July 2017

I saw the cover of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #20 and was inspired to turn it into a real game that anyone can remix.

The series is by Ryan North, Erica Henderson, & Rico Renzi, and is published regularly by Marvel.

The game was created using MIT's Scratch, which I normally use for teaching game design, animation, and programming to kids.

Play The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #20

July 2016

I fabricated this mask from Blizzard's hit game Overwatch to show off the Afinia H800 at Objex Unlimited.

A side benefit is that a friend will be able to cosplay as Reaper, everyone's favourite angel of death who takes himself way too seriously.

The full finishing process (with photos) is documented on Medium.

The 3D model was designed by Ricardo Salomao (salomaoric) who shared his design on MyMiniFactory.

June 2016

A life-size, 3D printed (and heavy) model of Thor's hammer, Mjölnir.

I made this as a fabrication project to show off the reliability of the Afinia H800 at Objex Unlimited.

Just the hammer head itself was a continuous, 50-hour print that came out perfectly.

The finishing process involved sanding, lots of painting, and some putty & glue to stick it all together.

The 3D model was designed by Garrett Kearney (ChaosCoreTech), who shared his design on Thingiverse.
 

May 2016

3D printing is great for custom costume elements. In this case, I made a Magneto helmet that was perfectly scaled for my head.

The main challenge of this fabrication project was that the two halves did not print very well, and required a lot of work to be rescued.

In working on the piece, I learned the dangers of using too much sculpting putty, and the wonderful benefits of using gesso to smooth out thick print lines!

The 3D model was designed by Andrew Diehl (Landru), who shared his design on Thingiverse.

February 2016

Rowan Gillespie's sculptures in Ireland Park are intense.

I first encountered them in 2015 (in the dark..) and had to know more.

In researching the pieces through the Ireland Park Foundation, I came to appreciate how hopeful the figures are, defiant in the face of the Famine that they'd fled.

I was inspired to 3D scan the figures using photogrammetry, and have 3D printed a small version of the pregnant woman.

Download
Download the 3D files from Thingiverse

Dimensions
14 cm x 10 cm x 9 cm

Material
VisiJet C4 Spectrum powder

Software
Autodesk ReCap 360
Meshmixer
Blender

Real Army Simulator is a game about military service that I originally made with Yifat Shaik (@yifatshaik) for TOJam 10.

Yifat, who designed the game, describes it like this:

Real Army Simulator is a satirical choose-your-own adventure narrative game, based in part on two years’ mandatory service in the Israeli Army.

It presents life in the army as being part of a large, bureaucratic, and mundane machine, rather than the glorified heroic experience often depicted in games.

We're continuing to add more stories and exhibit at events. Paste Magazine named Real Army Simulator one of the five best games at Boston FIG!

The full game will launch later in 2016.

Download Real Army Simulator (Updated with Episode 2)

December 5, 2015

Toronto Public Library and Enabling The Future hosted Canada's first hand-a-thon at Toronto Reference Library, helping students assemble 3D printed prosthetic hands.

I made the prosthetic parts ahead of time at Objex Unlimted, and spoke at the event.

Students build prosthetics hands with help of 3D printer (The Star)

Toronto Students Offer a Hand With the Help of 3D Printing (NOW Magazine) 

Kids Make Prosthetics for Other Kids at First Enabling Handathon in Canada (TPL)

Toronto students lend a hand at the public library’s first "hand-a-thon" (Yonge Street)

Photo 1 by J.P. Moczulsk/The Star, Video by NOW Magazine

October 2015

The Hand Eye Society hosts annual Fancy Videogame Parties at great locations around Toronto.

For 2015, the event was known as The Hand Eye Society Ball, held at the Masonic Temple.

In keeping with the mysterious theme of the event & venue, I made some giant-size arcade button amulets for the secret initiation ceremonies throughout the night.

Download Arcade Button Amulet from Thingiverse

The Society Ball Photo Recap (Hand Eye Society)

Photo 1 by Dean Tomlinson

May 2015

In watching a marathon of Babylon 5, Yifat and I have come to appreciate the computer interfaces used on the show - especially that of BABCOM, the station's internal communications network.

So we made shirts.

Download the BABCOM logo in vector and raster formats

Vector conversion by ravenink

Simple extension for Chrome that opens new tabs at the far right.

Under certain conditions, closing a new tab will snap back to the originator.

Install Alternate Tab Order from the Chrome Web Store

Oct - Nov 2014

Building on its Innovator in Residence program, Toronto Public Library launched an Innovator in Communities program to bring TPL resources to community spaces outside of the library.

I was one of three Innovators involved, teaching 3D modelling and 3D printing skills to community members at The Spot and Victoria Park Hub.

Introducing the Innovators in Communities Program! (TPL)

3D Printing Innovator in Communities Wrap-up (TPL)

Photos by Diana Lee

March - May 2014

I got to be the very first Innovator in Residence for Toronto Public Library!

During my residency, I ran six weeks of programs at Toronto Reference Library that covered a wide range of skills and topics related to 3D printing.

The residency was part of launching TPL's first Digital Innovation Hub, which gives library users access to equipment like 3D printers, video editing stations, high-end cameras, a green screen studio, electronics, and more.

Current Innovator in Residence programs (TPL)

3D printers mould libraries of techno-future (The Star)

Library Gives Lessons in 3D (CBC News)

The Library Welcomes Its First Innovator in Residence (Torontoist)

Photo 2 by Torontoist

Self-portrait from a distorted and cropped 3D scan made using Skanect and a Microsoft Kinect.

Printed on MakerBot Cupcake #169 using LAYWOO-D3 wooden filament.

I did little finishing work to hide the 3D printed-ness of this piece, choosing to keep it rough. It fits the nature of the sculpture, and it fits the temperamental nature of the wooden material. (See how it burns at the top, as the nozzle spends more time in one area.)

Download Not Me from Thingiverse

This project came about when TIFF needed some objects for the 3D printing table during the 2013 digiPlaySpace. I chose some kid-friendly models from Thingiverse, including a T-Rex that user IcanCwhatUsay had uploaded.

The printer I have access to for my day job is an extremely high-end industrial machine, so I wanted to do more than just a single material print.

I brought the model into Netfabb Studio and extracted the teeth and eyes triangles into separate meshes. That made it possible to 3D print in multiple materials on the Objet Connex 500.

In this case, the body was printed using a Shore 70 TangoBlackPlus rubber-like material, the eyes in Grey60 rigid plastic, and the teeth in VeroWhitePlus.

Download T-Rex for Objet Connex 500 from Thingiverse 

Originally a sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. David Neff 3D scanned it using 123D Catch during the Met MakerBot Hackathon, and then Steeve Becker cropped it to have a flat base.

I took Steeve Becker's version, scaled it up to about life-size, and then sliced it into sections that fit the build area of my 3D printer. 

The sections were assembled using superglue, and a textured spray paint was applied to approximate the original stone look.  

Download Bust of a Female Deity from Thingiverse

"I will literally explode" - Ryan North describing his $500,000 Kickstarter stretch goal.

When I heard Ryan describe his promise on CBC Radio to literally explode if To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Adventure reached $500,000 on Kickstarter, I knew that I could make it happen.

I reached out to Ryan, and soon after he came to Site 3 coLaboratory to be 3D scanned.  Using ReconstructMe and a Microsoft Kinect, Ryan's head and shoulders were quickly processed into the computer.

After some cleanup work, the scan was cropped to the head area, and a chamber to fit a plastic drink bottle was hollowed out of the centre. 

To print the almost-full-size head, the model was sliced into sections, printed one at a time, and then assembled using superglue. 

Lauren Archer -- a friend and fellow member at Site 3 -- made the explosion work by placing dry ice pellets into the inner drink bottle with some water. Once the cap was closed, it took eight minutes for the pressure to build up enough for the head to explode.

Watch video of the event on Wired

Download Ryan North's head from Thingiverse

This was the first life-size sculpture that I made on my MakerBot Cupcake.

The model is modified from a 3D scan that Cosmo Wenmen did of a marble portrait in the British Musem.

Cosmo's first gigantic 3D print of a life-size horse head sculpture on a MakerBot Replicator 1 is what inspired me to try something life-size on the (much smaller) MakerBot Cupcake.

Once the pieces were printed and assembled, I applied a modelling compound to the outside and added acrylic paint.

Download Cupcake Alexander the Great from Thingiverse

Download Cosmo Wenmen's original scan from Thingiverse

The collector's edition of Diablo 3 shipped with a USB key and holder in the shapes of a soulstone and skull.

When the soulstone is placed in a USB port, it glows. Sitting in the skull, it does nothing.

I thought that that was a bit of an oversight, so I modded the skull to turn it into a USB receptacle so that the soulstone could be plugged into the skull and connected to a computer at the same time.

Read more about the process on my blog

Lost Arts is a game about rebuilding civilization that I made with Robin Ward (@evil_trout) for TOJam 7.

The challenge was to create a game in three days that made use of the theme "The world's NOT ending". We chose to make a combat-free experience that has players explore a ruined world, struggling to get back on its feet.

The visual style is based on ANSI character graphics, specifically those found in Tim Sweeney's classic ZZT.

Source code

A short film by Dylan Reibling that premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2012.

After doing a test print for Dylan (pictured in yellow ABS), I was brought on to operate my MakerBot Cupcake 3D printer on set for some scenes of the film.

Watch MODEL on Vimeo

Using cube-based modeller 3DTin and in-game sprite references, I created 3D models of Pac-Man characters for use as spacers.

Each model is two layers of cubes thick, with depressions in the eyes and mouth areas for painting. 

Download Pac-Man spacers on Thingiverse 

An OpenSCAD project that creates unique 3D models from arbitrary sources of data, such as music and photos.

The MD5 checksum of a file is used as a source of unique parameters that modify a neutral set of stalks into strange twists and turns.

Download Files to Physicals on Thingiverse

Generate an fp_date.scad file

Spacers remixed from Thingiverse user sideburn's Invaders! (v2) design.

Over the years I've printed these in a ton of colours and materials (ABS, PLA, Laywoo-D3, Vero, Tango) in a variety of processes.

Download Space Invaders spacers on Thingiverse

Time Pacifist is a game that I made for SA GameDev Challenge V, a month-long game jam that takes place on the Something Awful forums.

The theme for 2010 was "You can't X".

I chose to riff on Konami's classic Time Pilot arcade game by making a version in which the player can't shoot at any of the enemy planes.

Without weapons, the gameplay is changed to more of a dodge-em-up, in which the formerly optional parachuter‎s must be rescued in order to advance.

Some sprites were re-purposed directly from Time Pilot, while the new enemy planes were created by artist Matt Quesnel.

Download Time Pacifist

(requires  XNA Framework Redist 3.1, .NET Framework 3.5, DirectX Runtime Web Installer)