I’ve been trying to figure out ways to 3D print a large scale campus map for a while now. We’ve got a sketchup file from an architect with decent quality building models, though a lot of data is lacking. Today I found out that the entire U.S. is mapped with lidar, and that data is available for free download online through the USGS. I’ve put some…[Read more]

This is our first crack at modeling this clunky 1910s body armor meant to protect U.S. soldiers from machine gun fire. The whole thing weighed 40 pounds.

It would seem that the few pictures and videos available […]

We’ve been working on a 3D photoscan of the Dr. Seuss statue under Geisel Library. We’ve taken about 700 pictures (total overkill), and the whole statue model is pretty good. We haven’t had much luck, however, […]

Edgar’s been training up with 3DS. Inspired by the UCSD shuttles and dumb transformers movies we decided to try out this concept.

Here’s the model on sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/68XXS

The Digital Media Lab is located in Geisel Library, 2nd Floor East. We offer free 3D printing and advanced media consultations for all UCSD Affiliates.…[Read more]

We’ve been working with a team of grad students from SDSU’s Learning Design and Technology dept to build some prefabricated projects to help UCSD instructors employ the DML and its resources. These projects include poetry sculptures which turn words into physical shapes using VR and 3D printing, and an augmented reality publication…[Read more]

It took forever! One of our regulars Spence wanted to make an electric violin for his girlfriend, he found these plans on thingiverse. We’d hoped she could play it quietly with headphones on, but it’s pretty loud before it even gets to the pre-amp.

Come check it out in the lab! It’s ready to play.

The Digital Media Lab is located in G…[Read more]

We’ve been playing with Blender’s fluid simulations this last week. The process is surprisingly straightforward, but can require a LOT of time to calculate if it’s too high resolution. We’ll be trying to run some ultra-high versions this summer. Hopefully we’ll be able to tool these simulations for  research purposes.
(click here to view!)…[Read more]

You can make a 3D model of any land mass with a free online tool called Terrain2Stl

Check out the model on our sketchfab site, and come check us out if you’d like to generate and 3D print your own!

The Digital Media Lab is located in Geisel Library, 2nd Floor East. We offer free 3D printing and advanced media consultations for all UCSD A…[Read more]

Color is one of the biggest limitations of 3D printing. We’ve been experimenting with painting lately, these are some 3D printed models of the Khirbat en Nahas site (KEN) excavated by Tom Levy and team. The model was taken from a TV documentary animation.  I’ve never had much experience painting, but I think these are coming out ok. I’ve been…[Read more]

Brian Schottlaender (just retired University Librarian and big Burroughs fan) had his retiurement party last week. As a gift we decided to get him a bust of his favorite author. We contacted a digital artist named Keith Bruns who’d created an incredibly detailed model of WSB as a video game asset. He agreed to let us print it if we made him one…[Read more]

We were lucky enough to get up Geisel’s roof today to make some promo materials. I took our samsung gear 360 camera with me. The lanscapes were pretty crummy detail when stretched over the 360 canvas, but it looks pretty cool.

The Media Teaching Lab is lending two Samsung Gear 360 Cameras to students on 1 day loan. You can hit me up for an…[Read more]

Everyone prints a phone case when they first get a 3D printer, but it kind of sucks and they throw it away. We’ve had a lot of luck spraying pieces down with plastidip. So many electronics already have this kind […]

Augmented reality is the future, and it’s surprisingly easy to get started with. We used the Vuforia plugin with Unity to create a simple image target recognition app which overlayed our own digital assets. I can’t wait for the AR glasses to come down in price (and look less dorky).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHPkIz1E4l4

The Digital…[Read more]

Virginia, one of the more artsy DML staffers, took some time this week to learn the workflow to animate with the Wacom Cintiq Tablet in Adobe Flash. Even with all the digital tools the process is still long and arduous. This 13 second animation took most of the week, though I’m sure we could shave that WAY down now that we know what we’re…[Read more]

We put this short minimalist animation together as a training exercise, all of the DML’s main equipment pieces transform into others. Great job Shaira!

The Digital Media Lab is located in Geisel Library, 2nd Floor South. We do free 3D printing and advanced media consultations for all UCSD Affiliates. Contact us…[Read more]

Jorenne is learning to sculpt with meshmixer, it’s a fun workflow.  Like digital clay. It’s definitely not as powerful as Maya or Blender, but it’s a hundred times more accessible.We chose to try recreating UCSD’s favorite derpybird. We 3D printed with a wood blend filament and painted it up with sharpie oil based paint pens (from the book…[Read more]

UC San Diego is known for the Stuart Collection, one of which is Do Ho Suh’s Fallen Star on top of the Jacob’s Engineering Building. We created a 3D model of this sculpture by drafting in Autodesk Inventor and printing it out on the Ultimaker 2.

Veiw the 3D model here (sketchfab)

The Digital Media Lab is located in Geisel Library, 2nd…[Read more]