The Power of the Beaver!

 Machining of the beaver plaque took around 2 hours total on our little Techno. This included roughing with a 1/4" ballnose, finishing with a tapered 1/8" cutter, text cleanup, and finally a cutout pass.

One of the processes I taught in Indiana was the text cleanup process that removes the jagged edges around text and components. The jagged edges can be the result of the resolution settings in Aspire 4 when the model is first created. Our little Techno is moving pretty quick, considering the z axis is actually moving up and down due to the underlying texture that was applied in the model.

The cleanup pass was done with a tapered 1/16" ballnose cutter. The difference between the bottom text vs. the upper text is night and day.

Due to the beaver head being quite thick, and keeping the whole relief in a 2" thick slab of HDU, it left the rest of the plaque a little thin. Not really a problem, as I had always planned on using 3/4" MDF as a backer plate. The weight of the MDF made the plaque feel really beefy! It also allowed for easy mounting to a wall. (Hopefully they WANT it on their wall :)) We used a urethane glue and clamped it over night.

Once the glue had dried overnight, and some little parts were further cleaned up, we got a couple of good coats of exterior acrylic primer applied.

 The entire sign was then sprayed out in a very shiny brass color. When we apply the glazes, the base color can get pulled back quite a bit, so the brighter the better right now!

Most of the metallic colors we use are the Rustoleum Metallic Accents paints. Readily available, and amazing metallic for a water-based paint. The first glaze coat was done with the classic bronze, and once that was dry, the rich brown was added for the final darkening.

Once the 2 glazes has dried, the plaque looked great!

 I decided that I wanted to add the polished metal look to the text and borders, just to add some bling!
This was done in our usual way with the metal powders buffed over gloss black. And as this is in inside sign, I didn't have to clear coat any of the metal. The Pearl-ex powders are guaranteed not to tarnish, so any indoor handling wont leave finger prints. Woo-Hoo!

We presented the plaque at lunch while we were at the little restaurant, and I do believe that they loved it. It will be interesting to see where they hang it!
8)
JWO

Canadian Sign Embassy

I mentioned yesterday that we had given a plaque of sorts to Colloms General Store, crowning them as the Canadian Sign Embassy, and this was the plaque we made and presented.

The first order of things for me was to create the beaver! I did a google image search for beavers, to get a feel for what he should look like! I like to go to 3d as quick as possible. I think that it might have something to do with my weak-ish sketching skills, but massing it in 3d helps me get a feel for how the whole thing will work together.

Working in a low resolution state, and occasionally smoothing the model, lets me get an idea of how the figure is proceeding. Low res for the general shaping, and smoothing for the tweaking.

I modeled most of the beaver with symmetry applied. This keeps both sides exactly the same. Sometimes it can get out of control if I don't have both sides the same. Once I was totally happy, I turned off symmetry, and started to distort the left side of the model, so he had a bit more character.

The eyes were simple spheres, with the pupils extruded inwards a little. I was able to just build the right eye, then mirror it for the left, and distort it to fit visually.

I created a single half sphere and flew it in on the right, mirrored it over, and distorted it as well.

The teeth were then added from a simple cube primitive, shaped to fit. Both teeth are actually one single mesh, but I could have easily made a left and right tooth, and just pushed them together. Once imported into Aspire, the software treats it like one whole model. If we were 3d printing this character, we would have to try and keep the mesh as single as possible. Glad were not doing that!

I decided at the last minute to add a winter toque, as it can be stereotypically cold all year long in Canada :)

I drew up most of the vectors, and imported them into Aspire. I used the 2 rail sweep to get the outer ring to have a slight dome shape. I made a textured bit map a while ago that I use for a rough style texture. This was used to give a little texture and interest to an otherwise boring surface.

The center circle was dished out to allow a little depth for the beaver model.

Once the beaver model was imported and located, I decided to add some "sun rays" radiating outward. This helped the beaver head from looking to small in the recess.

Finally the text went on. I decided to use a casual style font for the lower portion of the sign. Almost like it was added as a last minute decision, without regard for the "official"-ness of this particular government symbol.

Next step--------------Techno cnc!
8)
JWO