When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

It's a time machine......type thing..

The whole weekend was spent in front of the computer again. Between beer tap models, Frankenstein models, and the time machine model, it was a lot of 3D! I spent quite a while to come up with a usable design for the time machine pod. Another short-ish deadline. 2 weeks to be exact! I sent the render off to the production designer and director, and with some minor changes, we all agreed on a design. That left yesterday to get started on picking up materials, and generating files for Aspire and our Techno cnc.

At first, I thought that this would be a great design, but I was worried that it might look too familiar to the audience!
This won't be anywhere near the final finish. I just rendered it with a default clay material, as the focus was on the design at this point.

   It has to meet a few script requirements.
1) it's a one man device
2) it's built by a very knowledgeable scientist
3) it has to come apart to be packed in crates as it was "in storage" at a lab
4) it needs removable panels to be able to get a camera into.
5) the ring at the base generates a worm-hole
The worm hole will be left to post production, but I'm gonna make some cool insulators that would be the start of the generating.

We are going to change the window on the door to be more of a bolt on version, as well as add a window to each side of the door.

This is how it will be shown when they're trying to rebuild it with partial blueprints. So this is the obvious split point for the 2 halves. Plus, it'll be easier to manage for production, as we won't be on set for this.


 By the end of the day, I had the base ring, and hydraulic supports fabricated. The base ring we will finish like a concrete "curb". We will hit all the corners with a disk grinder, then parge it up.


 I hope to get to making the hydraulic cylinders that attach to the arms tomorrow as well, while the Techno cnc is chewing through more MDF.
 8)
JO

3 comments:

  1. John Christensen9 May 2012 at 13:11

    I'm very excited to see the final product? How are you going to finish it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not totally sure at this point! It'll be some sort of metal I think. Pro.bably textured as well

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not totally sure at this point! It'll be some sort of metal I think. Pro.bably textured as well

    ReplyDelete