Carved Joust Characters, Done!

[Donkey_Kong]

Hey BYO'ers!

I thought we would do a WIP here on BYOAC like we used to back when Melissa started this crazy venture. I promise that Melissa will answer any questions on this thread along the way, so fire away!  

We have a long time client here that loves to have Melissa paint and carve the classics.

The first pic is the future home of the Joust project.

You can see here on the Digdug canvas, the castings are so heavy they are pulling the canvas. We've eliminated this by going to a much lighter carving material.


Next we have some screen shots of the modeling software, and a bit about the process there.

First thing is to draw the vector lines in our 3d modeling program Aspire. You could use an auto trace program here normally, but not for a 30 year old game screen shot. You have to get in there and trace by hand, and it's time consuming! You have to plan what you need to be a seperate 3D component. This is where Melissa has to watch over my shoulder and tell me where to trace, she can see what needs to happen, thanks to her hand carving experience, and how she can see these things.




Once we get the lines drawn it's time to start going 3D. You take each closed vector and decide whether it needs to be a flat plane, a rounded plane, or a ridged plane. Those are the simple options, which worked for almost everything, except the wings and swords i think. For those items we do what's called a 2 rail sweep in the program. (The 2 rail sweep is a real fancy move, I just close my eyes and click buttons for this process. More on that later.) So the red circle is a manual smoothing tool.




Here is that 2 rail sweep I was talking about. Basically you cut the vecot in half and draw an additional un closed vector in the shape you want to happen inside the one you just cut in half. In this case it's the wing, and we were able to get the arch, vs a bubble or plane with just the standard tools. (There is some luck involved with this one)




Just simply moving that component into place here. Honestly, this particular piece wasn't even used in the final, but it still looks cool soI included it here.




Here is a shot of the characters after we finished the modeling. The modeling probably took about 14-16 hours. Much more if count the time Melissa is over my shoulder telling me how things need to be.




One more of those...




Now they are ready for cutting, will post pics of that process next! Well that is if anyone is interested?

 


We are also currently open for new projects! custom@nicecarvings.com

This project is of our typical 10-16" tall characters...Did you know we could make these things like 10-12 ft tall now? Just something to think about.  
 

 

[jimmy2x2x]

Very interesting process, please post as much detail as possible

Thanks!

[saint]

Cool stuff, post more!

[Donkey_Kong]

Ok, you got it!    


First, here is where the cuttin' happens. Top monitor is hooked to a super stripped down XP machine, with nothing but the cnc program, no internet (virals and malwares need not apply). Then the lower is just a good ole trusty Dell laptop running Vista. This is the rig we use to run our modeling program Aspire 2.5, it's compact, mobile, yet plenty powerful enough to do the job. So I just use a thumb drive to take the cut path from the laptop to the xp machine, and all that sucker does is crunch numbers in sync on three axis. That's all we ever ask it to do.    

The cnc machine is a 2006 Shopbot PRT 48by96 (I need to learn to spell "accessories")




Now we have to choose a round nose bit for 3D carving. The big red one is 1" diameter (way too big for this, and not ball nose) and the bit on the left is an end mill .156 (not small enough, and not a ball nose). So the bit we used for the Joust carvings was a 1/8" ball nose, which is just a tad smaller than the .156, and has a rounded cutting head.





Here is the Tera dactyl, looking pretty decent....The flight stick is hooked to the cnc for manual jogging, calibrating etc via Joy To Key, of which I learned of right here at BYOAC. Works friggen sweet for that!





Main Joust Character...





The Set...



A bit of sanding to do. Being the size of this project is fairly small, I was able to crank up the resolution of the cut, and not sacrifice a huge amount of time doing so. This eliminates excessive sanding, but never completely. My guess is Melissa will spend at least a half of a day carving on these to make them even more realistic, sand perfectly, etc.




Next up, sanding, priming & painting. Will be a day or two. Thanks for looking!


 

[Donkey_Kong]

Here is the finished product!

I will try to add more progress pics in order when I get a chance.  

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

You know you want to share the gcode with us

[rbarr110]

You know you want to share the gcode with us

Thats funny, I was thinking the same thing when I saw the Aspire window on the computer for the CNC.  Couldnt tell what CNC was in the picture, looked similiar to a Joes....but isnt (if it is, it has been modded some).

[Zakk]

I like the carvings, but I love the boots.   

[Rick]

Amazing work, as always.

 

Can the CNC machine/process/etc handle acrylics?  I have a (very small, stupid) project I had in mind.  I'm sure it would be too expensive to be a good idea, but I figured I'd ask.  What's the 'least expensive' project you've ever undertaken?

 

[BobA]

Nice CNC setup.  No eggs on the Joust theme?   Love your work. 

[Melissa Jones]

Nice CNC setup.  No eggs on the Joust theme?   Love your work. 

Thanks! I made it just how the customer wanted... He wanted somethings 3D, others just painted on canvas.

Amazing work, as always.

 

Can the CNC machine/process/etc handle acrylics?  I have a (very small, stupid) project I had in mind.  I'm sure it would be too expensive to be a good idea, but I figured I'd ask.  What's the 'least expensive' project you've ever undertaken?

 

Thank you! The CNC machine can cut acrylic. I'm not sure how something 3D would turn out, but 2D would be awesome. What were you thinking?

[MameMaster!]

Man that's HOT!!!-- and the carvings are pretty good too.

(nice work guys!--  )

[Rick]

Thank you! The CNC machine can cut acrylic. I'm not sure how something 3D would turn out, but 2D would be awesome. What were you thinking?

Top secret!  PM Sent!