world called “demo.”
8. Select “demo”.
9. Click the button “edit.”
10. You can move around this gameworld using “WASD” navigation style.
11. You can change the direction the player is looking by holding the “right” mouse button and dragging the mouse.
12. To import a schematic file, click the “Import/Export > Import”
13. The system will open a file box enabling you to select a schematic. For this demo, we’ll select a small car created by one my students.
14. The XYZ numbers here enable you to adjust the location of the schematic content. In my case, I’ll edit the “y” coordinate to make sure to car connects to the ground.
15. Click the “confirm” button to accept the schematic content into the world.
16. Keep in mind, you’re not done yet. You need to save the session by clicking the “MCEdit” menu followed by “save world.”
17. You’re all done. Close MCEdit.
18. Open up Minecraft to test that your schematic file shows up correctly in your world!
Robotics: Building upon the programming skills introduced early in the program, students will have the opportunity to build robots from scratch using the mBot kit. Students will love customizing their mBot using puzzle based programming and the easy to assemble construction experience. Students take home their mbot to continue the tinkering fun at home.
Student registration includes a complete mBot robotics kit from Makeblock.cc.
All ages and experience levels are welcome and the workshops are a great activity for the entire family. Parents and kids can also both attend under the same registration fee!
SparkMacon Makerspace invited local makers for an amazing road trip to Atlanta Maker Faire in Decatur, GA on Oct 1st! Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. From engineers to artists to scientists to crafters, Maker Faire is a venue to for these “makers” to show hobbies, experiments, projects.
In organizing this road trip, I hoped that we could grow community and relationships in our SparkMacon community and inspire new ideas, business concepts, and project based learning experiences. We had a great time! In this blog post, I wanted to share a few stories and projects we got to observe.
My little boy enjoyed learning how to cut styrofoam pieces using a hot wire cutter from Geekspace Gwinnet. Using this tool, makers can cut styrofoam to craft structures for cosplay and other projects. Geekspace did a great job presenting their work ranging from amazing robots, cosplay, and kids activities.
I really appreciate the team from Geekspace Gwinnet sharing some of their experiences in growing and sustaining their makerspace and community too. The conversation reminded me of the importance of growing, empowering, and serving our maker community.
I know that many of our members enjoyed seeing their first drone race. Drone pilots fly their creations from a first person perspective through a track on a field. You can see a team named Cyclone FPV running the course here.
I want to thank our SparkMacon road trip team on going to this trip with me. Creativity is always contagious. I always enjoy sharing Maker Faire with friends and family. I want to give a special shout out to my brother Francis Rosario and Ronda Teel who helped take pictures to build the video below. Hope you enjoy it.
OpenMV – “The OpenMV project is about creating low-cost, extensible, Python powered, machine vision modules”
Exploring 3D Printing through Assistive Technologies – “From eNable arms, customized and personalized tools, interfaces, adaptations and functional prototypes – explore how 3D printing can democratize access to and the making of assistive technologies.”
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Team – “We are the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Team from Kennesaw State University. Our team builds robots for a international competition hosted by the navy every year in San Diego. The robots we create are submarines that operate autonomously.”
ALGIX 3D – “ALGIX 3D. 3D Printer Filament and Resin. High Performance. Environmentally Sustainable. Engineered to Perform.”
The Process: Launching a New Video Game App – “Our booth will consist of a work-in-progress video game developed by our high school students at The LIFE School. The booth will outline their journey in developing the game, key lessons learned and a hands -on demonstration of the game.”
Sumo Bot from clubhou.se Makerspace – “Build A Robot. Learn to Code. Have Some Fun. Sumo Robots, 3D Printing, Maker Space from Augusta! Come by and see what we make and do.” This is the makerspace community that continues to inspire me in maker education. Make sure to check them out!
The Invention Studio at Georgia Tech – “The Invention Studio at Georgia Tech is the nation’s largest student run maker space. In the studio, students are encouraged to design, build and invent regardless of their experience, major or year. Our booth will showcase various student projects.”
G3 Robotics & Drones for Good – “G3 Drones for Good challenges students in grades 6-8 to design, build, and fly their own drone while developing team work, research, and problems-solving skills.”
Chaos Corps / Atlanta Robot Fight Club – “The Chaos Corps will be displaying their 250lb BattleBots entry Bombshell; Atlanta Robot Fight Club – Regional robot combat teams will have their personal combat robots on display.”
Decatur Makers – “Decatur Makers is a welcoming, family-friendly community of inquisitive, motivated people who work together in a safe environment to discover, understand, design and create interesting things”
Through making and tinkering, participants will learn S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, art and math) skills using their hands, grow their creativity and become more curious about their world and testing the limits of what is possible.
All ages and experience levels are welcome and the workshops are a great activity for the entire family. Parents and kids can also both attend under the same registration fee!
Nov 12, 1-4pm
This Maker Skills Workshop will focus on 3D modeling. You will learn the basics of 3D modeling and designing objects for a 3D printer. Skills from this workshop will empower makers to build elements for video game worlds, art and 3D printed pieces. We will also provide demonstrations of our 3D printing equipment.
Where: SparkMacon Makerspace, 557 Cherry Street, Macon, GA (map)(parking info)
Through making and tinkering, students learn using their hands, grow their creativity, and become more curious about their world and testing the limits of what is possible. InspiredToEducate.NET and SparkMacon Makerspace have designed a series of workshops to connect students with the essential technology skills of inventing using computer programming, digital fabrication, and robotics. Through these workshop students will gain exposure to STEAM skills including coding, 3D modeling, 3D printing, laser cutting, and robot building. Parents and kids are invited to take this workshop together. It’s a great family activity!
Location for workshops:
All workshops will be held at SparkMacon Makerspace. Funds from these Maker Skills workshops help support the operation of SparkMacon Makerspace.
Minecraft Mod Building: Do you enjoy building in Minecraft? Are you curious about how video games are built? Minecraft has become a fun platform for learning how to code and fostering your creativity. In this workshop, you’ll learn the core skills needed to build simple Minecraft plugins. Using our puzzle based programming tools, you’ll gain exposure to designing in 3D, sequencing steps, variables and loops.
Students will receive a FREE Minecraft server configured with ScriptCraft so that they can continue building MODS at home. Register now! Space is limited! Students must come with their own paid PC/Mac Minecraft login. Students are encouraged to bring their own laptops, however it is not required.
3D Modeling: Our students will learn the basics of 3D modeling objects and designing stuff for a virtual worlds, video games, and 3D printers. Skills from this workshop will empower makers to build elements for video game worlds, art, and 3D printed pieces. We will also provide demonstrations of our 3D printing equipment.
Robotics: Building upon the programming skills introduced early in the program, students will have the opportunity to build robots from scratch using the mBot kit. Students will love customizing their mBot using puzzle based programming and the easy to assemble construction experience. Students take home their mbot to continue the tinkering fun at home.
Student registration includes a complete mBot robotics kit from Makeblock.cc.
Laser cutting: Makers will learn the basics of designing for the laser cutter by creating beautiful bookmarks, key chains, or jewelry. Makers will learn techniques for editing scalable vector graphics for laser cutting jobs using InkScape, a free graphics design tool. We will also introduce ways to design 3-dimensional work using various tools and cutting patterns.