crabfu.com blog

Exploratorium Webcast: Toys

2012-01-23T21:15:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Open Make show this weekend at the Exploratorium! And if you missed it, here is the webcast, where I talked about my steam and electric robots hobby, and Skylanders toys for work. My son wanted to be up there with me. Somebody needed a nap! So instead of being a distraction, I just brought him to the stage. He was totally happy just being up there with me, I guess he didn't get my stage fright genes! Anyway, enjoy the webcast, I was the second speaker, about 16 minutes in, but I strongly recommend watching the whole thing from start to end. Update, the Exploratorium had just uploaded video of my section only, shown below. However, I'd still recommend to check out the entire webcast!

Not only was it an honor to be part of Open Make and the Exploratorium, but it was great to meet the amazing toy makers.

Also, some of my steam powered and electric robots, are on display in the tinkering studio for the next couple of weeks: Steam powered R2, Steam Walker, Steam Centipede, Steam Turtle, couple of the Swashbots, and the Putterbot:

Exploratorium & One of Swords

2012-01-18T23:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the late post.... first, I was interviewed by One of Swords (about 24 mins in). And I'll be at the Exploratorium this Saturday: http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/open-make-toys/

The Exploratorium will be displaying many of my steam creations, as well as the electric critters. I will also be bringing some prototype skylander toys, and some really early hand sculpts, molds, casts etc. I will try to bring all of the Skylanders, including yet to be released if people wanted to see what they will look like :) I'll probably be there most of the day, the interview is between 1pm-2pm.

Leviathan taxidermy sculpt (Skylanders)

2012-01-01T00:25:00.000-08:00

Here is a sculpt of the giant fish from Skylanders. He hangs like a taxidermy fish at my desk at work :) This video shows the process that I used:

I used aluminum foil to shape the general shape and size first. This is to help the Sculpey clay to have an even thickness, otherwise the inside of the fish will never cook before the outside is fully baked. Once I had a base, I just sculpted the fish, adding more detail as I went along. The teeth are made from Shapelock, as small sculpey teeth would break easily.

After making the teeth, I simply inserted them into the unbaked fish's mouth to make the teeth sockets. Some details were made by imprinting patterns onto the surface of the soft clay.

I then baked the fish, and used Shapelock under the fins to help support them. I painted the fish with acrylic paint.... the cheap stuff that's made for crafts/kids, which are thicker than model acrylic paint. Plus they are super cheap, a dozen colors for a few bucks.

My son also joined me for a while, painting his dinosaurs alongside me, as seen in the video, which was a really amazing experience for me. I added some gloss to the mouth/eyes, and glued the them into place. Last step was to stain the wood plague and epoxy the fish into his permanent home.

It was fun making this thing. The Leviathan fish was something that I had designed and modeled for Skylanders, but you only see him for a second in the game, so it's nice to show him off as a trophy fish :)

TIME For Kids interview

2011-12-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

A little while back, I had an interview with TIME for Kids about what I did for Skylanders. Here is the article!

http://www.timeforkids.com/news/creating-skylanders/24012

Skylanders on SketchBook News

2011-12-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

I'm on SketchBook news, showing some Skylanders concept art and prototype toys!

http://www.sketchbooknews.com/news/skylanders.html

Inkling Review Followup

2011-12-05T23:30:00.000-08:00

Recently, I posted a blog & video review for the Wacom Iinkling. The video was made after I've done a handful of quick sketches and tests. The result were pretty good, although not perfect. But after another week of use, the overall results are rather finicky and unpredictable.

Inkling example on a good day.... these lines
were fairly accurate.

The product looks and feels really nice, but the technology is just not consistent enough. To test and improve the accuracy, I've tested it on an normal sketchbook, and compared it to the inkling and the paper taped onto the table. Below are experiments to see if the paper and device movement is the problem for the inaccuracy. I drew the grid first, then filled each box with a circle, one row at a time from top to bottom. Then I added an triangle to each, then crossed the circles. Lastly I drew an X on the top of each triangle, roughly connecting the sides of the triangle. This is to see if accuracy is an issue coming back to a specific spot, after using on parts far from the previous spot. The results were the taped version was better, but still inconsistent and can be off. See bottom rows of each, and you can see that the further the worse the accuracy gets. These are roughly 8x5 papers.... any bigger than this, the lines will be pretty consistently bad.

used on a regular hard cover sketch book, and
used as intended - sitting on the couch just
drawing without moving the sketch book too
much. Results can be pretty off, not many
of the X's match up to the triangles. inaccuracies
gets worse, the further from the device,
see how bad it is on row 8.

Inkling and paper taped onto a table, to insure
that nothing moves. The inaccuracy is still
present, but not nearly as bad as using on a
sketchbook. See the inaccuracies on 5A, 6A, 8D etc.

If these inaccurate lines happens to be on the important parts of your drawing, such as face and eyes, that just sucks, as a millimeter off can change the expression completely. At $200 price tag, it's a bit hard to justify something that isn't working perfectly. The inkling was marketed to clip onto a sketch book, but it really is better when used on a non-moving surface. So it's not the portable device that it promises to be. When you're sketching on the sketchpad, you can see the inkling bouncing around, no wonder it's got accuracy issues. I started to use a clipboard with the inkling and sketchbook.... but this defeats the whole purpose of the inkling.

I was fairly happy after a handful of good drawing came out of the initial tests. But the next dozen drawing were so off, that not many were really worth salvaging. At this point, I can only hope that next version would be more reliable and can be something truly a portable digital/traditional device. What I think Wacom should have done, is to use their normal positioning technology, and just sell a clip board that you clip any paper to. The clipboard is just a normal Wacom tablet that tracks the pen's position, and records your ink lines like the inkling, but with the accuracy of Wacom's tablets.

On a side note, if anyone is wondering about refills... I found these pen refills at Staples, they are a dollar or two a pop, and work well with the inkling. The ink and feel is about the same as the ones that ships with the Inkling.

Inkling Refills

Wacom Inkling Review, Problems and Solutions

2011-11-27T07:13:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: I'm a Wacom fanboy. I'm an also a SketchBook Pro fanatic. Neither one asked me to do this review.... no matter how many times I've begged. So now that's out of the way, let's get to this Inkling business.

Wacom Inkling took the digital art world by storm when it was announced in August. I pre ordered it as soon as I saw it.. After months of delays, I finally got my hands on one. Here is my video review:

I preordered the Inkling as soon as I saw it. If it was another hardware company, I don't think I would have pull the trigger so eagerly. Wacom understand artists, and the inkling's hardware is what I had expected, but the software is a real poop on a stick. Most of my complaints about the Inkling is in the software, so hopefully Wacom will address these buggy issues soon with updates.

Hardware Pros:
-Great design package.
-Can use standard pen refills
-Pen is very good, I've never used this type of ballpoint pen to sketch, I love it!
-Can be used as an input device for your computer

Hardware Cons:
-The pen took forever to charge, and after a few uses, it seems to be staying in the red longer and longer.
-It's not completely accurate, hope that this can be improved in the future.
-Inkling clip is very small. When touching the new layer button, it can shift the device a bit, and offset the layer. Even just drawing in the sketchbook, your pen seems to bounce the device around a bit.

Sketch Manager problems:

-Missing SketchBook Pro icon, when SketchBook Pro is purchased through the Mac app store.
-When exporting to SketchBook Pro, the lines are completely jittery.
-Within Sketch Manager, the lines have verying width based on pressure, but no opacity levels.
-Can not render a Speed Drawing video.
-UI is not very intuitive, just feel buggy overall.

SketchBook Pro bonuses:
-Can open WPI files directly!!!Thanks Chris Cheung at Autodesk for telling me about this!
-Uses default canvas size, so can generate a huge images from inkling data.
-Uses last used brush and color, can generate your drawing with SketchBook's beautiful lines, and reproduce something very similar to the original pen sketch on paper.

Here are some examples:

Problem: export from Wacom Sketch Manager,
super wiggly lines

Solution: Open the same WPI file from
SketchBook Pro shows much better results

Digital files examples:

Sketch of Arbo from Skylanders

Test Sketch generated by Inkling

Sketch from above, colored in SketchBook Pro

Photos for comparison:

Bottom line, Wacom Inkling + Autodesk Sketchbook Pro = killer combination. It allows pure digital artists like myself to fall in love with real pen and paper again. I love having a piece of paper that I call an "original", yet flexible enough for me to work digitally. Inkling by itself with the current Sketch Manager software, is a fun little toy. At $200 a pop for the Inkling, you really want much more than a gimmicky toy.... But InklingBook Pro is a real artist tool, I'm looking forward to using more of it.

Wacom Inkling & Autodesk SketchBook Pro

Titanoboa, 50ft Electromechanical Snake

2011-11-15T21:51:00.000-08:00

My friend Leigh Christie is at it again. A few years ago, he and his team built the Mondo Spider, based off of the Mechanical Spider linkage design. It was about the coolest thing ever, amazing feat of both engineering and art. So what does one do after building a personal, rideable, giant spider mech? A giant robotic snake of course! This 50 foot monster, appropriately named Titanoboa, is a thing of beauty. Check out the video of the Titanoboa and Mondo Spider in action:

For more information about Titanboa, check out: http://titanoboa.ca/
And more about the Mondo Spider: http://www.mondospider.com/ and Joe Klann's Mechanical Spider mechanism: http://mechanicalspider.com/

Me and the boy on the Mondo Spider at the 2010 Maker Faire:

EDIT

"To be clear, Leigh Christie is one of the founders of the eatART lab and the Mondo Spider. Charlie Brinson is the principal artist behind Titanoboa, and his team credits can be seen here."

Skylanders Speed Drawing & Coloring Pages

2011-10-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

Three years ago, I was given an amazing opportunity to work on Skylanders at Toys for Bob. Working closely with the studio head, Paul Reiche (of Star Control fame), we've crafted all of the Skylanders, and many other creatures and critters of Skylands.

Here is my speed drawing of all 32 Skylanders. Software used is Sketchbook Pro, my drawing tool of choice.

Me and my son at the local Toys R Us on Launch day..... look at all of the character toys!

And here are some coloring pages for the kids, just right click and select save, then print out the PDF:

Magic Element. Right Click Here, select Save

Tech Element. Right Click Here, select Save

Earth Element. Right Click Here, select Save

Air Element. Earth Element. Right Click Here, select Save

Water Element. Right Click Here, select Save

Fire Element. Right Click Here, select Save

Life Element. Right Click Here, select Save

Undead Element. Right Click Here, select Save

All Elements. Right Click Here, select Save

Skylanders Desktop, good also for IOS devi\ces. Right Click Here, select Save

Mantis Boy

2011-09-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

We get lots of Praying Mantis around the yard every year. These guys get pretty big around late summer / fall. This particular one is probably a female about ready to lay her eggs. We enjoy looking for her and holding her, but she is incredibly difficult to spot, even when she's just a few inches away.

These big ones are easy to handle, it's the small ones that are jumpy and flighty. The big ones rely on camouflage and tend to just stay still on your hand. You just need to give them a small amount of encouragement, and they will climb onto you and stay pretty still. Despite their looks, they are harmless.... to us anyway, and are very fragile, so shouldn't be grabbed by any part of their body. My boy loves them, and I love showing him the ropes and sharing my love of insects.

Speaking of Mantis. Last year, we found this amazing sight on the same rose plant. This is something that I've only seen on TV and had never witness it in person. When I found them, the male had already lost his head and thorax, including the two grasping front legs. But he still held on with his remaining back legs. He held on for the remainder of the day, and I like to think that this ultimate sacrifice made it possible for some of his offspring to survive, maybe even became the big one that we played with today :)

two mantis, one head

lost half of his body, but still holding on tight

Wacom Inkling, you had me at ink

2011-08-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

I've been a digital artist for a long time now, and when it comes to tablets, wacom is the tool of choice. I use a Cintiq daily for work, as well as having one for home, it's a tool that I can't live without. But nothing prepared me for what Wacom announced today. The Wacom Inkling is a nice balance of traditional media mixed with digital, a perfect companion to your real sketchbook! Wacom's stylus pressure sensitivity technology is flawless, so I have no doubts that the pressure in this Inkling will feel natural. I just hope that this new way of sensing location is accurate enough.

The last few videos here show the layering and playback functions. It can export to my favorite art tool - sketchbook pro!:
http://www.wacom.com/en/Products/Inkling/Getting-Started.aspx

WANT!

Electric Skateboard

2011-06-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

Five years ago, I bought this electric 3-wheel skateboard. It was a no-name brand that I bought for under a hundred bucks, new and shipped. I didn't have high hopes for it. Well, it turned out to be a great purchase and a very well designed and made machine, especially for the price. It's a blast to ride, feels kind of like a snowboard. It takes a couple of hours to charge, and runs for 15 minutes. Throttle is a single step button in the back, and takes some time to get use to controlling speed on it. It can go faster than I'm showing on the video, I didn't want to go full out speed with the little guy on board.

I do not remember where I got it from, and a quick search online, I found this to be the closest from amazon. Mine doesn't have the scooter handle, but it does have a threaded hole in the front where the post goes. The rest of it looks about the same. Anyway, had a great time riding with my son today, and posted up this video. I sometimes pull him on a wagon too, and pretend that we're a train. Fun times.

Time-Laps playing with my son

2011-06-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

Ahhh the joy of fatherhood :) I decided to take a little time-laps video this morning, playing with my son at our favorite games.... trains, dinosaurs, and wrestling. This is what life is all about... exhaustion. Taken with iMotion HD on iphone4.

MakerBot, Bre Pettis on Colbert Report

2011-06-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

Years ago, Bre Pettis interviewed me for Make Magazine Podcast. It was really the first time that someone wanted to video interview me about my steam powered robots. Since then, he had blogged many of my contraptions over the years. Now Bre is behind MakerBot, pioneering in open source 3D Printing. Last night made it on the Colbert Report. Congratulations on your success Bre & the Makerbot team!

For more info about MakerBot: http://www.makerbot.com/

Hey I know that guy.... really!.... before he was famous.... really!

Autodesk Sketchbook Gallery

2011-05-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

People often ask me what I use to draw or paint. I don't use traditional medium much anymore because of one program, Autodesk Sketchbook. I've been using sketchbook since version 1.0, and it's a solid and natural feeling program. I use it everyday for my job (character concept artist for video games), and is one tool that I can not do without.

So I was very honored to be chosen for the Autodesk Digital Canvas exhibition. Last week, I attended the opening and met some pretty amazing artists. Pixar art directo, Jay Shuster, showed some breathtaking artwork, and I managed to snatch up an autograph! This guy is a madman with his character designs.... what else do you need to say when you mention Pixar? Amazing just doesn't cut it, I met a legend. I also got to meet the great Susan Murtaugh, who was the first artist in my book, to prove that the iphone really can be a real "useful" artsy-fartsy tool. There were art from over 80 artists, and many of them were present. I got to meet a few, and very sorry to have missed some artists' work that I really admire, like Goro. I did get to meet the man largely responsible for the Sketchbook line, and in a way helped to shape my art. The super positive and energetic, Chris Cheung.

Below are my two pieces at the show. The golftank was previously posted here and done with Sketchbook on the iPad.

My second piece in the show is a new-ish tiled doodle, done with Sketchbook on the Macbook Air with the Wacom Cintiq. It was work that spanned a couple of weeks, mostly at night with a small bit of free time here and there. Just random doodles that slowly filled up the entire screen, fifteen minutes to an hour at a time, so just a few characters at a sitting. I tried not to think too much about it as I went along, and just finish a little section at a time with whatever floated into my head at that moment. So in a way, it was a subconscious outlet, so I hope that no one tries to analyze it too much. It was actually a really nice experience, just randomly drawing without planning, very freeing. I think I may do more of these :)

It is best viewed as a intended - tiled. Please take a look and scroll around by clicking on the image

The Autodesk Sketchbook Digital Canvas will be open to the public starting May 11, 2011, at:

Autodesk Gallery at One Market
One Market, Floor 2
San Francisco, CA 94105

The Gallery is open to the public every Wednesday from 12-5 pm, with a guided tour from 12:30-1:30pm. If you can't make it, here is a PDF of the artwork and artists

Pics with Pixar's lengendary Jay Shuster & Curator Susan Murtaugh

Edit: Sketchbook has uploaded a video of the opening:

On Syfy France

2011-03-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

Syfy has translated my "How to draw steampunk machines" into French! Here it is in 3 Parts:

part 1

part 2

part 3

Deko-Deko Mail Beta

2011-02-06T20:52:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, my wife and I both worked for HumaNature Studios, on a very creative and unique project. It eventually evolved and turned into this great Facebook app, Deko-Deko Mail.

By using Deko-Deko Mail on Facebook, you'll be able to type a status update, and your text will highlight, with suitable animations that you can choose for the post. It has a huge database of short and quirky animations, and keywords tagged to each animation. You can also post a short animation and message to a friend's wall, pick an avatar, a pet, earn and give keys to your friends, lots of fun thing to play with. Deko-Deko Mail is still in Beta, but is already great fun and available for free! So check out Deko-Deko Mail!

Hamster Powered Walker

2011-02-05T22:31:00.000-08:00

I recently blogged about being in Gakken magazine, and mentioned that I have ideas to hack the mini wind powered Strandbeest that comes with it. Well I am happy to say that it worked! I give you, the Hamster Powered Strandbeest.

In the magazine, Gakken had converted the mini strandbeest into almost everything imaginable, including solar power, rubber band powered, and even micro processor control. So of course I thought about steam power, but quickly decided that it would be more pain than I'm willing to suffer. Plastic does not like heat very much, and the kind of weight a steam plant intruduces, would be a nightmare for this kit. If it was much bigger and stronger, I probably would have done it, but thankfully, I had another even sillier idea.

The hamster powered? that's just stupid, which is the exact reason why I did it. It's different, hasn't been done before, yet it's in so many what's-under-the-hood jokes. It also had a high likelyhood of working, so I had to attempt it. Only problem: I don't have a hamster, I don't want a hamster for a pet, and I don't know what sort of power and weight a little critter like that has. All I know is that I've seen them go ballistic on the hamster wheel, and so they must have great weight to power ratio.

Original Gakken Strandbeest, gears and fan removed

I quickly removed the gearing and windmill, cut some plastic and mounted a hamster ball to this contraption. I used ball bearings on the hamster ball axels, and mecanno sprockets/chain to transfer the power from the hamster ball to the main crank. I did some initial testing with my son's motorized train inside of the hamster ball, so I had fair confidence on the gear ratio needed for it to work.

Hamster ball, meccano sprocket/chain, plastic frame, misc mounting hardware.

Then my sister in law (who runs a great craft blog, Crafty Carnival) came to the rescue, and was able to borrow one of her friend's pet hamster. Enter Princess the Hamster. Princess is a tiny little thing, much smaller than what I had imagined and prepared for. I was afriad that her weight wouldn't be enough to get the ball going. But luckily it all worked out great, and test pilot Princess had no problems getting the strandbeest up to speed.

When the cat walked in, I expected that it would provide some motivation on both parties, but they didn't really cared about each other. In fact, Princess kept going towards to cat, and eventually the cat just lost interest and walked away. Anyway check out the video, and a special thanks to Princess, and her owner for letting me borrow her for a few minutes! Now the nieces (two girls in the video) wants their own hamster, so I may get some more test pilots in the near future ;)

edit:
Princess and the walker has made it into the current issue of MAKE Magazine! and a brief appearance on TV Asahi's Torihada in Japan!

Gakken "Otona no Kagaku" Strandbeest & Steam Spider II

2011-01-25T10:46:00.000-08:00

I love Gakken. They make really amazing science kits/magazines. Previously, I have used Gakken's Centipede, and Crab for my steam hacks. So being a huge fan of Gakken, I am honored to be included in the Vol #30 issue of Otona no Kagaku ("Adult Science") kits. These are magazine based on a theme, and includes a kit to build, so that you can fully appreciate and understand the subject. This particular issue is based on the amazing works of one of my inspirations, Theo Jansen. In a previous magazine article, I had mentioned Joe Klann, and Theo Jansen, as two of my mechanical inspirations. Of course, all of the credit should go to Joe, the Steam Spider's amazing mechanical linkage design, was all his. My contribution was only in the aesthetics and the adaptation of steam.

Mini wind powered Strandbeest

This particular issue comes with a mini wind powered Strandabeest, which works amazingly well in low winds! It was also a blast to put together. The magazine covers many other projects that uses, or are inspired by the Strandbeest design. Gakken have thought everything through, and the magazine shows hacks with the kit to work with solar, rubber band, and motor conversions etc. Unfortunately it is too small and light to be steam powered.... although I'm very tempted to try. I do have another idea to do with this mini strandbeest, that have not been done before, and hope that I get some playing time soon to experiment!

I highly recommend this, and all other Gakken kits, for anyone interested in kinetic motion, and science in general. Even without being able to read Japanese, I found the projects to be inspiring and clear, and especially amazed at all of the creations within this magazine. To be included in the same magazine with the great Theo Jansen, is an great honor. And again, all credit should go to Joe Klann for his partnership with me on the featured Steam Spider II.

Important links:

Theo Jansen's Strandbeest
Joe Klann's Mechanical Spider
Video of the Otona No Kagaku stradbeest
Gakken Otona No Kagaku (Detailed review of each kit/magazine in English)
Gakken Otona No Kagaku manuals in English

Rakonheli (RKH) complete upgrade for Blade SR 120

2010-12-27T20:18:00.000-08:00

Love this heli even more now. Rakonheli complete upgrade for the Blade SR120 rocks! Rakonheli.com

Weight comparisons:

Blade SR120 Review / Onboard Camera Mod

2010-12-12T17:04:00.000-08:00

When the Eflite Blade SR120 BNF was first announced, I thought to myself.... this is a stupid size heli. It's too big to fly indoors, and too small for outside. Boy was I wrong, this heli is the perfect size for everyday flying inside and out. I would have never bought this heli, if I hadn't had the chance to fly one myself. A coworker showed up one day with one, and after a quick test hover, I knew I had to get one... or two :)

Of course it's small, and can't really handle as much wind as the bigger helis, and you'd have to have pretty decent control to fly indoors in a small space. But it is basically a scaled up version of the Blade MSR, and I find that where ever I can fly the MSR, I can pretty much do with the 120. This is because it is much more stable than its tiny counterpart, and the tail motor has great authority. I wished that I had this heli as my first or second heli.... it is a pleasure to fly right out of the box. In the video, I've upgraded to microheli swash for longer throws, otherwise it's stock with my trusty old Dx7 transmitter. Even without the swash, I could get by just fine with some negative expo of about 50% to 70%, which gives you a much needed feel at center stick. Granted with the stock setup, it is better suited for beginners, but more advanced rc pilots will like having more responsiveness that negative expo, or microheli swash can give you. With the microheli swash, I'm flying with no expo, and it feels just about right. I now fly this thing almost daily, at night in the backyard, in the garage or in the living room, or outside on calm days. Nights are usually great, because that's when I have the most free time, and it is usually windless. It is quiet enough to not bug the neighbors, not much more noise than the MSR :) The one cell lipo also makes charging easy and fairly quick. The only complaint that I have, is the 45 degree flybar being so stable, and self correcting, that it makes fast forward flight pretty challenging. It wants to dip and pitch to stable itself into an hover, and takes some time to get used to how much forward elevator you need to apply, especially around fast corners. That doesn't mean it's slow or can't wip it around in very FFF. It just take some time to get used to it, after learning to fly on CP's. This is an minor complaint, because given the choice of being more stable or better at FFF, I'll take the stability of being able to fly in a small indoor space.

This is a fixed pitch heli, so it's not capable of 3D or any inverted stuff.... but I find it a great heli to fly, relaxingly. I've gotten better at slow piro and backwards circuits because of it, and finding that I don't miss the rolls, loops, flips, and inverted hovers. This is what I wanted to be able to do, when I first decided to venture into rc helis... I didn't want to do tricks, I just wanted to have fun flying. But 4-5 years ago, helis this size sucked, and I ended up getting into 400 size helis, like Trex 450 se v2, and Mini Titan, as well as getting into smaller helis, like Blade CP Pro, Honey Bee King 2, and the Gaui 200. They were all great helis for the time, but nothing like how much I am getting out of the little 120s. This is now my favorite heli. No it's not a high end heli, and won't do half of the things that advance pilots would want. But for me, this has filled the itch to be able to almost anytime, and almost anywhere. Currently the BNF is for $119 at thebarfloor.com, you'll see the discount after you add it to the cart.

Pros:
-Durable, due to its size and weight it's very hard to break.
-It's Eflite, so easy to find parts at the local hobby shop if you do crash
-Tail motor is solid, I never thought a motor driven tail could be this great
-Great over all heli for indoors and out
-Comes in BNF or RTF
-1S lipo, easy to maintain

Cons:
-Battery gets warm, and can trigger LVC in cold weather
-Pitches up in FFF
-Swash plate needs longer throws for more advance flyers

Heli cam mod.... pretty easy and explained in the video. I got the camera Here for $23. Of course it's a bit twitchy video, sorry. For onboard video, you really want a bigger heli, but there is something really cool about having this little "toy" like thing flying around, and taking videos up high.

Art rage for the iPad

2010-10-03T22:56:00.001-07:00

ArtRage the iPad, another must have painting tool for the iPad. I love the oils and watercolor, the look and feel is the most realistic of the iPad apps. The interface is nice and simple. Big watercolor brushes tends to bog down a lag a bit, but well worth it for the natural look.

This is a painting that I painted tonight with pencil and watercolor on ArtRage. Doing this made me realize how much I miss doing traditional watercolor.... Maybe it's time to break out the old paints :)

ArtRage for the iPad: http://www.artrage.com/artrage-ipad-main.html

Made By Hand

2010-09-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

I recently finished the audiobook version of "Made by Hand : Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World", By Mark Frauenfelder. Mark is the founder of one of my favorite blogs, boingboing, and editor in chief of my favorite magazine MAKE Magazine. He recently won Stephen Colbert over with The Most Useless Machine. His geek cred's longer than my 2 year old son's Thomas the Train collection, and that's no small feat. So I don't take what this man has to say lightly.... I'm not being paid to say this, I've only met Mark once at the last Maker Faire, but he's a hero to all of us Maker Geeks, I've been followed him for years.

What I love the most about the book, is his courage for sharing his failures. The fear of failure is what keeps most of us from attempting. That is because the fear is often legit, you don't even know enough to estimate the chances of succeeding, and failure usually comes at a higher cost than you are willing to risk. It is an honest fear that you will screw things up, because you most probably will. I will never get over the fear of failure, but I'm getting better at accepting it in my art and hobby, and thrive on the challenges of doing something new.You loose the fear once you've learned, and you learn by taking the first step, by trying. You don't often forget your mistakes, in fact, Mark makes it clear that failure is necessary for success. Every little success builds onto a better foundation for future projects.

Mark's honesty in his book, about his own maker history, was very inspiring. I learned a lot reading about his failures, and feel connected and proud of him, when he mentioned his successes. I think this is a trait of a maker, perhaps it's just human nature, to find things more impressive when you can relate to them, especially when you can see the human element in the things we love.

Here is something I'd like to share with my experience in inspiring others, and what I mean by the "human element".Years ago, at the first Maker Faire, I was really nervous about presenting my steam robots, this was my first exposure to the public with them. It's one thing to hide behind the internet as this "crabfu" thing, but quite a different animal to show my hobby to thousands of people, and to answer a million questions about the absurdity of "steam powered robots". Not only the public, but here are real makers of real robots, of real kinetic art, real stuff that these masters have made by hand. And how did I end up showing my stuff here? I mean, I didn't even make any of this stuff.... I felt really embarrassed about confessing to people, who rushed to my table, that I mearly combine stuff together in unusal ways, and didn't actually make the parts. In fact, I feel more like an hip hop artist in this respect, than a real "maker". I combine stuff, and make something new and different, as a whole. To my suprise, when I told people that I only Frankensteined the parts together, and I don't actually know how to work a lathe, or a mill, or use much more than my trusty dremel, that's when they became REALLY impressed. How could this be? I thought they would chase me out of this "Maker" faire, because I don't have the skills to use a CNC machine, but they were far more impressed at that fact. It took me a while to wrap my head around this, and to the reason why. I believe the answer is, when people were exposed to how I had made and hack these things together, it made them realize that they could do it too. I told people what worked, what didn't, and how I ended up with the final design. This is empowering, and probably the best motivational kick you could give someone, to let them know how they can do it too, and to make the project tangible, relevant, and human.

This, is the feeling I got from Mark's book. The great stories of how he learned the skills, is more of a human story, and not really a "how to" book. He gives you the sense of how cool making these projects are, which hits me right in the sweet spot. I now want to make a cigar box guitar, raise chickens, maybe even get back into wood carving, and many others projects mentioned in this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in making things. In fact, I think this book is great for people who have always wanted to learn to make stuff, but don't, because that little voice in your head saying: "I don't know anything about how to do this, I don't want to f*)#* it up". Get yourself a nice cup of coffee, kick up your feet, and get ready to be inspired. I've gota get back to researching more about this chicken rising business....

You can find a print version here on amazon, or audiobook version here on audible.

Nothing Bad Magazine Interview

2010-09-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

I was interviewed a while back by Arianna Reiche, and recently made it into the London based magazine, Nothing Bad.

You can read it here, where I rambled on about my design process, my inspirations, why I make these things, and where I find the time. My article starts on page 26.

Here are links to a couple of influences that I mentioned:

Joe Klann of MechanicalSpider

Theo Jansen of Strandbeest

My Cousin Tony

2010-09-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

I have some very special memories of growing up playing with my cousin Tony. I remember in our pre teen years, we used to cut out bits and pieces of my aunt's department store catalogs, to form new images. Pages with lawn mowers, vacuums, and other machines and appliances, were especially prized. They made great characterful robots when cut up and recombined. Even back then, Tony and I were all about sci-fi, robots, but more importantly.... creativity and character. Tony has a Ph. D. in Linguistics (he READ the dictionary in several languages as a kid), and has won many awards and publications for his sci fi / fantasy stories. I, on the other hand, needed a spell checker for the word "linguistics".

Tony is a great writer, very accomplished and has won many awards, I couldn't be prouder. His new book is entitled "The Dragon and the Stars", available on Amazon.

As an adult, cousin Tony and I finally got a chance to work together on a professional level last year. By this time, Tony had already been established as a great writer, and I had done some illustration work for Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. So when Tony signed on to publish his short story "Tekkai Exhales His Avatar", it was an natural fit for me to illustrate for his story. The result was something that we were both very happy with, and I felt silly to be paid for "playing" again with my cousin Tony again.

Tony's website is: http://www.eyrie.org/~pi and his blog at: http://wistling.livejournal.com.

Also check out "A Sweet Calling" on Clarkesworld Magazine Podcast: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio_05_10a/

Crabfu $5 iPhone Microscope Mod

2010-09-03T01:51:00.000-07:00

Here is my microscope mod.... really simple to make, dirt cheap, and hours of fun!

The link to the $5 microscope on amazon. Comes with 3 batteries, 2 LEDs, free Prime shipping, the Best 5 bucks you'll spend today.
The iPhone4 BodyGlove case I'm using.

And some sample pics taken with it:

Surface of a fossil crab carapace

Blue Jeans

Slide of a spider

Leaf

Slide of a Flea

a random tiny insect found in my car seat

$20 bill

Adafruit multitool logo

Gears on the Kinekt Gear Ring

Adam Savage Presents Problem Solving: How I Do It

2010-06-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

A priceless Maker Faire talk by one of my heros, Adam Savage, about problem solving.

via Make

On Modern Marvels

2010-06-02T22:19:00.000-07:00

YouTube, don't take it for granted!

2010-06-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 4th year I've been on YouTube. YouTube, in many ways, has changed my life. Before YouTube, I had to provide many versions of each video for download. People were having a hard time with certain codecs, and I had to supply many formats. My bandwidth was killing me, at times shutting down my site due to the traffic. So when YouTube came along, It was unbelievable that it was a free service, and so easy to upload content. Most importantly, it's so easy for everyone else to view my videos. I no longer host any video on my site.... No more worrying about bandwidth, and no more worrying about format. It's amazing that was only four years ago.

As of today, I have 81 videos uploaded with 2,200+ subscribers, and a combined viewing of over 3.6 MILLION! That is just nuts. It's safe to say that my popularity on the Internet has largely been because of YouTube. Not only because YouTube has featured many of my videos, but the type of stuff that I make has to be seen in motion, and YouTube took the load off. I now just concentrate on creating videos.

I also find YouTube to be a valuable research tool. It's rare that I buy anything these days without doing a quick YouTube search. I've also learned a lot from the diy community on youtube, and for my real job ( character concept artist & animator in the video game industry), I use YouTube often for references in animal motion, inspiration from nature, and other artists and makers.

Recently, I've started using revenue sharing on YouTube. It's not a lot of money, but enough to pay for the hosting of my webpage. Yeah it sucks to have a little banner on the bottom of the video, but when you see it as something that help support content creators, it's a good thing. Don't forget that we are getting this amazing service all for FREE, and it's easy to click to turn off the banner anyway :)

I heart YouTube. Don't ever change.

http://www.youtube.com/user/crabfu
Total Upload Views:3,611,531
Joined:June 01, 2006
Subscribers:2,273

-- Post From My iPad

Modern Marvels - Super Steam

2010-05-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

For those of you interested in seeing me make a fool out of myself on tv... I'll be on Modern Marvels tonight on the History Channel! This was filmed almost 2 years ago, but finally getting aired. I don't remember much of what I said or did, but I do remember that one of the machines had boiler issues and would not run well. So hopefully they cut that part out :) The episode is called "Super Steam"

Super Steam

Premiere Date: 05/27/2010

It's full steam ahead when we drop in at Jay Leno's garage as Jay fires up two of his classic steam cars and takes viewers for a couple of rides. Jay also shows off his 11-ton steam engine built in 1860, back when pigs had to be slaughtered to keep it lubricated. In northern Nevada, fire up a coal burning boiler and get a 100-year-old steam locomotive chugging across the rugged landscape. In New Orleans, board an authentic paddlewheel steamboat. Trek to the Southern California desert where geothermal steam rushes up from the ground and drives electricity producing turbines, powering over 300,000 homes. In New York City, find out why manmade steam surges into some of the world's most famous skyscrapers. Steam clean some very dirty machines, and do a little laundry, too. And ride a steam-driven carousel and play with some strange, steam-powered robots that are part of a movement called--what else--"steampunk."

The Ultimate iPad Stylus

2010-05-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

This is a follow up to Collin's Original Video. I'm using a 2mm drafting lead holder, which can be found in most art/craft stores, or anywhere that carry drafting supplies. They should cost somewhere around 10 bucks. This particular one is the Koh-I-Noor 5616, my favorite pencil!

Compared to the Pogo Stylus:

Mondo Spider

2010-05-26T10:01:00.000-07:00

Maker Faire was awesome as usual. Highlight for me this year.... we got to finally meet the Mondo Spider crew in person, and sit in the spider for a pic!

Maker Faire's coming to town!

2010-05-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

Maker Faire is about here again. We are going as fans and spectators again this year. My Son is now 1.5 years old, and I think he will really enjoy seeing everything this year, can't wait! If you haven't seen Maker Faire, you must! If you had... then we'll see you there again :)

Pic with Grant Imahara

2010-05-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

I finally met the great Grant Imahara of MythBusters, at RoboGames this year. We share some mutual friends, and I have been in some Robot Magazines with him, but have never been introduced. He's been at every RoboGames event, but is always surrounded by a bunch of kids waiting for their picture taken. So I didn't think it was appropriate to shove kids aside, even though I'm the real fan :)

This year, I finally pushed down a few kids, and got to meet him. He recongnized my "crabfu" name, said he was a fan of my work as well. Of course he's probably just saying that to get this wierdo off his back, but I'll take the compliment any way I can get it. Woohoo!

RC4WD Bully Review

2010-05-15T23:16:00.000-07:00

I've got a couple of articles in the latest MAKE Magazine. This is the first time that I've been in a magazine without actually showing one of my own projects. In the "Remote Control State of the Art" I talked about what's cool today in RC today. And in the "Toolbox" section, I did a review of the Killer Krawler, from RC4WD. So pick up the #22 of MAKE and check it out!

In this follow up review, I deicded to do it on the little brother, the Bully. It's a 1/10 scale (compared to 1/5 and 1/6 of the Killer Krawler), and it's really an amazing machine, see the video review below.

Here are the RTR, and ARTR versions of the Bully. But for this review, I converted it to 4 wheel steering, with the Rock Crawler radio system. Below are additional parts needed for this rig:

Rock Crawler Radio

Mayhem Steering Servos

Additional Front Axel

Steering Kit

Golf Tank

2010-04-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a more proper test drive of Sketchbook on the iPad. I'm starting to get used to the app, it's pretty slick once you get a hang of the UI.

Here are the pencil settings that I used... I like the way this feel the best so far.

Loose lines, using the same pencil, on 2 separate layers... Initial loose sketch with the layer opacity turned down. Top layer lines at 100 percent.

Both layers of the line work

Added golf bag.... Wanted to make it a bit more silly, and started in on color.

Finished :)

-- Post From My iPad

iPad Sketchbook test drive

2010-04-10T00:59:00.000-07:00

Put in a little playtime with Sketchbook Pro for the iPad tonight. I use Sketchbook Pro for the tablet pc everyday at work, so I have high hopes for the iPad version. It's pretty amazing, but does take a little while to get use to the UI, much like the Brushes app. Drawing and painting apps for the iPad should have commonly used tools always visible, and not a few layers deep. The most important tools, like opacity, color, and brush size, should be on the UI! Maybe both of these apps will change the UI in upcoming updates. I understand the need to embed tools deep on the iPhone version, but the iPad has more than enough screen real estate! Adobe Ideas has a better UI, with sliders for opacity and brush size, near your thumb as you hold the tablet, but it's not really a drawing or painting app. Overall, Sketchbook on the iPad is good for sketching and line work, but I still like Brushes better for painting.... The way the brushes and colors work, just feels better, but I can't tell you why. Sketchbook's pencil does a nice job at simulating pressure sensitivity with line width and opacity changes though, which brushes lack.

-- Post From My iPad

Jeep!

2010-04-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

Playing around more with the iPad and Brushes. Loving the bigger screen :)

-- Post From My iPad

My first iPad painting

2010-04-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

iPad freaking rocks. It's so nice to have a big screen to paint on, instead of the iPhone. This is not only a great everyday web and game machine for me, but a great art tool. This was done with Brushes, I also will be trying the iPad out with Sketchbook soon. With every new device or software, it always takes me a few art pieces before i get into the groove of it. Sketchbook pro for the pc is what I use at work everyday, and the iPad version has a lot of the same function, much more than the iPhone version has..... More to come soon!

-- Post From My iPad

Art + Science Now

2010-03-09T07:36:00.000-08:00

Just got this book "Art + Science Now", my Steam walker got a thumbnail appearance!

Art + Science Now; How scientific and technological innovation are becoming key to a 21st-century aesthetics. By Stephen Wilson

The Killer Krawler has arrived

2010-03-03T16:27:00.000-08:00

I received this giant crawler from RC4WD.com for a magazine review this week. The Killer Krawler is a perfect balance between form and function. It's 100% CNC aluminum, and at 1/6th scale it's simply absurd. I'll be posting more about it after the print review comes out.

Here is my son doing some fixin'. It's in the blood :)

Gear Ring

2010-02-01T20:32:00.000-08:00

This is such a great idea, like a planetary gear ring that actually works. As soon as I saw it, my wedding ring went mysteriously missing. This would make a suitable replacement.

Check out the video on the Kinekt Design

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Micro R/C Moon Buggy

2010-01-10T00:30:00.000-08:00

I'm still playing around with the Losi Micro Crawler, this thing is just way too much fun. In this latest mod, I've decided to turn it into a Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), or Moon Buggy.

I used the Micro Crawler as a base, everything's stock except I've added BWD wheel weights, and shorter micro-t springs for the shocks. The Astronaut and buggy came from a toy from "Space Voyagers" and hacked into pieces. The scale isn't quite right, the buggy would have been larger, the build would have looked better if the astronaut was smaller. but it was the best that I could find, and the wheel covers were perfect for these tires. I had to shave the legs off the poor guy a bit, so that they could fold in more, and fit inside the chassis, in order for it to fit the stock chassis. I probably should have just stretched the chassis, but was too lazy :)

I used some Tamiya acrylic paint for wipe-offs and dry-brush. Added some grit, and detail. It turned out ok, helped it look and feel more realistic. I also painted over the gold areas with some hobby gold paint, the gold that came with the toy were not consistent, and looked too fake, and gold plated like.

The result was a super compact LRV, which is much heavier than the stock Micro Crawler. The stock motor seems to hold up ok with the added weight, and although it's rather top heavy compared to the original, it can still climb well. It was a blast to build, and very fun to drive and explore.

Micro Crawler with a model kit body

2009-12-27T14:57:00.000-08:00

Here is something that I've been tinkering with lately, a 1929 custom pickup model body on the Losi micro crawler. The model was hacked to fit as low as possible on the chassis, cutting out holes in the body to make room for the shocks.

The model and test fit:

Primer coat:

Final truck

I moved the rx into the cab of the truck, and relocated the battery inside of the hood. The body is just servo taped to the chassis. I also replaced the stock springs with micro-t springs to bring the CG down. This helped a lot in how it performed, stock CG is really high and makes it quite tipsy. Also the foam inside of the tires were removed, and I wrapped solder wire inside of the rim for some weight. Front wheels are now around 17g, and 15g or so in the back (Stock is ~11g). When I tried more weight (~20g), I found that it had a harder time with the steep walls of the losi track. Here is a quick video of it in action:

This is a really fun rc crawler, being micro sized makes it really fun to try to climb everything on the desks and floors. I got the losi tracks from a LHS for free, and is really fun to test and play in. I'd strongly recommend it for anyone with a micro crawler.

I've got bunch of ideas that I'd like to find the time to tackle using this chassis. I don't think that I will go as far as a scale rig, that just seems way too much work.... But it is a really nice chassis platform.

I should point out here that there seems to be some QA issues with the center tranny gear. At least with this first early batch. I had one, like many other people around the forums, that suffered from some binding. The binding were not very noticeable in my case. However when I took the transmition out, there was an area in the main center big gear that would catch a bit. Being too impatient to wait for a Losi fix, I did what some others have done, sanded out the hole a bit around the bearings of the gear box. This allowed the shaft to be more forgiving, but it still catches a bit some times. I ended up sanding the hole bigger and bigger, before noticing the real issue. So I had a big hole in which the center shaft had a lot of play. The final fix was to add a single bead of shapelock to hold the bearing in the correct position. It's a hack, and I'm not sure if I'd recommend others to do this, but mine is now silky smooth. Hope that losi will recognize the issue an have it fixed soon.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Micro R/C Hobby

2009-12-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas is almost here, so I thought I'd list off some recommendations of really sweet r/c models that I have personal experience with. These are not cheap r/c toys that you'd find at target or toys r us, but are more hobby level r/c vehicles, and are much higher quality made. The difference isn't only quality and construction, but you can literally buy spare parts and replace every single piece. Cheaper r/c toys are often so cheaply made, that if something breaks or burn out, you can't find replacement parts, or the construction is such that it is not really meant to be taken apart. The higher end r/c models makes it easy to modify, hack, and improve. Spares can be found easily online, your local hobby shop are likely to have them in stock. There are also lots of forums out there to get tips, mods, and hop-ups.... and to ask stupid questions :)

So here are my suggestions for some r/c fun, most of these are mini or micro sized, as recent technology has brought everything small and light enough to play around in your living room. I have now pretty much given up on larger r/c models:

Beginner R/C

Eflite Blade MCX -indoor only coaxial helicopter. Very easy to fly, coaxial makes it pretty much self stabilizing. The gyro does drift a bit, but still very easy to fly around a small room. 4 channels for full control, comes in BNF (Bind and Fly) or RTF(Ready to Fly)

Parkzone Vapor - indoor 3 channel plane. Very easy to fly, maneuverable in small areas. i've hacked mine to become a biplane to make it even slower. Comes in BNF (Bind and Fly) or RTF(Ready to Fly)

Losi Micro Rock Crawler - 1/24 scale rock crawler. I just got one of these, great fun for indoor crawling. These are pretty new, and apparently many of the first batch has some issues with the tranny gear being slightly warped. I did have one of these, and it caused the motor to get pretty hot. However, I would still recommend it, as the fix is pretty simple, sanding the center tranny cover down a bit..... and it is always fun to take apart stuff to to see how it works, and to fix :) Comes in BND (Bind and Drive) or RTR(Ready to run)

Losi Mini Rock Crawler - A bit larger than the micro (1/18 scale), great for couch crawling. Comes in RTR.

Rovio - awesome little robot cam that you can drive over the internet via a browser & home wifi. There is also a free iPhone app that lets you drive it around via tilt, and you can see through the cam. Works great with wifi, but a bit too slow on 3G. here is my detailed review on Trossen Robotics

Intermediate / Advanced R/C

Parkzone Ultra-Micro Sukhoi- Currently my favorite r/c airplane, it is tiny and quick. It can do almost everything I can throw at it (which isn't much, but great loops, rolls etc), but doesn't really like to knife edge or hover. Made of foam and is nearly indestructible. Full function 4 Channels, and comes in BNF (bind and fly)

Eflite Blade MSR - Cool fixed pitch heli. Very easy to fly for a single rotor heli, but is much harder to fly than a coaxial. It is tame compared to a control pitch heli, but rather twitchy and unstable if you were to compare it to a mcx. It is much easier to fly, and much better than the Walkera 4#3b fixed pitch heli. Great for zipping around indoors, but can't handle much of a breeze outside.

Magazine Coverage

2009-10-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

Here are the magazine / newspaper coverage of my tinkerings over the past few years. I've been meaning to gather up the printed coverage for a while now, and finally got around to doing so today. I also wanted to wait until all of them were out of print before showing them. It's quite impressive when you put them all in one place, but they happened slowly over time. I'm very honored to have been in some of my personal favorite printed magazines, even ended up on a cover! It's all still very surreal to me.

Click on the picture to see the magazines

Tonka

2009-09-27T08:00:00.001-07:00

More experimenting/practicing with SketchBook Mobile on the iPhone, here is my son in his Tonka truck.

-- Posted from my iPhone

SketchBook Mobile!

2009-09-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

My favorite drawing program, SketchBook Pro, now has an iPhone app! Took me a couple of hours of testing out brush settings, to finally get the look and feel of the PC version.

There is no pressure sensitivity, obviously, but it can simulate it, just takes a bit of getting used to. So which app is better.... Brushes or SketchBook Mobile? Well SketchBook is better for drawing, and Brushes is better for painting :) but to be fair though, I have not played with SketchBook Mobile nearly as much as Brushes.

One thing that I wished SketchBook Mobile has, is the ability to make speed paintings and export super high res like Brushes. And maybe one day both app would support export of psd's...

-- Posted from my iPhone

Great Designers Steal

2009-08-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

Great little video about design

[Great Desginers Steal] via [boingboing]

Phasma - Cable Driven Critter

2009-08-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

Check this thing out, it's way too cool. I've dreamed cable driven robots like this, but would never have pulled off this perfect execution of concept to machine. The speed and motion is just amazing....I want one!

[ Phasma ] VIA [ BotJunkie ]

Flower?

2009-08-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

-- Post From My iPhone

Doodle

2009-08-14T00:09:00.000-07:00

Just another quick iPhone doodle

MAKE Magazine: Bot State of the Art - Swashbot 3!

2009-08-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

So much magazine coverage lately! first Popular Science, then Popular Mechanics, and now the latest & another one of my favorite magazines, MAKE! The current issue is all about robots, and the "Bot State of the Art" article featured Swashbot3 :) You can read the article here. It's an honor to be in MAKE Magazine again, but to be featured along with other really amazing robots and builders that I admire, is quite an honor. Thanks Gareth Branwyn of Street Tech, for including me in this special issue.

After reading the article, I hope that I didn't sound like a arrogant bot builder. I was trying to emphasize the importance of "character" in robotics, and mentioned winning several RoboGames medals, but I think I may have come across being just a tad too braggy and self important lol.

These last batch of magazines are all super high profile, and are magazines that I read and subscribe to, so that's doubly cool! And Best of all, they all cover my electric critters (Crabfu MotionWorks), rather than the usual steam variety (Crabfu SteamWorks). It's nice to see the little guys gets a some attention as well as the elaborate steam brothers.

Popular Mechanics: Backyard Genius Awards Swashbot!

2009-08-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

I just picked up the September 2009 issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine. And guess who's in it? Yeah my heroes, Jamie and Adam of the MythBusters.

And look! my Swashbot!
It's an honor to be in the Popular Mechanics Backyard Genius awards. I'm not sure about the "genius" part in my case, but at least I'm smart enough to not complain about a flattering title lol. Every year 10 folks are choosen, and I slipped in this year! Woohoo!

Also featured in Backyard Genius, are 2 especially cool bot builders that I really admire... Christian Ristow's Car-Crushing Mechanical Claw, which stole the show at the last MAKER Faire, and my friend Matt Denton's Walking Robot Router.

update: You can now see the article online

The Wait

2009-08-05T22:36:00.000-07:00

Just another random painting... I had no idea or plan going into it, sort of just formed on it's own. I am now wondering who or what he is waiting for though...

-- Post From My iPhone

Angele

2009-08-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

Portrait of my Wife:

Speed painting:

Cannonball & frog

2009-08-02T23:03:00.000-07:00

Weeeeeee!

-- Post From My iPhone

Seahorse

2009-08-01T00:15:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure what my kick is lately with painting water critters... but I could sure use the practice.

-- Post From My iPhone

Another fish

2009-07-30T22:48:00.001-07:00

-- Post From My iPhone

goldfish and robot

2009-07-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

Did 2 quick iPhone paintings tonight, goldfish and robot. I'm pleased with the way goldfish turned out :)

Putterbot in Popular Science Magazine

2009-07-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

Putterbot made it into this month's issue of Popular Science Magazine. It's a minor mention, but still an amazing honor to be in such a prestigious magazine! One of these days I have to scan and list off all of the magazines that my machines have been in. Anyway you can see the little mention HERE.

eagleman and pimpkin

2009-07-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

A couple of more iphone paintings. Not sure where ideas come from, but I guess I was trying to make eagleman some alternate universe Gatchaman or something. And pimpkin...alternate universe Cinderella pumpkinmobile?

Speed Painting videos (iphone brushes app)

2009-07-27T23:51:00.000-07:00

Some speed painting videos of the previous post:

Soon after posting these videos on youtube, "water play" got on youtube's spotlight videos, and getting lots of hits :) Then my buddy at MAKE blogged about these vids! thanks Gareth!

My very first post - iphone art

2009-07-27T22:15:00.001-07:00

Here is my very first blog post.... it's a collection of quick paintings made on the iphone using Brushes app. This represents just a tad over a month of play on my free time, taking anywhere from about 1/2 hr to 1 & 1/5 hr each. Most are of my son, just trying to learn this painting nonsense :)