Instead of poking, pulling and adjusting a 3D character in your CG software using a mouse or stylus. The QUMA (pronounced Cooma), from Japanese company SoftEther, works kind of like those 3D wooden mannequins that artists often pose when sketching the human body. Except that the QUMA connects to your PC over USB, and the majority of the puppets’ joints feature sensors that not only detect when they’ve been moved and adjusted, but also translate those movements to the character in your 3D software.
For stop-motion artists who are used to manipulating a physical character it’s probably a great way to transition to the virtual CG world. And even for experienced CG artists it seems like a very quick way to rough in a specific pose or gesture on a character. Pricing and availability info for QUMA has yet to be announced, though SoftEther does have an SDK available for 3D software companies wanting to ensure their particular package is compatible. (You may just want to write those plugins yourself SoftEther.)
Do a quick search on Flickr for “light drawing” and you’ll discover tens of thousands of long exposure photos where people ‘draw’ images and patterns using a moving light source. And as many as I’ve seen over the years, none are as impressively detailed as these Formula 1 car photos created by Mark Brown and Marc Cameron at the British Grand Prix. If you’re a fan of their skills you can actually buy prints of their previous work, which also consists of mostly high-performance sports cars.
And today’s award for ‘Display Technology That Will Most Certainly Never Catch On’ goes to Mitchell F. Chan’s The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha art piece which uses rings of water vapor as pixels to spell out Miguel de Cervantes Savaedra’s book of the same name. The rings are generated by an array of ultrasonic transducers in a bucket of water controlled by an Arduino. The sounds they produce are out of the range of human hearing, but produce tiny airborne water droplets which are then propelled upwards using another set of speakers producing subsonic sounds instead.
The video below shows the whole thing in action, but be warned, it’s not terribly exciting. Since it can only produce a single letter at a time, Mitchell says it will take approximately an entire year to spell out the entire book.
I can’t say it looks any easier to ship than your standard blue BIC ballpoint model, but I like designer Fraser Ross’ IKEA-inspired take on those fancy large format writing instruments. The pen arrives as a single sheet of pre-cut plywood which fits inside an A6-sized postcard envelope, making it easy to send through the mail. Assembly looks easier than a LEGO Duplo set, though the last step which involves heating the outer rubber shrinkwrap sleeve with a hairdryer, or in an oven, should probably be left to a pseudo-adult.
Half art piece – half playable game that actually looks pretty fun, ‘Tetris analógico’, or ‘Analog Tetris’, is exactly that. A larger version of the game that launched the original Game Boy requiring you to physically position and assemble the tetromino pieces as they slide down an inclined playing surface. Pieces are fed by dealers, complete with stylish visors, and instead of clearing lines the goal is to get all of the pieces to assemble together below the yellow line. So if you leave too many holes open, or aren’t quick enough, you’re going to lose.
But besides turning Tetris into a more physical activity, I particularly like that Analog Tetris opens up more opportunities when it comes to cheating. Don’t have room for a specific piece at the moment? Throw it away or hide it in your jacket until you’ve got the space for it. Or, a large cash donation should put you in cahoots with the dealer, ensuring that the piece you need will always fall at the opportune moment. The downside? You don’t get that oddly satisfying sound effect when you clear four lines at once like in the digital version of the game.
Proving that there’s still a lot of fun to be had with film and in-camera effects, Holga’s TIM or ‘Twin Image Maker’ camera lets you create half-frame exposures, color effects through flash filters, multi-exposure shots and yes, even 3D images, if you must. The camera’s smiling face includes its dual lenses for eyes, a grinning mouth for controlling the aperture and eyebrows which allow you to individually open and close each lens. Allowing you to create a different exposure on either side of the photo using its multiple exposure button.
TIM also comes with an optional flash with a set of permanently mounted color filters that can be rotated in place as needed. All-in-all you should have over 50 different “shooting experiments” and effects combinations using all of camera’s functionality, and yes, if you leave both of the lenses open while taking a photo they’re far enough apart to create a convincing 3D effect. But thankfully that’s not all this camera’s about. Available from Photojojo for $50 on its own, or $60 if you want the flash as well.
Looking for a romantic yet nerdy way to propose to that special someone? If they happen to have a fondness for industrial engineering you’ll be sure to get an emphatic “yes!” if you do it with this stark white robotic arm in a box, created by Atelier Ted Noten with Laikingland. The arm was made using the latest 3D printing technologies and sits in wait inside a transparent box until you press a single button. It then slowly and dramatically unfolds and extends until it presents the ring to your significant other. And in this case, though it’s hard to see in the photos, the ring is actually a miniature gold handgun with a diamond exploding from the barrel. But we’re pretty sure you can swap your own in. Available come October in a limited run of just 18 pieces, plus 2 artist proofs.
Not only has Beijing-based artist Wang Yuyang created one of the more unique artistic representations of the Earth’s moon that I’ve ever seen, but it also happens to be the most eco-friendly. At least when it comes to power usage because the miniature moon, which measures 13 feet across, is self-illuminated by an outer wrapping of compact fluorescent bulbs that are strategically positioned and shaped to reflect the features of the real moon’s surface, including craters and other landmarks. There are unfortunately still plenty of reasons why CFL bulbs are just as un-ecofriendly as incandescent bulbs though (i.e. mercury vapor) so here’s to hoping that the crane keeping this piece aloft doesn’t decide to pull a Times Square new years’ countdown with it.
While they’re more commonly used as a way for prepubescent boys to leave an imprint of their middle finger behind in novelty stores, those pin art desk toys are occasionally an amusing way to kill a few minutes at work. And when blown up to full-scale, a clever way to advertise your fashion brand.
That’s what Lulu Guinness did with this giant pin art display which encouraged people to ‘Be a Pin Up!’ themselves. If you had a real-life wayback machine you could travel back to last month and experience it for yourself under the St. John’s Gate in Central London, where it was on display as part of Clerkenwell’s Design Week. But now we’re going to assume it’s sitting on top of Lulu Guinness’ equally gigantic desk, next to a monstrous version of Newton’s Cradle which could demolish a building.
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