Hasta La Gadget!

It ain’t easy being plastic, you know? Objet — the 3D printing house that aimed to replace your office’s all-in-one Epson back in July — brought a few of its snazziest pieces here to SIGGRAPH, and we popped by to have a gander. Targeting the animation-inspired crowd that showed up here in Vancouver, the company brought along some Hollywood examples of how its multi-material Objet260 Connex helped movie makers craft prototype creatures before they were inserted into the storyline. Thor’s Destroyer and Avatar’s Na’vi were both on hand, as well as the two critters shown above. The hothead on the right was crafted in around 18 hours (and subsequently painted), while the cool cat on the left was built in three fewer. Wildly enough, that fellow required no painting whatsoever; so long as you’re cool with shades of grey, you can program your object to be colored from the outset. Oh, and as for his cost? Around $80 for the materials — slightly more for the printer itself.

Continue reading Visualized: Objet’s 3D printer breathes plastic life into Hollywood creatures, layer by layer

Visualized: Objet’s 3D printer breathes plastic life into Hollywood creatures, layer by layer originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you insist on using film, this DIY reflector might help you get your photos into your computer. Photo Andrew Lewis

If you have a bunch of old negatives that you’d like to get into your iPhoto or Picasa so you can process them and actually look at them once in a while. then you might want to try Andrew Lewis’ cheap-o DIY project that will help your flatbed scanner get better scans of your negs. It’s pretty simple — a triangular box made from silver cardboard which will reflect light to illuminate the film from behind.

If you still shoot film — using a Lomo, perhaps — then easiest path to digitization is to have the lab give you a CD of TIFFs or JPEGs along with the processed prints. For everything else, this virtually free hack might help.

Download Andrew’s PDF template and print it on the reverse side of a sheet of silvered card. cut, score, fold and glue it into a prism-shaped reflective chamber. Andrew says that it lets you scanner light the slide or negative from the rear, giving a proper, contrasty scan.

You’ll want to place the box perpendicular to the travel of the scanning head. This will let its white light enter into the chamber from the side. Placing it longwise will only let light enter through the neg itself, which kind of defeats the object of the lightbox.

This DIY project looks easy, fun and effective. It also highlights one of the main reasons I’ll never bother with film again: its just a pain in the ass to deal with.

How-To: Turn Slides and Negatives Into Digital Photos [Craft via Photojojo]

See Also:

• Canon Film Scanner Accentuates Positive, Eliminates Negative …
• Short Shot on Flatbed Scanner Screens at Disposable Film Fest …
• Scan Old Negatives with a DSLR and Toilet-Paper Tubes

You probably know Netflix raised its prices. And, like everyone else, you’re probably outraged at the death of $10 1 disc + streaming plan. But the $6 price hike doesn’t have to be the end of the world. More »

Holga’s TIM looks like an alcoholic Englishman after a particularly nasty Friday-night brawl, eyes half closed and all but a single tooth knocked from his stupid grinning mouth. And like that violent drunk, TIM will also stumble through life seeing double.

TIM stands for Twin Image Maker, and to this end the camera’s “eyes” are a pair of identical lenses. Shoot with both open and you can make 3-D photos. Shoot with either one closed and you get half-frame images, allowing you to put the same image on either side off the photo, or make a diptych of any two images.

TIM’s single tooth slides around in his smiling mouth to set the aperture for correct-ish exposure, and the camera also comes with an optional ($15 standalone) flash with color filters. Combine this with the half-frame and multiple exposure options and you have enough image-bending tools to make even a sober viewer dizzy.

All of these shenanigans are recorded on 35mm film.

TIM, from Holga, is available now and will cost you a very reasonable $50 or $60, depending on whether you opt for the flash or not.

Twin Lens Holga with Color Flash [Photojojo]

See Also:

• 3D Holga For Ultimate Photo Gadget Geeks Is Both Expensive and …
• Holga D, The Ultimate Lo-Fi Digicam
• The Digital Holga, Or How To Waste A Million Pixels
• Stereo Holga Camera Lowers 3D Production Values
• Digi-Diana: Lomo Lens Adapter for Canon, Nikon DSLRs

After what we’re guessing was a fruitful tie-up with Tron, the fine folks at Razer are back at a similar well; this time, the company’s dishing out a limited run of gear that’s been splashed with color and branding from the upcoming Michael Bay train wreck blockbuster, Transformers 3. Outside of being doused with red, yellow, silver and purple paint, the special edition DeathAdder mice ($69.99 a pop) are identical to the version already on the market. If that’s just not enough, there’s also a dual-sided Vespula mouse mat ($44.99) to commemorate the film, not to mention a foursome of colored laptop sleeves ($49.99 each) that’ll make public your infatuation. Curiously absent? A handwritten letter of congratulations from Shia LaBeouf.

Continue reading Razer trots out Transformers 3 Edition DeathAdder, Vespula and laptop case

Razer trots out Transformers 3 Edition DeathAdder, Vespula and laptop case originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 04:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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