IZation Labs

After following a fantastic tutorial by Jonathan Williamson (no relation) I put together this rough animation of a working piston. All of the modeling, animation, and rendering was done using just Blender.

The end of the piston is parented to an empty, and the empty is parented to the through rod which is connected to the flywheel. The in-out movements of the piston and cylinder are calculated automatically. The only thing animated in the video is the flywheel’s turning along it’s y-axis. I’ve been wanting to play with this for a long time. Next up, a steam engine!

I’ve another video rendering out right now. It’s taking awhile, it’s HD and render time is half an hour or so per frame. Can you say ‘not optimized’? Oh well.

–Lace

I've been doing some sketchwork on a scene I want to model, here's an early stage of the main development building.

 
 
Here’s a model I made of a building I had sketched out a while ago. The proportions aren’t quite right yet, the building is ultimately supposed to be a hanger for very large aircraft. The sketch is much larger but I don’t want to give away too much too quickly.

Want to see the video? Click!

Blender 2.49 has been released, and the updates look promising. Hit Blender.org for the details and download. Next stop, 2.5!

Expect an interesting post in the near future, as my most recent (and most expensive) project has nearly been completed!

Here’s a neat video that was posted a few days back on BlenderNation. It had ’steampunk’ in it’s name, so of course I had to post it. Nice use of Blender!

Steampunk Mousetrap from Ben Dansie on Vimeo.

Personal Note: The Macbook Pro has been back in my possession since last Thursday. Unfortunately I was unable to have the repairs made AND maintain possession and security of my own data, as Apple has to have the old hard drive back. Upon emailing them, they assured me that data on hard drives are properly expunged before the drives are destroyed or refurbished, so I should have nothing to worry about. As long as I trust Apple. :/

–Lace

Not quite steam engines, and certainly not ICE’s, Stirling engines seem to be in a class all of their own. A stirling engine uses temperature differences to, in most cases, generate mechanical motion. The working fluid is a gas, and is in a completely closed cycle, ie, no new gas should ever be introduced or lost during normal operation. The easiest to understand example of a Stirling engine is the traditional ‘coffee cup’ engine.

The engine in this video ‘feeds’ off of the heat coming from a coffee cup full of hot water. The gas moves back and forth between the internal chambers, and moves (in this case) a vertical rod that turns the wheel. When the top of the engine cools the warm air, the cycle repeats. The faster this cycle takes place, the more mechanical work that will be done! Here’s another well built Stirling engine.

This one runs off of the heat of two torches. When the heat is removed, it takes time for the engines to slow down, because the residual heat has to ‘burn off’ .

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Image from Steampunkworkshop.com

Well, not so much lost as greatly forgotten or ignored by some people. I’m talking about all of the amazing old technology that now sits in museums, barns, and junk piles around the world.

No, I’m obviously not talking about your 1st generation iPod, or even your original Gameboy. (Yea, that brick-like ‘handheld’ that ran on what, four AA batteries?) Those who know me have an idea of what I’m getting at. For those who don’t, let me explain a little bit about myself.

I have an interesting way of thinking, or so I’m told. Perhaps I’m a little eccentric. I love technology. But unlike a lot of people, it isn’t limited to what is here, or what glorious items will be created in the near future. My mind has a few primary obsessive ‘modes’, as I will call them from here on out. Each of them can be triggered by anything from a dream to a particularly good movie.

• Mode 1: Electrical

The first time I watched the movie Iron Man, I was snapped from whatever mode I was in to Electrical mode. Images of devices and simple projects made using microcontrollers and components started flourishing day and night in my mind. I felt I had to surrender and devote my time to recording and working on these new projects and ideas that kept popping up. An example of one of the projects that evolved from this might have been my Solar Collection system I am still in the process of setting up.

• Mode 2: Digital

Though less frequently, I sometimes find myself instantly thrown into the world of 1’s and 0’s. This is the time when I am working with media creation the most. Anything from ‘Gimp’ing to amateur film creation occurs when this mode has consumed me. The most recent example of this is the rapid improvement of my Blender skills, as shown in the upcoming release of my near-final Animated Pawn short.

• The 3rd Mode (and my personal favorite): Steampunk

This one can catch hold of me in such a way that the theories and ideas in my mind pertaining to steampunk bleed into other modes. It never completely lets go!

Steampunk is a genre that can refer to books, movies, technology, or anything else. It is basically a subculture in itself. The general idea is this; What would happen if, during the Victorian era, (1800’s to 1900’s), new forms of technology evolved that were too advanced for their time, according to history as we know it? A wonderful example would be the creation of steam-driven flying machines in the 1850’s. Not blimps or zeppelins, but actual airplanes that were powered by steam engines.

That didn’t actually happen. But what if it did? Think of how much it would have changed, how different our world might be today. The internal combustion engine might never have been developed. The automobile might have been a novelty rather than a common item. If such things were to happen, we could easily still live in a world encased by steam!

If you don’t understand that I am speaking with a longing tone and a slight twinkle in my eye, then steampunk might not be for you. If you think that would be absolutely awesome, then well done. You have merit, you just might be a steam enthusiast. Either way, you now have a very basic idea of steampunk. Do you like what you are hearing so far? Then check out BrassGoggles.co.uk’s idea of Steampunk, and stick around. The next post will have some better examples, and possibly some ideas that I feel like throwing out there as well.

I love steampunk so much it now has it’s own category. Who can guess what mode I’m in?

Mr. B, It's happening! Visions of steam driven go-karts and brass engineer
goggles are trying to find their way out of my skull again! Maybe I should
dress up as a circa 1900 steam engineer for Halloween...