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Godzilla is a friend to whisky

ice

Did you know the Far East is a huge growth market for whisky? Friend of mine’s son is a liquor retailer in Singapore. Or Hong Kong. I forget which.

Anyhoo, I don’t want to talk about that, I want to talk about this ice cube. These ice cubes. The article calls them 3D printed, but that’s a little misleading. They’re carved using a CNC router.

Though I suppose the practical difference between a computer-controlled additive process and a computer-controlled subtractive process is neither here nor there.

These were created for an ad campaign, so I don’t suppose they’re really available to buy, though the technology is not totally impractical. There are a lot of CNC machines out there.

And the article mentions coupling CNC with Autodesk’s 123D Catch. I’ve mentioned this program in passing. It’s a free phone app that makes 3D models from your snapshots. It actually does a scary good job.

You have to take as many pictures as you can from as many angles as you can. They recommend a minimum of twenty. I think I did twelve or thirteen of a simple object and it worked fine. The stitching together process takes a long time — for my simple object, about an hour. But the end result is good enough to boggle someone who has invested a lot to learn how to squeeze out 3D models.

That would be me. I’m talking about me.

Comments


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: April 7, 2016, 9:20 pm

I’d pay good money for a 3D rendering of Mapp the hen. But I bet all those feathers would confuse the poor little photo-stitcher thingy.

I’d pay even more for an audio recording of her “stepping on a duck”, or even sneezing.


Comment from Gromulin
Time: April 7, 2016, 11:03 pm

Thank you for spelling whisky correctly. That other spelling is almost as bad as ordering scotch in an Irish bar.


Comment from QuasiModo
Time: April 8, 2016, 1:20 am

Thanks for the link…I will definitely try out that app when I get a chance.


Comment from catnip
Time: April 8, 2016, 6:26 am

What fun!! I’d order a manatee or sea otter for my drink. The possibilities are endless.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 8, 2016, 7:50 am

I don’t know, Grom — isn’t it ‘whisky’ is Scots and ‘whiskey’ is Irish? Something like that…


Comment from mojo
Time: April 8, 2016, 11:47 am

Hmmm… If you milled them out of some clear, dense plastic with low thermal conductivity…


Comment from Jackie
Time: April 8, 2016, 4:11 pm

Ya know, they’ve had such things for quite some time. Only they were made by a different process … a process simpler, easier, and almost infinitely less time-consuming than using aeither a 3-D printer or CNC router to individually carve an ice cube. They’re called “molds”. And with them, and a large enough freezer, you could make tens, or hundreds of thousands of godzilla-ice-cubes every couple hours for almost infinitely less money.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: April 8, 2016, 9:16 pm

If you can, watch the Space X launch and relanding. What a great job!


Comment from BJM
Time: April 9, 2016, 5:35 pm

Stoatie, you may appreciate this project turning vintage photos of America cities into video via a steampunk time machine:

https://vimeo.com/160024074

Everyday I am amazed at the scope of creativity and talent found online, especially in graphic arts and photography; often self-taught.

For me, it’s the bestest part of the intertubes.


Comment from BJM
Time: April 9, 2016, 5:52 pm

@Steamboat – mebbe some Steampunk chikkens, eh?

BTW-your user name instantly brings to mind another fav author working in a similar milieu, Robert W. Service:

https://youtu.be/7wtz1zu3Y24


Comment from gromulin
Time: April 10, 2016, 4:37 pm

Whisky is the original Scottish style usually, (but not always) indicating a traditional single-malt construction to me. Whiskey is the Irish, and any other – including those Canadian abominations – styles. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to brown liquors, and the lack of the ‘e’ is usually a good indicator of better hooch. And you really don’t want to walk into an Irish bar and order a Scotch…or, god help you, a ‘black and tan’


Comment from David Gillies
Time: April 11, 2016, 9:28 pm

Jackie, making anything reentrant or with sticky-out bits like Godzilla’s arms in a mould with a material as fragile as ice is a hiding to nothing.

I tried the 123D app. The level of detail it captured was spooky. I will need to clean the model up a bit in Maya, but for a free app it was astounding.

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