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#I used some basic 3D models to get their size difference as accurate as possible. And yes; I still hate G.arlean anatomy! 8')
bassiter2 · 3 years
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thinkin about how the most accurate possible way to visualize the gender spectrum would actually be a 3D model
something like this:
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like basically instead of a spectrum of just woman -> man along a straight line, it’s that man and woman are each two whole planes that are some distance from each other and they’re completely parallel. the circles within those planes represent non-conformity within that gender, particularly in the context of how you’re perceived by others. 
if you’re on the plane at all, you are that gender. but basically every person has different ideas of how to Acceptably be that gender. if you’re within the innermost circle then you’re conforming basically as much as you can based on the most conventional ideas, and the further out you go, the less conforming you are. the closer you get to the center, the more likely you are to also believe that anything outside of YOUR circle is not acceptable.
there’s also a lot of diversity on how many of those circles people see. some see nothing past their own, and are likely to percieve the same amount with the other main gender. probably most people see at least a few lines you can cross and still technically belong in that particular gender even if they don’t see what you’re doing as Acceptable. some people are open minded enough to see that the circle never really ends because the plane is infinite, and the only thing that matters is that you ARE on the plane.
for those who do see a final barrier that you just can’t cross, many believe that once you’ve crossed it you’re basically on another plane entirely. and this is where the 3D model really comes in handy for ppl who don’t understand how someone can be so gnc that they basically present as “the other gender” and still not BE that gender - that you might as well be saying “you walked outside of this property, so as far as i’m concerned you either have to get back inside or you have literally launched yourself into the sky.” 
i think this model is also really useful in that rather than presenting man and woman as two absolutes at the ends of a line or a gradient, they are each two entire planes with a LOT of diversity within them, and being non-conforming within either does not necessarily move you closer to being another gender.
of course, this model DOES include other genders because of the vertical space between the two most prominent planes. for example, other planes of gender may be like any of these and more:
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so it also shows how something can very much be Literally a different gender than one of the Main ones, but also functionally so close that there’s no need to, say, demand that person use totally different terminology. that’s like insisting someone is on a different plane just because they’re hovering a foot above the ground. yeah, technically they’re not ON the plane, but they’re still most certainly There and function as part of the community if they want to. you could probably also argue that as the planes stretch infinitely outward, they curve upward and closer to each other like this
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in order to visualize how the further away you get from the center, you do get more likely to not be level on the ground and to therefore be “closer” to the other plane - but you still have factually not left your own. 
AND it shows how the intersections functionally work and how not all genders are necessarily parallel. 
anyway you could go even further into how the context and size of each circle changes with time, and also dividing each plane up like a pie chart to represent all the different cultures (both in terms of Where you’re from and like alt subcultures) and how there are tons of different brands of non-conformity that aren’t necessarily “more” gnc than others, and how many do not feel that they are permanently on any plane at all but rather kind of just floating around, etc,
but i don’t feel like writing a whole essay, i just wanted to share this bc i’ve never seen anyone else visualize gender like this and i think it would genuinely be the most helpful for like confused cis ppl and truscum and whatnot
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trixiedental · 3 years
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The 8 Best Things About Dental Intraoral Scanners
Hey, have you ever heard about dental intraoral scanners? Yes, they are used to capture a direct optical impression. Moreover, project a light source onto the targeted object.
The scanners are developed to overcome the difficulties associated with conventional techniques. They are an electronic device that reproduces in 3D images. Moreover, allow the creation of a digital document. After discussing the meaning, its essential to know it’s different advantages when used in a dental clinic? How and for what it is used? What is the best intraoral scanner in the market? Challenges of intraoral scanners? Current medical applications? Tips and tricks for using the product?
Here is a brief description of all these queries-
How does a dental intraoral scanner work?
Dental intraoral scanners are used for various purposes such as-
They allow you to observe imperfections that require correct-alignment.
In the treatment of invisible aligners.
Partial obturators.
It captures optimal impressions on the patient’s jaws. You must pass the pencil over the gums and teeth of the patients. Finally, you will observe the model recreating itself in a three-dimensional image.
They are of 2 types and how they work depends on the type of intraoral scanner.
Photographic technology scanner- They capture images of the individual area to be scanned.
Video technology scanners- Their working is similar to a video camera, so the scanned areas are recorded.
How they help your dental clinic and the 8 best things about dental intraoral scanners-
Until now, the traditional system is used to represent the patient’s capacity. The system is both time consuming and uncomfortable for the patient.
Nowadays, the design of the models has been simplified because of intraoral scanners. The treatments now require less time as compared to the traditional model.
The 8 advantages offered by the intraoral scanners to your dental clinic-
Say goodbye to plaster- Intraoral scanner allows you to avoid the use of alginate.
Avoid discomfort to your patients- You can easily obtain the images without bothering the complaints about the smell or taste of silicone. It is annoying for both the patients (children’s and adults). It makes the process faster, pleasant and comfortable for your patient. Consequently, he/she will thank you for saving a part of his/her precious time.
Get high fidelity models- This is because, there are no inconveniences such as bubbles, wrinkles, cracks and tears. The scanners are capable to capture the models of both natural teeth and implants.
Correct the defects immediately- If an image has been distorted, scan it again and you will be able to rectify it easily.
Create 3D files- It provides the ability to access 3D digital files whenever required.
Save on shipping cost- You don’t require to ship it physically under any circumstances. This will be sent to the laboratory through management software.
Marketing tool- Technology can make you stand out from the competition. If the patients can visualize the evolution of their treatment, they will feel that they are part of the process. It will enable you to show the fractured teeth, the current position of their teeth to help them get the knowledge about their mouth. Consequently, they will recommend you to their dear and near ones.
It simplifies the process- It facilitates diagnosis and improves the effectiveness.
What are the main dental intraoral scanners in the market-?
There are several intraoral scanners in the dentist industry. Here is a brief description of the 13 most important dental intraoral scanners in the current industry.
iTero– After many years of trial error tests and researches it was introduced to the market at the beginning of 2007. Align technology does not use powder to reflect light. The operator can remove the scanner head from the patient’s mouth at any time.
The iTero Element, iTero Element Flex, Elemnt2 and the new iTero Elemnt5D are currently available.
Medit- This first intraoral scanner with blue light was started in 2013. Last year they introduced Medit i500 to date they have been perfecting their software.
Element2 iTero Intraoral scanner-
             – They are stylish and have a 21.5-inch extended touchscreen.
             – Offers uninterrupted scanning
             – Optimized and certified connectivity
             – Offer a more detailed view
             – Allows the patient to accept the treatment.
             – Capture time is 40-50 milliseconds.
I500 Intraoral Scanner- Medit
             – High resolution and HD color image.
             – Lightweight and flexible
             – High-precision
              – Dust-free
              – Single button to start and stop scanning whenever required
               – Available with full desktop PC and laptop with touchscreen and cart.  
This much is enough for the wise to understand the merits and perks of having an intraoral scanner in your dental clinic.
CEREC Omnicam from Dentsply Sirona- Nothing can match the pain of a toothache. It can be very dangerous if proper treatment is not taken on time. A digital dental clinic can provide you the perfect image of your teeth. Nevertheless, this is possible only by CEREC Omnicam.
This oral scanning technology provides doctors and patients with 3D dental images with full arch scans. The product is light and comfortable to insert into the patient’s mouth.
Carestream CS 3700– When compared to the CEREC Omnicam, they are highly priced but offer many valuable features. It comes with a significant feature of wrist wrap that keeps the device safe at the doctor’s hand.
While utilizing this valuable product the user’s will be treated to the latest software updates.
CEREC Primescan from Dentsply Sirona- The product comes with pretty cool features and prove as your money maker. It provides high-quality images and excellent data by which treatment decisions can be made.
Moreover, perfect sharpness and precision with fewer sweeps. Its working speed is impressive and it consolidates 50000 images per second. It is advisable to try this energy efficient, accurate and effective product by today for fruitful outcomes.
Medit i500- This professional scanner is capable to draw the perfect margin lines. It helps dentists to capture HD pictures that reveal the real situation. Moreover, help them to determine a patient’s problem.
The unique technology of these scanners enables dentist to perform pre-operational scans on the patient’s teeth. The pre-operational scan makes the post-operation easy and the data can be used as a blueprint in the creation of natural prosthesis.
iTero Element 5D– The product is so expensive because it scans the internal structure of the tooth. Manufacturers of these scanners have incorporated with the NIRI technologies, to detect interproximal caries in its early stages.
A full-arch scan using the iTero Element 5D provides necessary information for the restorative and orthodontic works.
Dental Wings Virtual Vivo– It offers basic dental digital services like- speed and accuracy in capturing images and life-like images. The product is unique because of the cart solution, its voice and gesture control.
3Shape Trios 4– It is a great example of innovation in dentistry. 3Shape Trios 4 comes with advanced and effective functionalities to safely detect the surface.
3M True Definition Scanner- The unit is comfortable, easy to handle and provides basic services. While providing the digital optical image they provide basic services and they are inexpensive.
Condor Scan-This convenient tool for a dental clinic is slowly transitioning from analog to digital. It comes with updated software and provides the highest ROI.
Planmeca Emerald S – This super-fast scanner provides clear coverage of the arch. Its slim design makes it comfortable for the doctors to hold them. The product is costly but offers several unique and priceless features.
Comparison of Intraoral Scanners- Which one is perfect for you?
Are you thinking of acquiring one of the intraoral scanners for your dental clinic? From the wide variety of scanners, it becomes complicated to choose one because each representative says that his scanner and systems are the best in the market.
Here is a comparison criterion for the evolution of intraoral scanners.
Scanning speed- Speed of the scan is the primary factor to be considered before choosing an intraoral scanner. The ratings of the scanner provide a perfect idea of which one is slower or faster?
Scanning flow- Besides speed, it is also to be noted how smooth the experience is? Whether the scanner joins the images well or not? The evaluation of the scan indicates whether the scanner handles well in the corner and which experience has been irregular.
Size- Besides speed, the overall size and weight of the scanner are also to be taken into consideration. When judging from the size some scanners are heavier and complicated than others. It is recommended to focus on how comfortable it feels in the hand and while scanning.
Easy of use- It takes into account how the software and the hardware are managed. Moreover, and if any problem is noticed with scanning, processing and general workflow.
Price- This is an important factor considered by dentists. The prices of the scanner can vary and they depend on the cost, complements, distributors and geographical locations.
Maintenance package and subscription requirements- The subscription requirements for the use of scanners are mandatory. Some companies have an annual subscription for maintenance whereas, others claim that they don’t require any subscription.
Wireless scanner- The assessment is based on wireless option is available for the scanner or not.
Caries detection- This criterion is based on whether or not the scanner has caries detection function like – fluorescence or transillumination.
CAD Integration- Check the integrated CAD/CAM design functions
Challenges of using dental intraoral scanners for dentists-
Deep marginal lines are hard to detect- Intraoral scanners can’t detect deep marginal lines on the prepared teeth. If the patient has bleeding gums the prosthetic margins can’t work on it.
To counteract this setback, dentists need both digital and analog impressions.
A significant learning curve- Dental practitioners need time for an in-depth understanding of how IOS works. The learning curve is so fast for dentists. In addition to it, manufacturers make scanners of different brands and with different strategies. Hence, choosing the ideal intraoral scanner is critical.
Significant long-term investment- High-end scanners retail at a large price. For support services, manufacturers also ask for additional fees. So, it is only possible for a well-established dentist to withstand such an investment. Other dental clinics struggle with cash-flow problems.
Current Clinical Applicants of IOS-
Take a look at the current clinical applicants of dental intraoral scanners-
Diagnostic Purposes- The intraoral scanners are of great help for creating custom units for surgery and orthodontics.
Dental Implants- They generate optical impressions for dental implants. They are of great use while coming up with implant supported bars and bridges.
Dentist-patient communication- It is essential to win the trust of your client’s. They help the patients to know about their treatment in real-time.
Tips and tricks for using dental intraoral scanners-
Preparation is the key- By prior planning a dentist can avoid many of the setbacks. Address any fears of your patients and prepare them for the procedure. Let them know what outcomes they should expect.
Start the scan with a dry mouth- The dry mouth is perfect to capture clear images of your teeth. Ask a patient to swallow saliva or blow some air onto his teeth.
Clear screen- To prevent mashups, it is recommended to wipe the scanner screen.
Educate the future patients through past samples- To show the worth of intraoral scanners in the dentistry profession there is no better proof than your past success. This is an easy way to introduce new patients to the IOS process.
Conclusion-
The use of dental impressions and dental intraoral scanners are revolutionizing the dental profession. They are beneficial for both, a patient looking for the best treatment and a dentist who wants to maximize his skills.
The above discussed scanners offer unique features but they all are capable to meet the needs of different dental practitioners. Decide your expectations before ordering any scanner for you.
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bestsoftblog · 3 years
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Best Compound Bow for Finger Shooting — Top Pick of 2020
Are you looking for the best compound bow for finger shooting that offers archers both beginners and experience finger shooters that ability to shoot accurately with a moderate target distance with their fingers?
Look no further?
Best Compound Bow for Finger Shooting
In this archery industry, I have read thousands of online reviews and analyze hundreds of pros and cons as well as watched tens of videos on how to use compound bows for finger shooting.
What is the Best Compound bow for finger shooting?
The Best Compound bow for finger shooting is the Oneida, which is the most accurate and nicest bow ever made with a moderate distance.
As the hardest hitting and smoothest bows, Oneida gives archers a blend of high performance and unique shooting experience.
This Oneida Eagle bows are made and built 100% in America.
The Oneida Black Eagle offers instinctive shooting and quicker speeds, easy to shoot, much faster, accurate draw cycle and better for long range shooting.
Here’s the best…
Related: 11 Best Compound Bow for Finger Shooters in 2020
Can you finger shoot a compound bow?
You can shoot a compound bow easily with no release under these scenarios:
You can shoot with two fingers if you have a long frame or if you have a short draw length.
You do this shooting by working around the string’s steep angle when at full draw.
Generally, this is called shooting a compound bow without a release.
Although, in some instances, it might decrease accuracy, but you should look for a bow that allows efficient finger shooting.
Related: Best Compound Bow under 500
Can you target shoot a bow in your backyard?
Beginner archers want to practice target shooting at home, and you can target shoot a bow in your backyard as well.
It makes archery convenient and more fun with a backyard target range.
Choosing a backyard target and backyard ranges are possible in rural areas or in cities if you are not risking a potential accident or not actually hunt.
How far can a 25 lb bow shoot?
A 25 lbs draw weight can hit a target from 60 or even 70 yards away successfully.
This 25lb bow shoot is great recreational target practice and can go as far as shooting 100 feet without losing accuracy, and with this kind of draw weight.
What is the easiest bow to shoot?
A powerful compound bow is easier to shoot and aim at a far target than a powerful recurve bow because the string forces at a full draw are reduced due to let-off.
Again, the compound bow is the easiest to shoot among other types of bow because it is more adjustable, smaller, has more model choice to choose from and available in the market.
Compound bows are a compromise between crossbows and recurve bows in that they are more challenging than crossbows and easier to shoot than recurves.
The following bows are very easy to pull and shoot.
PSE shoot down
Bohning Archery
Stan SX3 & HBC
Sweetspot
Barnsdale bows
Related: Best Compound Bow for under 300
Do you need a release aid for a compound bow?
Yes, you do need a release aid for compound bow; however, you can shoot a compound bow successfully without a release if your bow allows it.
If you do want to shoot a compound bow with your fingers, you need to master the fingers shot.
The draw weight of your compound bows tends to double the draw weight of recurve bow; this creates more tension on the fingers when drawing the bow and reduces comfort.
Related: Best Compound Bow under 600
Tuning compound Bow for Finger shooting
Tuning compound Bow for Finger shooting
Every finger shooter should use a shoot around rest to align their arrow nocks.
This will allow the cock feather to stick straight away from your bow.
Tweak your arrow nock rotation in order to achieve a perfect fletching clearance.
Watch this video and learn how to set up a compound bow for finger shooting that are both instinctive and barebow shooting.
Instinctive shooting
Instinctive shooting
How to set up a compound bow for finger shooting
How to set up a compound bow for finger shooting
You can shoot a compound bow with fingers as they are growing shorter with average bow having 32 to 34 inch axle to axle.
In finger shooting, it is difficult to shoot a bow shorter than 38 to 40 inches because it results in painful finger pinch due to acute string angles that are created at full draw.
How to shoot a compound bow
How to shoot a compound bow
Related: Best Women’s Beginner Bow
What is the Best Hoyt Compound Bow?
The Hoyt Defiant 34 compound bow is the number one choice bow designed perfectly as a fast and solid bow capable of hunting, 3D shooting, target shooting and can do anything you want and need.
Hoyt Compound bows are premier hunting bows that are in 3 categories such as ALPHA, ULTRA AND TURBO.
They are made of high-performance carbon or aluminum manufacturing.
ALPHA: These Hoyt compound bows are the most compact and lightest series designed perfectly for tree stands, ideal for long miles or blinds.
ULTRA: These Hoyt Compound bows are designed for stability when target hunting requires longer shots and features a longer axle to axle for extra forgiveness.
TURBO: The TURBO category of Hoyt Compound bows feature the fastest series with speeds up to 350 feet per second for maximum kinetic energy.
Hoyt Tribute — Hoyt Finger Bow
The Hoyt Tribute bow is specially designed for the finger shooter at 45” axle to axle and brace height of 8” for comfort and smooth shooting style.
This compound bows rolls smoothly straight off your fingers shock free and silently.
What is the Best Finger Shooting Bow?
The Barnsdale Classic X is the best bow ever made for finger shooting and are accurate and forgiving.
Read Also: Best Compound Bow under 1000
What is the Best Finger Shooting Compound Bow 2020?
The Hoyt Prevail 40 is the best bow for finger shooting in 2020 and is purpose–built to help you prevail in target shooting and hunting.
This Hoyt Prevail 40 boasts of XT2000 limb, rear stabilizer location, SVX and X3 cam & ½ performance systems and other advanced technologies.
Features
5.0 lbs mass weight
312FPS (ATA)
7 ¾“ Brace height
40 ¼“ Axle to Axle
What are the Best Mathews Finger Shooting Bows?Mathews Conquest Apex 7
The Mathews Conquest Apex 7 is a great bow that offers absolute and blazing speeds of up to 320 fps and is one of the most popular Mathews target bows used in 3D field competitions.
Its length provides stability with a weight ranges 30–40lbs, 40–50lbs, 60–70lbs and 70–80lbs.
Features
65% let-off
38” Axle to Axle
4.9 lbs mass weight
Draw length range 23”-30.5” and half sizes 23.5”-30.5”
IBO speed of 320 feet per second
Available in RH and LH orientation
Mathews Genuine bow string
Brace height of 7 inches
Straight line perimeter weighted Apex 7 bow cams
Parallel limbs
Frequently Asked QuestionsIs Bear Archery a good brand?
The Bear Archery is a good brand and one of the best compound bow manufacturers that offers typical compound bows in high quality classic designed looks and provides good value for your money.
What is the meaning of archers?
Archers are persons who shoot arrows from a bow for hunting, target shooting, sport, gaming practice or as a weapon to hunt games.
Is it bad to keep a recurve bow strung?
There is a risk to keep a string or unstring your recurve bow — though you can leave the bow strung for hours.
Keep in mind that recurve bow failures could happen while you are unstringing or stringing.
You can just leave your recurve bow strung if you are shooting on and off during the day.
Since a recurve bow is a bow whose limbs curve away from the archer when unstrung.
A recuvre bow stores more energy to deliver greater energy efficiently than straight-limbed bows.
This gives more amounts of kinetic energy and speed to the arrows.
What does a beginner archer need?
Archery can involve a range of accessories and equipment.
For a beginner archer to get started, all what you need are the basic equipment and accessories such as
A bow
A string
A bracer
Some arrows
A quiver
Finger tab
A bow stand
A bow stringer
A target to shoot at.
When you are beginning or getting started in archery, it can be challenging and overwhelming to figure out how to safely and properly shoot your bow.
Are Easton Arrows good?
The Easton Scout Arrows are good and an excellent choice for beginner archers as well as archers who shoot from a low poundage bow.
However, for archers whose bows have a draw weight of more than 30 pounds, it is advisable not to use these arrows because your bow is too powerful for Easton arrows.
How long should my arrows be for a 29 inch draw?
A beginner archer should be happy with a longer arrow; however, most experienced archers go for 27.5 inch arrow length for a 29 inch draw.
So how long should your arrows be depends on your skill level in archery and how far you’ve shot arrows at different targets.
What is index finger Archery release?
An index finger archery release is where a trigger is pulled to fire the arrow and control the shot precisely.
It gives the archer the ability to squeeze the trigger to activate and control the arrow and shoot the arrow precisely and accurately.
What is Trigger in Archery
In archery, a trigger is also called a release aid, mechanical release, or release and is a device that helps archers to fire arrows accurately and more precisely by using a trigger to release the bowstring, rather than the archer’s fingers.
It makes the release of the bow string faster and quicker to reduce the amount of torque put onto the bowstring from the archer’s fingers.
What is a longbow?
A longbow is a type of bow that is tall, almost equal to the user’s height and allow the archer a fairly long draw.
It limbs are circular or D-shaped in cross section and relatively narrow, so longbow is not recurved significantly.
What can be used as a bow string?
String materials that are traditional materials include raw hide, linen silk, hemp, sinew, and other vegetable fibers.
Natural fibers are effective and can be used on traditional wooden or composite bows but would be unusual on a compound bow or modern recurve bows.
Conclusion
Now you have learned what the best compound bow for finger shooting is. That is the Oneida, because it is the most accurate, nicest bow ever made for finger shooters.
Final Thoughts on the best compound bow for finger shooting
Oneida remains the smoothest bow that provides archers a blend of unique shooting experience and high performance.
Culled from Bestsoft Nigeria: https://www.bestsoftnigeria.biz/blog/best-compound-bow-for-finger-shooting/#ixzz6Yx5O30T4
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aaron-rutten · 5 years
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Optimizing Your Computer for Digital Art
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This guide will help you to make informed decisions when choosing a new computer or optimizing your current computer for working with Corel Painter. It can also help optimize your computer for Photoshop and other art, 3D, video editing and design applications. Print this out and refer to it next time you go computer shopping. (Updated December 2017)
Let's start by looking at Corel Painter's official Minimum System Requirements.
Windows Windows 10 (64-Bit), Windows 8.1 (64-Bit), or Windows 7 (64-Bit) (with the latest updates) Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 processor, 2 GHz or faster 4 logical cores or higher (recommended) 2 GB RAM (8 GB RAM or higher recommended) 1 GB hard disk space for application files* Solid-state drive (recommended) 1280 x 800 screen resolution (1920 x 1080 recommended) Mouse or tablet DVD drive (required for box installation)
Mac macOS 10.12, OS X 10.11 and OS X 10.10, with the latest revision Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support 4 logical cores or higher (recommended) 2 GB RAM (8 GB RAM or higher recommended) 750 MB hard disk space for application files Solid-state drive (recommended) 1280 x 800 screen resolution (1920 x 1080 recommended) Mouse or tablet DVD drive (required for box installation)
So that's the bare minimum needed to run Painter, but what about making Painter run as fast as possible? To maximize the performance of your computer, you'll need to know some basics about computer hardware. Let's start by talking about Workstations.
A Workstation is a configuration of computer hardware and software components which can be used to create digital illustrations. I use two different workstations to create my work. Since I'm most frequently in my home studio, I have a powerful desktop workstation that makes my digital painting experience as comfortable as possible. If I want to take my work outside of the studio, I use a Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16 which is a mobile workstation.
Desktop Workstations Desktop workstations are capable of producing the most processing power, which makes them an ideal workstation to use when creating digital art. Desktops are also easily expandable which means you can add components, increase the amount of memory and upgrade to a faster processor. Rather than buy a new computer ever few years, you can simply replace the slow parts with faster ones.
Laptop Workstations While they take up less space and are more portable than a desktop, laptop computers often lack the power and expandability of a desktop. You may find it's difficult to add memory or other components to a laptop.
Mobile Workstations Tablet workstations are becoming more common as portable computing technology matures. Some examples of mobile workstations are the Wacom MobileStudio Pro, the Microsoft Surface Pro and the Apple iPad Pro. These workstations combine a display with a tablet and computer to give you the freedom to take your art anywhere. I'm especially fond of painting outdoors on my mobile workstation.
Now that we know what a workstation is, let's take a look at its individual components, the Display, the Tablet and the Computer.
Display or Monitor
The Display functions as your canvas when painting on a computer, so you will need a large screen with a lot of room to work on. A proper display must also represent color and contrast accurately. Accurate color will ensure that the appearance of your artwork remains consistent whether you print it on canvas or view it on someone else's device. You can use either a monitor or an HDTV for your digital painting display.
Display Resolutions: Displays come in a variety of resolutions. Most common are 1080 HD displays, but 2K (1440p), 4K and even 8K displays are becoming more affordable. A higher resolution means the pixels will be smaller and more dense giving you a clearer view of your artwork. This is especially noticeable in artwork that contains a lot of fine lines and details.
My Displays: My primary display is a Wacom Cintiq 27QHD Touch which has 2K resolution and fairly accurate color. I do all of my drawing and design work on the Cintiq. My secondary display is a Samsung 50" 1080 HDTV. The color is less accurate on the HDTV, but it works well to store reference images and windows. I also have a third display, an ASUS 24" computer monitor. Having more than one display not only allows me to multi-task more easily, it also gives me several unique views of my image. I can average the three images to get an idea of how my artwork will look across many types of displays.
Recommended Displays: If size matters, I recommend using a large HDTV because you'll get more bang for your buck. If you want very accurate color, choose a professional-grade computer monitor.
Using An HDTV: You'll need to make sure that your computer's video card supports HDMI input if you want to connect an HDTV to your computer. Some older models of HDTVs may have an SVGA or DVI input which can also be used to connect an HDTV to a computer.
Drawing Tablet
Drawing tablets receive input from a pressure-sensitive pen which is used to create artwork on a computer. Pressure from the pen can be used to vary the width and opacity of a brushstroke. The pen also functions as a mouse to perform navigation tasks on your computer. Without a tablet, it can be very difficult to make digital art.
Wacom Tablets Wacom is the most reputable and well-known tablet manufacturer on the market. Wacom makes top-of-the-line tablets with a lot of useful features like pen tilt, touch pad navigation and programmable shortcut buttons. Wacom products have a reputation for being pricey, but they are well worth the investment for artists who appreciate a quality product that will last for years.
Wacom Imitations XP-Pen, Huion, Artisul, Parblo, Ugee, Monoprice and Genius are some of the lesser-known tablet manufacturers who make tablets at a fraction of the price of Wacom’s products. Although their products are affordable, these tablets lack the build-quality and extra features found in Wacom’s products. While some of these imitation tablets rival Wacom tablets in technical specs like LPI Resolution and Pressure Levels, the quality of the pen and other parts are poor and do not meet the expectations of many artists, including myself. Imitation tablet drivers are seldom updated and difficult to install. I recommend staying away from these imitation brands as I've had nothing but bad experiences with them.
Important Tablet Specs First, look at the Active Drawing Area. I recommend choosing a large tablet so that you have enough gesture-space to use proper drawing techniques. Large 9”x12” is best for professionals. Medium 8”x6” or Small 4”x6” would be adequate for a beginner. Next look at the LPI Resolution and Pen Pressure Levels. A higher LPI (lines per inch) resolution is better because a tablet that is more sensitive can read input from the pen more accurately. Same goes for the Pressure Levels, a higher value results in a more natural variation in brush width and opacity. Although, not all art software can support higher levels of pen pressure.
Do I Need Extra Features? Tablets with additional features can be helpful and time-saving, but are not essential to making great digital art. However, many professional artists appreciate extra features because they can make their painting workflow much smoother and more efficient.
USB or Wireless? Most tablets connect to a computer using a USB cable, but it’s becoming more common to see tablets with Wireless Bluetooth functionality. Be forewarned that a wireless signal is not as fast or reliable as a USB connection. You may find that objects in the room and other wireless devices may interfere with the wireless signal and cause the tablet to perform with a slight lag. Wireless interference is especially bad if you have to plug the receiver into the back of your computer.
Wacom Cintiq If you prefer to draw directly onto a screen, you'll love the Wacom Cintiq. Cintiqs are displays with a built-in tablet. A Cintiq's screen ranges in size from 13" to 32” inches. In my experience, it feels more natural and intuitive to draw on screen. I highly recommend the Cintiq to anyone who is serious about getting the best digital art experience possible.The newest Wacom Cintiq Pro 24" and 32" are the best drawing tablets money can buy.
My Tablets:
Wacom Cintiq 27QHD Touch
Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16 (Intel i7 6th Gen CPU with 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD)
Recommended Tablets:
Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium or Large)
Wacom Cintiq (13HD, 24HD, 22HD, 27QHD or Cintiq Pro 13, 16, 24, 32)
Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13 & 16, Wacom Cintiq Companion 1 & 2
Intuos Art (Medium)
See my Tablet Reviews on YouTube for more info.
Computer
A fast computer with modern hardware is essential to running Painter smoothly, but you don’t necessarily need the most expensive computer on the market. If you’re planning to buy a new computer, I recommend looking for a good deal online. You can also go to a local computer hardware store. Retail stores like Best Buy regularly have sales, but their computers are often name-brand models like Dell or HP that aren't optimized for digital art. If possible, avoid buying name-brand computers and go for something that is custom-built to ensure you'll get a computer that is optimal for digital painting.
I always have my computers custom-built by an online store. Custom Build stores like this allow customers to choose each part of the custom build from a list of compatible parts. It's as simple as ordering a pizza. – You pick the toppings and they deliver it. (Of course, you'll need to make sure the parts you're ordering are all compatible with each other, but the store should be able to give you some guidance there.) Hopefully this document will give you some insight into what components will be optimal for making digital art.
Mac or Windows Operating System?
Despite what you've heard, Macs are not inherently better for art and design than Windows computers. Whether a computer is a Windows computer or a Mac, it’s the computer with the most RAM and CPU power that defines which computer is better. Choosing between Mac and Windows is simply a choice between which operating system you prefer. I have used both Mac and Windows, but I prefer Windows because I like the interface better than Mac OS. This is just my personal preference, so if you are more comfortable working on Mac OS, then I recommend you stick to Apple products. In my experience, Painter works much better with Windows than with Mac.
My Operating System: Windows 10 64bit Home Edition
Motherboard
The Motherboard is the hub where all of your computer parts connect to. It defines what you can and cannot add to your computer. Each motherboard has different specifications. Deluxe motherboards are more expandable and can accommodate more memory, peripherals and components. Budget motherboards are more affordable, but may not be as easy to upgrade. Unless you are building a custom computer, you probably won't need to know much about motherboards. Many name-brand computers like Dell and HP don't even list the motherboard specs.
When choosing a motherboard for a custom-build, make sure to note which processor it is compatible with, how much RAM it can utilize and check to see that it has enough USB ports, hard drive connections and expansion slots to accommodate all of your components and peripherals.
My Motherboard: MSI X99A Gaming 7
CPU – Computer Processing Unit
As the main component in a computer, the CPU defines how fast a computer can perform tasks. Many CPUs contain multiple Cores. The more Cores a CPU has, the faster it can run programs, process data and multi-task. When choosing a CPU, look for the Clock Speed which is often measured in GHz (Gigahertz). A higher value means the CPU will operate faster. There are other specs to consider like Cache, Multi-Threading and Bus Speed, but unless you are a computer nerd, you probably won't understand why. All you need to know is a larger number is usually better than a smaller number when it comes to that stuff.
There are two main manufacturers of CPUs, Intel and AMD. Typically Intel CPUs are faster than AMD depending on the model. The Intel i7 processor is one of the better options available. I would recommended aiming for an i7 processor or faster. i5 and i3 processors are much slower, but will probably suffice if you are just trying to upgrade from an old computer.
Cooling your CPU is also very important. A cooler CPU can work much faster than one that overheats. Air cooling with a fan and heatsink is standard, but the fans can be noisy. Be sure to check the decibel rating of the fan if you are concerned about noise. Liquid cooling is another option and can be much more effective in cooling the CPU. In many cases, adequate cooling can allow a CPU to be Overclocked which means it can be enabled to run faster than advertised in the manufacturer's specifications. Overclocking can be risky because it may shorten the life of your CPU and could make your computer unstable.
My Processor: Intel i7-6800K 6-Core 3.4GHz (Overclocked to 4.2Ghz) with Corsair Hydro Series H80i Liquid CPU Cooler
Recommended CPU: 64bit Processor with a minimum of 4 cores
RAM – Random Access Memory
RAM Memory controls the speed at which temporary information is processed. For example if you are working on a painting that is 1GB in file size, you would want your computer to have at least 1GB of RAM plus additional RAM to run your operating system and background tasks.
RAM comes in modules or “sticks”. Modules typically store several gigabytes of memory and the amount of memory per module varies. Typically, the memory is available in increments of 4, 8, 16, or 32GB. All computers have a limit to how much RAM can be installed which is determined by the number of RAM slots available and the amount of memory that can be used per slot. Memory is often installed in pairs. So for example, if you wanted to add 32GB of RAM to your computer, you could either choose two 16GB modules or four 8GB modules depending on the specifications of your computer. Memory modules also have different access speeds, so choose the RAM with the fastest access speed possible. RAM Memory is not to be confused with Storage Memory like a hard drive which we will discuss later.
My Memory: 32GB 2400MHz DDR4
Recommended Memory: 16 to 32GB DDR3 or DDR4 RAM or more
Video Cards
A Video Card provides additional memory for graphic-related tasks like digital painting, 3D modeling and video editing. It also controls the quantity and type of displays you can connect to your computer. Most computers come with an on-board video card which is often under-powered and can be inadequate for working with Painter. It is recommended to upgrade or install a dedicated PCI-E Video Card to ensure your system functions smoothly. You don’t need an expensive card with a ton of memory or power, just one that supports modern 3D and video requirements like current Shader Models and Direct X features. Upgrading your computer’s Video Card will improve Painter’s performance and will give you more options for connecting multiple monitors. There are two main manufacturers of videos cards, ATI and Nvidia. Both make excellent video cards and I can't say I prefer one over the other.
My Video Card: EVGA nVidia GTX-1080, 8GB GDDR5 Memory, PCI-E 3.0 Interface (CUDA)
Corel Painter should work fine with just about any video card, but if you'll also be using Photoshop and the Adobe Creative Cloud products, you can take advantage of faster processing if your video card supports CUDA. Here is Adobe's list of recommended video cards: https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html
Hard Drives (Artwork Storage)
Hard Drives can store information long-term on your computer. While having more than one hard drive is optional, multiple hard drives can be useful for making Painter run faster because a spare drive can be used as a scratch drive or cache to improve read and write speeds. Spare drives can also provide you with more room to store and backup your artwork files. I highly recommend having at least two hard drives, but more than two is even better. Hard drives are often the bottleneck when it comes to optimizing your computer. Even with a fast processor and tons of RAM, a computer with slow hard drives won't work very fast because the drives cannot transfer data as quickly as the other components. Choosing drives with fast READ/WRITE speeds will avoid performance bottlenecks and will ensure you are utilizing the full potential of your CPU and RAM.
There are several types of internal drives to choose from:
IDE (PATA) Disks
IDE drives use a traditional spinning disk to store data. In the past, write speed was a bit faster for spinning drives, but there was also a greater risk for drive failure because of the moving parts. Overall, IDE drives are fairly reliable and can be more cost effective for storing large amounts of data. IDE drives are a safer choice for long-term storage and backing up important data because accidentally deleted, reformatted or corrupted files can often be recovered by scanning the drive with recovery software.
Depending on the model, IDE drives operate at different speeds. The most common connection is SATA. SATA comes in several different speeds. SATAIII is faster than SATAII and regular SATA. Your motherboard must support SATAIII to take advantage of the fastest IDE read/write speed. Currently, IDE drives are being far outperformed by SSD drives in both read and write speeds.
SSD – Solid State Drive
Similar to RAM memory, Solid State Drives use memory chips to store data rather than relying on a spinning disk. Since there are no moving parts, SSD drives are less likely to fail than a traditional drive. However, accidentally deleted files and reformatted SSDs cannot recover lost data even by scanning with recovery software because the free space is overwritten immediately. Read speeds are much faster on SSD drives compared to IDE drives. SSD drives typically connect through SATAIII on your motherboard.
NVMe SSD
NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory) drives are fairly new to the scene. The newest of these drives are very small, about the size of a stick of memory, and take up hardly any space at all. They can also by much faster than an SSD that connects through SATAIII because they can be connected to an M.2 port which transfers data via PCI-E.
RAID – Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
Though it involves a heightened risk of data loss, advanced computer users can greatly improve IDE drive performance by combining multiple drives together using a RAID 0 configuration. Two drives working together read and write faster than a single drive. Four drives working together are twice as fast as 2 drives. Your motherboard must support RAID to link drives together. (SSDs do not perform better in a RAID configuration.)
The following is a guide to setting up an optimal hard drive configuration:
#1 Primary Hard Drive:
Your Primary hard drive should be an Internal drive which contains your operating system and program files. This drive only needs to be large enough to store your installed program files and Windows or Mac Operating System. (At least 200GB to 500GB of storage space is recommended.) Using an SSD rather than an IDE drive will greatly improve the time it takes to load your Operating System and applications will load faster.
#2 Long-term Storage Hard Drives:
The Storage drives contain all of your personal files, compositions and completed artwork. These should be a fairly large capacity drives so they can store a large number of paintings. (500 GB to 2+ TB of storage space.) IDE drives are more reliable as long-term storage drives.
#3 Work In Progress Drive
Because you want your projects and resource files to load as fast as possible, it's best to use a SSD or NVMe SSD for your active projects. Once a project is completed, move it to your long-term storage IDE drive for safe keeping.
#4 Scratch/Cache Hard Drive:
The Scratch Drive works like virtual-memory for Painter and other applications that may want to use it to store temporary information. You can also use this drive as additional storage for backing up artwork and personal data if you like. Scratch drives can be either IDE or SSD, but SSD will give you better performance.
NOTE: External USB and eSATA drives transfer files slowly, so they are not recommended for use as Scratch drives.
#5 External Hard Drive:
Using an additional External drive is essential for backing up your completed artwork and keeping it safe. Get in the habit of backing up each painting on more than one device because losing artwork files is a real risk and can happen without warning for no good reason at all.
My drive configuration: 
Operating System (Windows 10), Installed Programs & Media Cache – Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD (SATA III Connection)
Work In Progress, Video Footage, Rendering Destination, Cache – Samsung 960 EVO 500GB NVMe SSD (M.2 PCI-E Connection)
Long-term storage of completed projects, files and backups - Several IDE Drives 2-4TB capacity (SATA III Connection)
Extra Cache & Scratch Disk - Samsung 850 EVO 128GB SSD (SATAIII Connection)
External Backup Drives – 4TB IDE drive & 6TB IDE drive (USB 3.0 Connection)
Check out this tutorial for more information on drives and drive configurations.
Additional Upgrades
Buying a computer is like buying a car, the salesperson will always try to sell you a bunch of additional features you don’t really need to get you to spend more money. You can keep the cost of your new computer down by eliminating any unnecessary features. Besides the computer and monitor, you will need a mouse and a keyboard. Additional upgrades may not be necessary.
If you are on a tight budget, here is a list of upgrades to avoid:
High-end computer cases with external gauges and LED lights
Overclocked computers
Professional Sound Cards
High-end Video Cards for gaming
Expensive CPU Cooling/Heatsinks
Extra-Large Capacity Hard Drives (Over 1TB)
Wireless Mouse & Keyboard
External Speakers (Unless you need them)
CD/DVD/Blu-Ray (optical) drives are becoming obsolete as most software and drivers can be downloaded rather than installed from a disc
Planning For The Future
It would be wise to plan ahead for future versions of Painter and invest in newer technology. If you can afford to, buy a computer with as much RAM memory and CPU processor power as you can get for a reasonable price.
Updates & Drivers
It's important to keep your computer's hardware and software up to date by installing the latest drivers and updates. Check regularly for updates to each component of your computer.
Anti-Virus & Anti-Malware
Protecting your computer against both viruses and malware is crucial to keeping your artwork and data safe. Make sure an up-to-date anti-virus is always running on your computer. Even something free like Windows Defender works great, but you can also upgrade to something more robust like Avast Pro Antivirus.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is an excellent solution for preventing spyware on your computer. They also offer a free version.
Maintenance
Fortunately, computers do not require much physical maintenance. I would recommend that you buy a few cans of compressed air to remove dust from the inside of your computer. This will keep your computer from overheating which will extend the life of your components.
Where to buy these products
I have a list of products I recommend here: kit.com/AaronRutten Products can be purchased from Amazon through the links I provide. I earn referral fees from each sale and this revenue helps me continue making free digital art resources like this. If you are buying from Amazon, please use my links in this article. Thanks!
You can also buy the parts from your local computer or electronics store. Best Buy is one such example.
Conclusion
I hope this information helps you make a more informed decision when you buy your next computer or upgrade your parts. If you found this guide to Optimizing Your Computer for Digital Art helpful, please take a second to share the link to this article so others may benefit from it also.
aaronrutten.com | youtube.com/aaronrutten
Digital Art Courses available at: gumroad.com/AaronRutten
Become a member to get exclusive digital art resources: patreon.com/aaronrutten
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thestudentarchitect · 5 years
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Tips for Existing Conditions Surveys
Tips for Existing Conditions Surveys
By Chelsea Weibust 04/23/2019
Each project is totally different, from the information available, scope of work, schedule, etc. It's important to know the purpose of your site visit before you head out to the site. 
Sometimes when you have a site visit you'll have access to detailed existing drawings. They may be just printed drawing sets or PDF's, or ideally they'd be CAD or Revit drawings. Other times you won't be given any information at all. In the latter case, it's a good idea to check out Google Maps and Tax Assessor information to get an idea of the size, shape, materiality, aesthetic, context, etc. of the building before your visit.
You may need to sketch the plans and elevations on site so be sure to bring a clipboard and graph paper for sketching and notes.
Another consideration is the scope of the project. If the project focus is strictly on interior work then you shouldn’t spend too much time documenting exterior conditions - just stick to the basics. The same is true to strictly exterior projects. If you're working on a deck renovation then documenting a ton of interior information will be a waste of time, unless of course it’s related to the project. [Full disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links.]
Here are some tips and tricks I’ve picked up from doing existing conditions surveys.
General Survey Information:
Make sure to write the date, location, and project name of the site visit on each sheet in case there's any question in the future about when the existing conditions survey was taken or what project the drawings are from. Also, write what each drawing shows, i.e. first floor plan, exterior dimensions, section through living room, etc. It may also be helpful in some cases to write the names of the people at the site visit for future reference.
Color Coding:
Sometimes existing conditions surveys will have a ridiculous amount of information and it can be tough to decipher between vertical dimensions, horizontal dimensions, opening dimensions, structural elements, etc. For this reason I like to use color and thickness variations for distinctions. For example, I like to switch between a thick black pen/marker* and a multicolored pen* to make it easy to switch between colors quickly. You can color code your notes however you like but you may want to make a legend so anyone who might look at your drawings will understand them. Here’s how I color code my surveys:
Black marker/pen: exterior walls
Black pen: horizontal dimensions, general notes, interior walls, cabinets and fixtures
Green pen: vertical dimensions (heights), spot elevations
Blue pen: window and door types, overall dimensions
Red pen: center line dimensions, mechanical elements, structural elements
Dimensions:
Write dimensions perpendicular to the dimension string in areas where you have a cluster of dimensions so you can fit all of the information.
Units:
Be consistent with how you're writing dimensions and make sure if using a laser measuring* tool that it's set to the same units you've been using. Most of the time I find it's best to write in only inches. Other times I like to write in feet and inches but when I use these units I'm careful not to use ticks for feet and inches (1' - 3 1/2") because the ticks could be mistaken for numbers. Instead, I like to keep it simple and write them like: 1 - 3.5 (0 - 4.75 if no feet) so that there's no confusion with ticks or fractions being misinterpreted.
Vertical Dimensions:
It's easy to remember to take horizontal dimensions to get wall placements and openings but something that can easily be forgotten are vertical dimensions. Ceiling heights, soffits, window sill and header heights, door heights, openings, floors, etc. can easily be overlooked until you're at your desk modeling the building.
Continue reading below
Do you have all of these helpful tools for doing existing conditions surveys?
Sections, Elevations & 3D Views:
Don’t limit yourself to drawing in plan. Some information is better represented in section like roof/ceiling slopes, floor to floor heights, soffit heights, stairs, bump outs, etc. You might also find a quick 3D sketch or elevation can be helpful too.
Storyboard:
If you're short on time or are looking to get a set of dimensions that don't have to be totally accurate you can take a picture of a storyboard to get accurate enough information. To do this, hold the tape measure against whatever it is you want to dimension and take a picture of it. Try to set the camera as parallel to the tape as possible so you don't distort the image.
In the image shown you can see we wanted to quickly get the dimensions of an existing railing on a roof deck. You can see clearly the center lines of the pipes, the diameter of the pipes, and the overall height of the railing.
Topography:
Pay attention to the topography and make note of the elevation of the ground in relation to the bottom of siding material at each corner of the building, at the very least.
Material Dimensions:
Note materials and dimensions - if masonry, measure and make note of the size of the blocks used. If lap siding, shingle siding, etc. make note of the reveal and material. This will be really helpful if you need to figure out heights if you forget to measure something or just want to verify dimensions. Since reveals can vary on each course, a handy tricks is to measure the height of 10 courses and divide that number by 10 to get a more accurate gauge.
You can see from the photo that 10 courses of this siding is 27 1/8” which is roughly a 2 3/4” reveal per course.
Photos:
Often one of my biggest frustrations when reviewing site visit information is not having enough photos. Anytime I'm on a site visit, I'll leave with hundreds of photos and somehow it's still not enough! There's always some wonky condition that I didn't get a great photo of or I needed a picture just 4 inches to the right. Go out of your way to take more photos than you might think you need from different angles, perspectives, and distances. Nowadays we have awesome smartphones that are capable of high quality photos, panoramas, and even videos! Videos can be especially helpful when walking through the building with an owner or consultant (with permission) so you can take note of what was discussed so you don’t have to take as many notes! I personally prefer to use my iPhone or a small point and shoot* that’s not too heavy and can be easily tucked away when not in use. I once had a project where we had to survey hundreds of windows for a renovation project and most windows were totally different conditions. We needed multiple detail photos of each window. This would've been an almost impossible task to keep track of each individual window but luckily I had a Samsung Note phone with a pen so I was able to take a photo of each window, take a screenshot, and make a note on each photo which window it was. I'm not sure what we would've done otherwise but I was so thankful to have that phone at that moment! We also had a google docs spreadsheet open on my iPad to document information about the windows rather than writing it on paper so we wouldn't have to duplicate our work in transferring written notes to the computer. So in short, I guess I'm saying to make the most of your technology!
Locate Photos:
Mark interesting things on your plans that will make it easier for you or someone else to orient themselves while looking through the photos later. Maybe it's a painting on a wall, a red sweatshirt hanging on a pipe, a stain on the ceiling, etc. but it should be something distinct that will help place tricky conditions in photos on the plans. If you're taking detail photos, remember to step back and take context photos so you can locate them later.
The photo below shows a steel rod tied to the roof rafters which was holding up the 2nd floor of a old home. This was both fascinating and terrifying (since the house needed significant repair) but we needed to be sure to mark the locations of these rods on the plans. This picture is great to see the detail of how the tensile system works but doesn’t help at all in telling us where this rod is located. So on the floor plan I made a note on the plan with a star and a cone (<) showing the direction of the photo, saying something like “steel rod tied to roof structure, tension wheel” and this was really helpful because none of the other pictures of the rods showed the wheel or tensile system and now we knew exactly where it was and what direction we were looking.
Locating pictures on plans is really only necessary in tricky areas like basements, attics, eaves, or in monotonous buildings where a lot of spaces look exactly the alike, so try not to go overboard with this.
BONUS: Tips for You
Backpack:
I recommend carrying a small bag with you while on site visits to hold extra tools and whatever else you may have. I suggest using a small backpack* rather than something like a messenger bag since it wont get in the way.
Snacks:
Maybe I'm the only one who thinks about food constantly, but I always find it's a good idea to keep a couple snacks with me on a site visit. Sometimes things take longer than expected and you don't want to be famished, trying to rush through your survey so you can get a bite to eat. It can't hurt to throw a couple granola bars and a water in your bag, right?
Dress Appropriately:
If it's the middle of winter and you're surveying a building without heat, you're going to want to dress in lot's of warm layers. Be sure to check the weather beforehand so you know if it's supposed to rain (and will need rain gear and umbrella), if it's going to be brutally cold (and need hats, gloves, scarves, lots of layers, etc.), if it's going to be windy (and you need a windbreaker and extra clips to attach papers to your clipboard)... you get the idea
Shoes:
Two things you need to consider about footwear are safety and comfort. You should never wear open toed shoes or high heels to a site visit, there are just too many things that could go wrong. You're probably going to be walking around for hours, sometimes crawling around in icky places, and potentially walking on unstable surfaces or trekking through the mud. Opt for comfortable sneakers or boots.
Good luck on future surveys!
- Chelsea
More posts you might like:
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titmasjack · 5 years
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How are Maquettes Used in Industry?
When it comes to character design, the pre-production stage of the animation pipeline probably has the biggest drawing requirement of all. If a character is too be animated, it has to be made clear that a representation of the character needs to be made and recreated in a digital three-dimensional form. To provide as a physical point of reference for animators and the rest of the production team, sometimes having a character drawn from all angles, so that every aspect and viewpoint can be defined and understood isn’t enough. 
Providing numerous views of the character traditionally conveyed through the kind of model sheets that are created for 2D animation. Sometimes every conceivable angle doesn’t provide the animator with enough information with how the character could be portrayed and used in a particular pose. To ensure that the animator provides an accurate and consistent representation of the character in every frame in terms of size, shape and volume. To give a true representation of the character from all angles. 
An even better way of achieving an entirely comprehensive representation of a character is to create a ‘Maquette’ as a term of physical reference, building a maquette is the process of conventionally or digitally modelling design to produce a three-dimensional rendition of a character. Typically a hand-crafted 3D model that animators use and reference when animating a character, a maquette helps bring consistency, alongside the use of model sheets and among the drawings of the same character by different animators.
In the hopes of providing enough reference material as possible, using a maquette adds another layer of security in the clarity of the work and how the character will be best represented by a team of animators. 
Practical uses of Maquettes
Not only limited to the production of animations, but the practical uses of maquettes also expand way beyond the needs of animators alone. Most apparent when a commissioned work or sculpture is involved. Maquettes are used in traditional art forms if a particularly large of the expensive sculpture is planned. Using a maquette to help show how a piece will fit into its potential display space, and allow the person or group commissioning the work to get a three-dimensional glimpse of what they’re paying for. It gives the client a brief representation of the end product, giving a cheap beginning alternative that can be tweaked to fit the desired needs of the client. 
With the same process being used in animation, creating Maquettes is typically the first physical rendition of a character. Giving the director their first look at the physical style and view of design to discuss and reflect on any visual changes that would need tweaking. In particular for stop-motion animation, this process will be used when looking at the flexibility and articulation of a puppet to reflect and review the necessary requirements of a puppet and its needs within the narrative. Each used as a form of preliminary investigation and a stepping stone between the production stages of character design and animation. It’s within these final moments of pre-production where directors get to see a physical manifestation of their works intentions.
Using a Maquette is used across all animation platforms and not limited to more recent digital CG animation. Providing a three-dimensional physical rendition of a character can help animators have a sense of weight and mass to the character when animating. Supporting the style of motion and movement that the director intends for each character to have. 
Maquettes in Industry
Maquettes were first seen used by Disney animators in the late 1930′s; serving as a range of important reference to keep the appearance of a hand-drawn character consistent through various animators. Using a maquette allowed artists and animators to study a range of various angles of a singular character when animating and drawing each individual frame.
A prominent figure in the industry of building Maquettes, Tony Cipriano has created a range of sculpture for both film and collectable industries for over 25 years. Not only working for Disney alone, but his work in sculpting has also been lent to Marvel Entertainment, Warner Brothers Studios, Nickelodeon, Hasbro Toys and even creating prototypes for DC Entertainment.
Beginning his career with Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios, Tony has worked as an animation artist and a sculptor on several of Disney’s most popular film, using his sculpting to translate iconic designs into a three-dimensional space to give reference for animators all throughout some of the classic era’s of Disney’s first few animated feature films. Most notably producing work for Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas, Tarzan, Mulan and Brother Bear. Lending his talents have arguably provided some of the most recognisable characters in Disney’s animation history, influencing and translating series of designs and references into more manageable and realistic physical manifestations. 
Reflection
Researching into the use of Maquettes and their role within the industry has given me first-hand insight on their importance as a point of reference when animating. Useful for me as a physical representation of character design, learning this skills will help me best understand how I can translate my characters into three-dimensional space and utilise and change their designs to best suit the medium I’m working within.
Using my designs and newfound knowledge, I hope to use this basic understanding as a foundation for my workshop with Peter on Thursday where I will begin to translate my own designs into a Maquette. Understanding how I can convey a sense of scale, weight and mass to my designs whilst showcasing believable and realistic poses. Having had the brief opportunity to look at the work of Tony Cipriano, I can begin to think about how I can successfully use his techniques to translate my own designs. Although new to me, I’m intrigued by the use of sculpting and look forward to challenging myself to translate my ideas and designs to a new medium. 
If all goes well, I hope to produce a range of Maquettes in the future, just like I intend to continue to use TVPaint, I can recognise the importance of a Maquette and the impact it can have when directly animating as a result of relaying my designs into a 3D environment.
To summarise;
I looked into the use of Maquettes in the industry and their role within the production line of animation.
Researched industry examples like Tony Cipriano who has worked for a vast array of companies over the span of his career.
Discussed the best approach I could take to Maquette making to create the best possible outcome.
Reflected on my findings and how I can adapt my work to fit the workshop we’ll be doing with Peter.
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swarnimarun · 6 years
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Introduction to Procedural Generation with Godot
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Procedural Generation has gained a lot of momentum in a current times, for multiple reasons, but many of us are still oblivious to the fact of what it actually is so here is a tutorial introducing and explaining the concept of Procedural Generation.
In this tutorial we will learn some of the important topics related to or involved in getting started with procedural generation. This tutorial is helpful for all types of programmers and designers as it’s a explanation of concepts rather than a programming guide so just dive in.
So let’s get started,
First let’s get started with the official definition of Procedural Generation,
In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually. In computer graphics, it is also called random generation and is commonly used to create textures and 3D models. In video games, it is used to automatically create large amounts of content in a game.
I just copied it from Wikipedia.
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Now my version of definition goes like this,
Procedural Generation in games is the generation of data for use as the content ,i.e. assets and stuff, of the game via code. Simple.
Now to understand some important uses of Procedural Generation to motivate this the effort of learning about it,
Procedural Generation allows us to work with minimum assets creation while providing maximum replay-ability of the games we make which makes a lot of sense in Indie gamedev. Due to time and resource constraints.
Procedural Generation allow for reusing assets in multiple ways that make the game smaller in size as compared to something hand-crafted this makes for a better alternative for the gamer who would NOT need to download a 100GB game because of it.
Lastly it makes, lots of effects like water waves and such possible which would be impossible to make by hand. At the end of the day it’s possibilities are endless.
In the recent times we have had an immense increase in the ability of creating content with the thing called Machine Learning,
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This is an image from Neural Doodle repo from Github. This makes awesome artwork from silly doodles, so just imagine the possibilities this might hold for game development. But currently this is a slow process with not much optimization abilities so it will be some time before we have this in actual game development pipelines but Machine Learning has already started to make impact.
Moving on with our tutorial let’s create some basic procedurally generated content,
There are mostly 2 types of procedural generation we will deal with today,
Randomized. And, Rule Based Randomized or Evolution. These aren’t really the accurate names but hope they will help you understand things better.
Step one, Let’s get some assets, create a new Godot Project and create new Scene with Node2D as root and save it. And then add the icon sprite to the scene and go and hit it’s modulate property to make it look different from usual.
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And then finally create a tileset from the scene and get ready to use it in a project. *Make sure the tileset has atleast 2 items. Also make sure to save the scene we will use it later.
Step two, Now create another scene and add a root(any node) and a TileMap node. Next just add the Tileset we created to the TileMap node and leave everything else as it is.
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And don’t worry about the colors not showing up in the Tile-Selector in the left. It will be fine in the end.
Step three, Add a script to the TileMap node and start typing,
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Create a new variable called grid. And then in the _ready() initialize it to make the grid into a 2D array that holds data. Use the randi() function to create the data needed.
Here we generate random numbers per position on the grid which we can use to generate our content later, I have made the whole thing 17 by 17 you can go beyond that too.
Step 3.5, Use the grid to generate a random map.
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Now hit play and test your code,
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you now have a randomly generated map.
Want to do more. Fine let’s do more,
This time just add some rules to the randomization, Like make all tiles next to the edges black and and add a hole randomly as an exit.
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And then this is the result we get,
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So in this tutorial we learned to create a Procedural Room with nothing but randomization and some very basic rules.
In future I plan to create more complex tutorials about procedural generation and make it so that the Godot Community can use it to make awesome content, but that is if this tutorial is received well within the community.
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webcomicry · 6 years
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Some Things, off the Top of My Head, an Artist Should Know
(Crosspost from the main blog.)
Please don’t take my extended absence personally: I barely wrote anything in 2017. Let’s change that this year.
But this post, as the title says, wasn’t planned. It started out as an answer to a Reddit post asking what you should study if you want to go pro, but as I kept writing, I realized it was turning into a blog post.
So here you go: a list, from memory, of what I think an artist with career hopes should be reading up on.
BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE
Your first priority should be learning to think in 3D. When you look at a reference, think of it as a rotating 3-dimensional object, not what it looks like from that exact angle, in that exact lighting, taken with that exact lens. You should never let a reference photo dictate what you’ll draw.  And the first key to that is learning how to break everything you draw down to five basic shapes: Cube, sphere, pyramid, cone, and cylinder.  Everything else is just stretching and combining them.
PROPORTIONS
You should know how to draw people from two heads—super cartoony—to eight heads—superhero—tall, how to build a body from a stick figure, and the differences between male and female body structures. Learn the relationships between different parts of the body and how to use the bony landmarks (the parts where bone is right below the skin, e.g. elbows and knees, since those don’t change with the amounts of fat or muscle) to measure proportions.
PORTRAITURE
You should know classical portrait proportions, the Loomis method of building a head, how to do it from any angle, and how all the features look from those angles, even the ones you can’t see. Read up on ethnic features so trying to draw other races doesn’t get you, to quote Yahtzee, “a white woman dunked in tea.”
ANATOMY
Even if you don’t know the Latin, you should know by sight the bones and where they go, the joints and their ranges of motion in all directions, the surface muscles, the muscle groups, and how the shapes of body parts change when they’re squashed and stretched. Learn how muscle and fat are distributed and how to draw all body types. Learn animal anatomy too, but since it varies so much, you can study that for each animal you draw as you go.
CLOTHES
Have a basic knowledge of how clothes work. More important than learning the individual styles is knowing what holds a strapless dress on, where the stitch lines on jeans are, what makes for a nice suit, things like that. Learn how different types of cloth flow over objects, drape, and fold, both at rest and in motion.
PERSPECTIVE
First study vanishing points, then learn how to break away from the standard “one point, two point, three point” rote techniques they teach you (long story) so you can accurately draw diagonal or tilted objects into a scene as well. Learn to measure in perspective and deduce sizes and vanishing points from a photo. Know how to create perspective grids – even if just digitally – and eventually, how to do curvilinear and five-point. Learn how to foreshorten objects and people from a subtle to an extreme degree.
LIGHTING
Know how light falls across the five basic shapes from different angles.  Know how light direction, light intensity, and shadow lengths change depending on the time of day.  Know how light hits unusual textures like brick and glass.  Once you start getting into painting or digital art, know how to portray a subject lit in a certain color.
BACKGROUNDS
Study architecture to the point where you at least know the terms for the various building elements and where they go.  Learn how to render rocks and mountains.  Learn how to portray distance.  Learn about plant structures and how to simplify them for a drawing.
PENCIL TECHNIQUE
Know how to both sketch and do precision work: I’d suggest practicing them with wood and mechanical pencils respectively. Know how to do rough gesture drawings, semi-rough figure drawings, and refined and fully-shaded studies. Learn to do both hard and gradual shading transitions, blend, use a tortillon, and draw using only value instead of lines.
PEN TECHNIQUE
Know how to ink with markers, brushes, and maybe even dip pens. Know how to hatch and crosshatch in all directions, create textures, and spot blacks.
COLOR
I was a pen boi until just last year, so this is my weak point. I wish I’d worked on it earlier. Learn how to develop good taste in color, and study how other people use it. Learn about color theory, harmonies, and symbolism. Learn how to turn a value drawing into a colored one. Learn how ambient lighting affects the color of objects, how color is relative and subjective, and how to use different intensities and saturations to achieve different effects.
DIGITAL TECHNIQUE
This is what I’m struggling with now, since I got started with tablets much later than most artists. You can start with a simple cel-shading style to introduce yourself to the tools, learn to blend colors, then move on to fully-rendered digital paintings, photobashing, and concept art-style environments. Know what programs are best for what purposes, and maybe dip a bit into 3d modeling, even if it’s just using posable figures and Sketchup.
ART STYLES
Even if you want to have a defined art style, study as many others as possible so you can do them if you want. And study caricature: knowing how to exaggerate features without breaking the likeness will prove invaluable, as will the speed drawing aspect.
If you’re a weeb dumpster like me, put a decent amount of time into studying various anime and manga styles, not just generic moeface and “Atlus ripoff,” so you’ll have a solid idea of how the medium evolved and the basics behind it. If you want to draw in that style, it’ll mainly be for fun (or to make side money from low-level commissions), but there’s nothing wrong with that, since having fun is what keeps you interested.
OTHER STUFF
Study visual storytelling. This is a super-important step a lot of artists skip. Study both other comics and film so you can get a sense of how composition and motion aid the plot. Study color symbolism, and symbolism in general. Learn how to come up with clever visual gags, jokes, and metaphors. I’d suggest reading some scripts and screenplays too.
Study graphic design. It’s a mandatory side skill for digital artists nowadays. Learn to scan traditional art and print digital art, as well as making—and designing for—different types of prints, merch, video, and other digital media. You should have a thorough knowledge of how to work across design programs, DPI requirements, and all the basics of putting pictures on stuff as quickly and cheaply as possible. Study branding. Learn to build a website.
Start building a reference library now. Back it up on an external hard drive or in the cloud. Keep it for the rest of your life. Make sure to add “inspiration” from artists you particularly like too.
Finally, read up on how to network and put yourself out there, both online and IRL. That’s how you get work in the first place.
It’s a lot. I’m going into my 9th year studying art, and I still don’t have a firm grasp on some of this shit. But no matter what level you’re at, good luck!
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tech-battery · 3 years
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Nvidia RTX 3070 review: AMD’s stopwatch just started ticking a lot louder
Talking about the RTX 3070, Nvidia's latest $499 GPU launching Thursday, October 29, is tricky in terms of the timing of today's review embargo. As of right now, the RTX 3070 is the finest GPU in this price sector by a large margin. In 24 hours, that could change—perhaps drastically.
Ahead of AMD's big October 28 event, dedicated to its RDNA 2 GPU line, Nvidia gave us an RTX 3070 Founders Edition to test however we saw fit. This is the GPU Nvidia absolutely needed to reveal before AMD shows up in (expectedly) the same price and power range.
Inside of an Nvidia-only bubble, this new GPU is a sensation. Pretty much every major RTX 2000-series card overshot with proprietary promises instead of offering brute force worth its inflated costs. Yet without AMD nipping at its heels, Nvidia's annoying strategy seemed to be the right call: the company established the RTX series' exclusive bonus processing cores as a major industry option without opposition, then got to wait a full year before competing with significant power jumps and delectable price cuts.
Last month's RTX 3080 saw that strategy bear incredible fruit—even if ordering that $699 GPU is still seemingly impossible. But what happens when Nvidia scales down the Ampere 7nm promise to a $499 product that more people can afford? And how will that compare to whatever AMD likely has to offer in the same range?
Future-proofing around the 1440p threshold
We can only answer some of those questions today. (Until Nvidia proves otherwise, we assume that availability will continue to be a massive asterisk for this and all other RTX 3000-series cards.) In good news, at least, the RTX 3070 gets off to a roaring start by rendering its 2019 sibling, the RTX 2070 Super, moot. Both debuted at $499, but the newer option typically approaches, and occasionally bests, the RTX 2080 Ti (whose $1,199 MSRP in 2018 sure feels like a kick in the ray-traced teeth nowadays).
But RTX 3070's price-to-performance ratio comes with one significant caveat: a not-so-future-proofed VRAM capacity of 8GB, shipping in the not-as-blistering category of GDDR6. That matches the best RTX 2000-series cards but is surpassed by higher-speed GDDR6x VRAM in pricier RTX 3000-series GPUs.
The thing is, "future-proofed" for PC gaming is relative. What's going to matter in 3D processing in the near future, both for the games you love and the systems you run them on? If you're set on having the crispest native 4K rendering for the foreseeable future, the RTX doesn't leapfrog over the 2080 Ti, particularly with a VRAM allotment that could stress any games that ship with 4K-specific texture packs.
But if you're favoring a lower-resolution panel, perhaps 1440p or a widescreen 1440p variant—and Steam's worldwide stats make that a safe assumption—then your version of future-proofing revolves more around processing power and ray-tracing potential. In those respects, the RTX 3070 currently looks like the tippy-top option for a "top-of-the-line" 1440p system... with the bonus of Nvidia's Deep Learning Super-Sampling (DLSS) for surprisingly competitive fidelity in 4K resolutions, should gamers upgrade their monitor between now and the next GPU generation. (Until AMD shows us otherwise, Nvidia's proprietary DLSS 2.0 pipeline remains the industry's leading upscaling option, and game studios have started embracing it in droves.)
In other words, if you're more interested in high frame rates on resolutions less than 4K, and you want GPU overkill for such a CPU-bound gaming scenario, the RTX 3070 is this year's best breathing-room option for the price... at least, unless AMD announces an even more compelling proposition on October 28.
Strong, but not the 2080 Ti topper we expected
The above collection of game benchmarks mostly mirrors the ones I used for my RTX 3080 review, and once again, these tests err on the side of graphical overkill. You may have zero interest in using an RTX 3070 with 4K resolutions or maximum graphical slider values, and that's understandable. Instead, these tests are designed to stress the GPU as much as possible to present the clearest comparisons between the listed cards. Look less at the FPS values and more at the relative percentages of difference. (The exception comes from "DLSS" tests, which I'll get to.)
Even though this year's $499 RTX 3070 clearly exceeds the power of last year's $699 RTX 2080 Super, I tested it against last year's $499 RTX 2070 Super as well to show exactly what a difference a year makes in terms of price-to-power proposition. The percentage differential between the 70-suffix GPUs varies based on what kind of software you're testing, but the most massive surge in performance can be found when ray-tracing effects are toggled at pure 4K resolution. Wolfenstein Youngblood, in particular, sees the 3070 double the 2070 Super's frame rates in its ray-tracing benchmarks.
While Nvidia has made benchmarking claims that put the RTX 3070 ahead of the RTX 2080 Ti, that doesn't necessarily bear out in my testing—but this is because the RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition shipped in 2018 with a remarkable capacity for safe overclocking. The 3070 FE, like its 2070 Super sibling, seriously lacks headroom for such safe overclocking for either its core or memory clocks, as managed by tests-at-every-step automation by programs such as EVGA X1. Testing was nearly identical on the 3070 with or without a scant EVGA X1 overclock applied, and as such, I've left its OC tests out of this roundup. Remember: as Nvidia's Founders Editions go, generally, so do other vendors' variants. So we're not sure other vendors will squeeze much more out of the same model.
Thus, the 2080 Ti still pulls ahead in most, but not all, of the above gaming benchmarks, whether ray tracing is or isn't enabled. When comparing both cards' specs, this difference checks out, since the newer 3070 cuts back on certain components for efficiency's sake (not to mention that dip in VRAM capacity). Categories like Tensor cores and RT cores are listed as "newer-generation" versions for the 3070, and the bigger 3000-series cards beat the 2080 Ti both in quantity and generation, so they get the clearer wins. The 3070 finally sees that efficiency trade fail to win out in certain testing scenarios—nothing tragic, mind you, but worth noting in case you'd hoped for across-the-board wins against the 2080 Ti. That's 184 "third-generation" Tensor cores in the 3070, versus 544 older Tensor cores in the 2080 Ti, and 46 "second-generation" RT cores in the 3070, versus 68 older RT cores in the 2080 Ti.
Size, ports, noise
The RTX 3070's efficiency figures into its size reduction, down to 9.5 inches in length (242mm) from the RTX 2070 Super's 10.5 inches (but not quite as small as the original RTX 2070's 9-inch length). Like other 3000-series FEs, the RTX 3070 utilizes what Nvidia calls a "flow-through" design that pulls cool air from below and pushes hot air out in two directions: through its "blower," out the same side as its DisplayPort and HDMI connections, and upward in the same direction as your motherboard's other components. Basically, the size reduction may help you cram an RTX 3070 into a smaller case, but you'll still want to guarantee considerable airflow.
Speaking of connections, they're identical to what you'll find on the RTX 3080: three for DisplayPort, one for HDMI 2.1. (If you missed it, Nvidia quietly dumped the VR-friendly USB Type-C "VirtualLink" port found in most RTX 2000-series cards from this year's GPU generation, perhaps owing to how few VR headset manufacturers bothered supporting it.) Additionally, the 3070 continues the RTX 3000-series trend of employing a smaller 12-pin connector for power, though it ships with an adapter for today's common 8-pin PSU standard. In the 3070's case, it only requires one 8-pin connection to a PSU, not two (or a mix of 8-pin and 6-pin), even though it maxes out at a 220W power draw. (The 2070 Super requires one 8-pin and one 6-pin connector with a power-draw maximum of 215W.)
And when Nvidia brags that the RTX 3070 runs quieter, the company means it. While I lack solid decibel-measuring equipment to tell you exactly how much quieter this card runs than its competition, it's safe to say that its full-load mix of fan noise and operational hum probably won't be the loudest component in your system. And with my ear directly up to it, its noticeable noise certainly wasn't louder than, say, a PlayStation 4 Pro. (Nvidia has described its noise level as "up to 16dBA quieter" than the original RTX 2070 Founders Edition.)
Thoughts on 1440p, ray tracing, and DLSS
The above benchmarks make clear that 4K/60fps performance in newer PC games, with all settings maxed out, isn't a given on the RTX 3070. But it's important to note that many of these tests include overkill settings for things like anti-aliasing, shadow resolution, and even "maximum" ray-tracing effects, all meant to guarantee maximum GPU impact for the sake of accurate comparisons between the GPUs. In the real world, you can safely drop most of these from "ultra," "extreme," or "insane" while still exceeding most console ports' settings and barely looking discernible from their over-the-top maximums, and the results often land darned close to 4K/60.
Scale down to a resolution like 1440p and you'll hope for frame rates that take advantage of monitors rated for 144fps and above. One good indicator of the RTX 3070's capabilities is Borderlands 3, a particularly demanding (and arguably inefficient) game that doesn't leverage Nvidia-specific GPU perks while packing its scenes with dynamic lighting, alpha particle effects, cel-shaded detail, and massive draw distances. When put through its benchmark wringer at 1440p on my testing rig (i7-8700K OC'ed to 4.7GHz, 32GB DDR-3000 RAM), BL3 averages 99.5fps at the "high" settings preset or 88.0fps at "ultra." Not 144fps, mind you, but I think of BL3 as a good "floor" for performance, easily outdone by older and more efficient 3D games.
Without ray tracing turned on in 3D games from the past few years, RTX 3070's frame rates have easily surpassed 80fps with tons of bells and whistles enabled at 1440p resolution, and they've easily gone higher with every drop in settings from there. But what happens on the RTX 3070 with ray tracing turned on?
As of press time, there's an interesting combined trend for just about everything I've tested with some version of DirectX Ray Tracing (DXR): the harmonious pairing of Nvidia's latest "DLSS 2.0" standard. Should you run GPU-pounders like last year's Control or this month's Watch Dogs Legion at near-max settings and 1440p resolution, plus ray tracing enabled, you can expect frame rates at roughly 50 to 55fps on the RTX 3070. But a funny thing has happened with DLSS 2.0: much improved support for DLSS upscaling from 906p to 1440p. Last year, I would've told you that you were crazy to upscale from anything lower than 1440p, in terms of pixel smudginess.
When testing at 1440p, Control has seen its DLSS 2.0 translation of tiny details, particularly text on posters, improve compared to native rendering plus temporal anti-aliasing (TAA). Meanwhile, WDL's benchmark is keen on adding rain to its mix, which is clever on Ubisoft's part; this is the exact kind of detail that DLSS has struggled to render in games like Death Stranding, yet in this newer game, rain materializes almost identically when its 906p signal is upscaled with DLSS' machine-learning wizardry.
With both of these games' DLSS modes toggled at this 906p upscale, frame rates jump to the 78-84fps range... and that's with ray tracing enabled ("high" RT settings in Control, "medium" RT settings in WDL).
A masterful game of GPU dominoes
Nvidia really couldn't have set these dominoes up any better. Its RTX line of GPUs has separate components to handle the above fancy features—dedicated ray-tracing cores and dedicated "tensor" cores to handle ML-assisted computation. The way its ray-tracing cores work lines up neatly with industrywide standards like DXR, which means it's a drop in the programming budget to implement those in ways that will work on competitors' GPUs and on brand-new gaming consoles. And the tensor cores' upscaling methods line up neatly with TAA, a particularly common anti-aliasing standard that Nvidia's DLSS effectively piggybacks off. As of DLSS 2.0, the model does not require game-specific coding to work (though developers still have to partner with Nvidia to implement it). For Nvidia gamers, then, the ray-tracing proposition going forward is clear: if you want to turn it on, you'll almost certainly have the simultaneous option of toggling the efficiency of Nvidia's dedicated RT cores and the efficiency of their DLSS implementation. In terms of pixel fidelity, DLSS 2.0 has pretty much proven to be a wash, with games generally enjoying a mix of sharper and blurrier elements depending on the scene (with neither being egregious, with the notable exception of Death Stranding's peskiest, super-detailed moments like cut-scene details and screen-filling rain). And that's a wash visually, not computationally; the proof is in the frame-rate pudding.
We still don't know if AMD can possibly compete when its future cards have their ray-tracing modes turned on. Maybe we're in for a $500-ish scenario where AMD can beat Nvidia's rendering performance in a game like Borderlands 3 at a better price-to-performance ratio, only to lose out on the same performance gains with ray tracing turned on. Having tested Watch Dogs Legion over the past week, I can safely say its RT perks—as slathered over a massive, open-world city full of reflective surfaces and other handsome light-bounce effects—are difficult to disable now that I have a midrange GPU that can reasonably handle said effects at "1440p."
Meaning, I could turn them off... but I no longer want to. It's hard to go back to plain ol' rasterization after seeing so many light sources realistically emerge no matter what time of day or scenario I'm in. As I pilot a drone past a shiny office building, or drive in a shiny, future-London car past a beautiful landmark, I see objects in WDL reflect or bounce light in ways that acknowledge objects or light sources that otherwise aren't on the screen. This is what ray tracing does: it accounts for every nearby light bounce, even if it's not on screen, to render the whole world whether you can see it directly or not.
Plus, if you have dreams of one day toggling ray-tracing power at 4K with this card, WDL on an RTX 3070 at "high" settings gets up to a 58fps average in 4K resolution with RT at "medium," so long as I use DLSS to upscale to 4K from... wait for it... 1440p native. Those upscaling results are convincingly crisp, as well.
Thus, as I said in the beginning, your definition of a "future-proofed" GPU will likely drive your interest in what the RTX 3070 has to offer for $499. We're about to see even more interesting ray tracing in games—including at least one we're not allowed to talk about yet. You'll have to take our word for it, in terms of how exciting it is to live inside of some games' ray-traced worlds.
If that's not your bag, due to visual preferences or budgetary reasons, I get it. But it remains to be seen whether a cheaper RTX card can deliver the same future-proofing in the 1080p range or whether AMD will arrive with a perfect amount of budget-minded power and ray tracing—or even a butt-kicker of a card that skips ray tracing altogether in favor of powerful, traditional 3D rendering for a damned good price. For now, in the 1440p range, Nvidia has the clear lead... for at least 24 hour
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geeetech · 4 years
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ABCs of 3D Printing
Contents
What is 3D printing?
3D printing technologies
The history of 3D printing
3D printing applications
What is a 3D printer?
What are the differences between a basic rapid prototyping machine and a 3D printer?
What can you make with a 3D printer?
What materials are used to print 3D objects?
What 3D modeling software is suitable for a beginner in 3D design?
How long does it take for a newbie to get the hang of 3D modeling?
Where can I get 3D models?
What Is 3D Printing?
3D printing, also known as desktop fabrication or additive manufacturing,is a prototyping process whereby a real object is created from a 3D design. The digital 3D-model saved in STL format is sent to a 3D printer. The 3D printer then prints the design layer by layer and form a real object. Read more..
3D Printing Technologies
There are a number of technologies used in 3D printing, with the most widely used ones being SLS (selective laser sintering), FDM (fused deposition modeling) & SLA (stereolithograhpy) . Selective laser sintering (SLS) and fused deposition modeling (FDM) use melting or softening materials to produce the layers.
This video illustrates how laser-sintering process melts fine powders, bit by bit, into 3D shapes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD9-QEo-qDk
This video shows how FDM works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPtkOmP_HoA
The video below explains the process of Stereolithography (SLA). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iceiNb_1E0I
History of 3D Printing
October 5, 2011 — Roland DG Corporation introduced the new iModela iM-01.
Sep, 2011 — Vienna University of Technology, a smaller, lighter and cheaper printing device developed.
This smallest 3D printer weighs 1.5 kilograms, costing around 1200 Euros.
Aug, 2011 — World’s first 3D printed aircraft by Engineers at the University of Southampton.
Read more.
3D Printing Applications
One of the most important applications of 3D printing is in the medical industry. With 3D printing, surgeons can produce mockups of parts of the patients’ body which needs to be operated upon.
3D printing makes it possible to produce an object from scratch in just a few hours.
Nowadays almost everything from aerospace components to toys are being built with the help of 3D printers. 3D printing is also used for jewelry and art, architecture, fashion design, architecture and interior design.
Here are some extraordinary examples of 3D-printing:
The World’s First 3D-Printed Car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rprfWfgnFc
World’s first chocolate printer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIFi8but3Vw
World’s first 3D printed bikini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2iT8S0m3m4
What is a 3D printer?
Unlike common printers,on a 3D printer the object is printed in three dimensions, built up layer upon layer. The whole process is sometimes refered to as apid prototyping, or 3D printing.
The resolution of the current printers is among the 328 x 328 x 606 DPI (xyz) at 656 x 656 x 800 DPI (xyz) in ultra-HD resolution. The accuracy is 0.025 mm — 0.05 mm per inch. The model size is up to 737 mm x 1257 mm x 1504 mm.
Aside from being costly,3D printers for home use are slow in delivering real objects(hours or even days,depending on the complexity and resolution of the model).On top of that, prices for professional 3D software and 3D model design are high.
Alternatively there are simplified 3D printers which are much more affordable,so are the materials they consume. These 3D printers for home use are not as accurate as their commercial counterparts .
What are some differences between a rapid prototyping machine and a 3D printer?
3D printers are the simplified version of rapid prototyping machines. It is of lower cost and less capable.
Rapid prototyping is a conventional method that has been used by automotive and aircraft industries for years.
In general, 3D printers are compact and smaller than RP machines. They are ideal for use in offices,consuming less energy and taking less space,and are designed for low- volume production of real objects made of nylon or other plastics. That means 3D printers make smaller parts. A rapid prototyping machines have build chambers at least 10 inches on a side,while a 3D printer has less than 8 inches on a side. Despite its smaller size, a 3D printer is capable of all the functions of a rapid prototyping machine such as verifying and validating design, creating prototype, remote sharing of information ,and etc.
Consequently, 3D printers are easy to handle and cheap to maintain. You can buy one of those DIY kits in the market and build it up yourself. It is cheaper than a professional rapid prototyping machine.For a mere shy of $1000 you can have one on the market. While a professional rapid prototyping machine is sold for at least $50,000.
A 3D printers is less accurate than a rapid prototyping machine,due to its simplicity, and they can only work with a limited number of materials.
What can you make with a 3D printer?
In the arena of 3D printing, people say “If You Can Draw It, You Can Make It”. The video below shows many items can be made with a 3D printer. However complicated objects can only be produced by professional 3D printers,which are not yet affortable for common households. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdzooQQDWGg
What materials are used to print 3D objects?
Many kinds materials can be used for 3D printing, such as ABS plastic, PLA, polyamide (nylon), glass filled polyamide, stereolithography materials (epoxy resins), silver, titanium, steel, wax, photopolymers and polycarbonate.
What 3D modeling software is suitable for a beginner in 3D design?
If you’re just getting started, you can try 3D modeling software that can be downloaded for free.
Google SketchUp — Google SketchUp is fun and free, and is known for being easy to use. To build models in SketchUp, you draw edges and faces using a few simple tools that you can master in a short time.With Push/Pull tool you can extrude any flat surface into a 3D form. Furthermore, it works together with Google Earth, that you can import a scaled aerial photograph directly from Google Earth, or use SketchUp to build models which can be seen in Google Earth.
3Dtin — The simplest 3D software. You can draw directly from your browser.
Blender — Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. Blender was developed as an in-house application by the Dutch animation studio NeoGeo and Not a Number Technologies (NaN). It is a powerful program contains features that are characteristic of high-end 3D software.
OpenSCAD — OpenSCAD is a software for creating solid 3D CAD objects. It is free and available for Linux/UNIX, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It does not focus on the artistic aspects of 3D modelling but instead on the CAD aspects.
http://tinkercad.com/ Tinkercad] — Tinkercad is a new and faster way of creating designs for your 3D printer. With only three basic tools you can create a wide range of useful things. Once your project is ready simply download the STL file and start your 3D print.
Commercial software such as CAD software AutoCAD and Pro Engineer, software packages Rhino, Maya, and SolidWorks are all pretty good for designing 3D models.
I have no 3D design experience, how long does it take to learn 3D modeling?
You can start out by learning how to use modeling tools such as Rhino, Blender or SketchUp. It will take you some weeks to be familiar with 3D modeling tools such as SketchUp, Rhino and Blender. To become a professional user it will take you at least half a year of study and practice.
Where can I get 3D models online?
Here are some websites with 3D model database:
3D Marvels
3D Via
GrabCAD
Google 3D Warehouse
Ponoko Product Plans
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Basement Renovations Contractors in Urbandale And Des Moines | Basement Finishing
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So, you’ve decided to remodel / finish your basement. After years of waking up every day thinking how nice it’d be to have a finished basement, you’ve finally committed to it.
Congratulations. You’re going to be amazed at how much it improves your life. Whether you’re using it as a bedroom, an entertainment room, a bar, an in-law suite, or for any other purpose, you’re going to love it. It provides you with extra space for storage and opens up a range of other opportunities.
But, like many homeowners, you probably have a lot of questions. A basement remodel is no small commitment. It takes time. It costs money. And, ultimately, it leaves you without access to your basement for at least a few weeks.
We compiled this list of frequently asked questions to answer any inquiries you might have about a basement remodel. As the best basement finishing contractors in Des Moines, Iowa, we have comprehensive knowledge about the process. Hopefully, this helps to make your project a little less stressful.
Table of Contents
1. What’s the Definition of a Finished Basement?
2. Will Finishing My Basement Add Value to my Home?
3. What’s the Average Cost of a Basement Remodel?
4. Can I Finance a Basement Finishing Project?
5. How Long Does a Basement Remodel Take?
6. Can I Finish Half of My Basement Instead of the Whole Thing?
7. Do Iowa Basements Need Waterproofing?
8. Can You Insulate a Finished Basement?
9. Can You Finish a Basement in an Old House?
10. Do I Need a Permit to Finish My Basement in Iowa?
11. Do I Need to Hire Separate Contractors for Painting, Plumbing, and Electric?
12. Can HomeWorx Help Me Come Up with Some Basement Finishing Ideas?
13. Can I See Some Images of Past HomeWorx Basement Projects?
14. Does HomeWorx Finish Basements Everywhere in Iowa?
1. What’s the Definition of a Finished Basement?
In basic terms, a finished basement is a basement that doesn’t look like a basement. It looks like a living room, a bedroom, or even a full apartment. Instead of cold cement floors, it has carpet, tile or vinyl plank floors. Instead of exposed cinderblock walls, it has painted drywall.
In order for someone to call their basement “finished”, it must also have HVAC and electricity.
It’s important to note that “finished basement” is not just a design term. It’s also a legal term. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) says that in order for a basement to be considered “finished” it must be suitable for year-round living.
2. Will Finishing My Basement Add Value to my Home?
Yes. A basement renovation not only opens up space and provides you with an extra room, but it also adds significant value to your home. After all, what home buyer doesn’t want a house with a finished basement?
According to Remodeling Magazine, the average American homeowner recouped 70% of the cost of their basement remodel upon selling their home. In comparison to other renovations, such as patio additions, this is a very high return (although patios are a great thing to have, too!)
3. What’s the Average Cost of a Basement Remodel?
The cost of our basement finishing services varies from project to project. The size of the basement, the complexity of construction, and the price of materials all impact the final bill. If a homeowner wants to install a bar in their basement, for example, their project will obviously cost more than a homeowner who just wants floors and drywall.
The more time, labor, and materials that the project requires, the higher the cost will be. Typically, a basement finished by HomeWorx costs between $25,000-40,000. 80% of our basement finishes fall within this price range.
Give us a call for a free estimate. We’ll discuss your vision for the project and put together a proposal that outlines our estimated cost.
4. Can I Finance a Basement Finishing Project?
Yes! We understand that home improvement projects like this are expensive. Someone may not have all of the money they need to complete the project.
That’s why we offer financing payment plans. This allows homeowners to get the work done now and pay for it later.
HomeWorx is happy to find a finance option that suits your budget and covers the cost of your desired project.
Interested in our payment plan options? Give us a call at (515) 850-7501 to learn more!
5. How Long Does a Basement Remodel Take?
The length of a basement finishing project varies from case to case, as well. Each project has a unique timeline determined by a number of different factors. Like the cost of the project, the timeline is influenced by the size of the basement. Obviously, complex projects take more time. Our typical basement project take 4-6 weeks with some taking multiple months.
Furthermore, some basements present unique problems that make the project take longer. Electrical, plumbing, or HVAC issues, for example, may impact the project schedule.
At HomeWorx, we always do our best to execute projects as quickly as possible. However, surprises occasionally pop up that make the remodel take a bit longer.
6. Can I Finish Half of My Basement Instead of the Whole Thing?
HomeWorx will finish however much you want us to. Whether that’s 100% of it, 50% of it, or a small cubby in the corner, we’re happy to tackle the project.
These days, it’s common for people to finish only half of their basement. This allows them to use half of it for storage and the other half as an apartment, home gym, or office.
While we’d always recommend a full remodel, as it adds significant value to the house, we understand that not everyone wants to commit to such a large project.
7. Do Iowa Basements Need Waterproofing?
There are no laws that require homeowners to waterproof their basements. But, some homeowners may want to waterproof their basements before moving forward with a basement remodel. It’s a big investment, after all. The last thing you want is for your newly-finished basement to get flooded.
Typically, if you’ve never had any moisture problems in your basement we move forward without any special waterproofing.
If you want to waterproof your basement without spending too much money, we recommend checking your gutters and ensuring proper grading. This is the number one problem for water in the basement and they are simple fixes. Or, if you have a larger budget, you might look into a sump pump or a perimeter drainage system if you do not have one today.
8. Can You Insulate a Finished Basement?
Yes. One of the most common reasons why people want to finish their basements is to insulate it. After all, the basements here in Iowa get pretty cold during the winter.
HomeWorx is happy to install some installation. We’ll build some new walls on top of it to keep your basement warm all winter long.
9. Can You Finish a Basement in an Old House?
Yes. Although there are a few challenges to finishing an old basement, we’re happy to do it.
Please note that this job may take longer than a newer basement. Excess moisture, structural issues, and electrical access can all add a few days onto the project. However, we’re more than willing to do whatever it takes to turn your old basement into a fresh, livable space.
10. Do I Need a Permit to Finish My Basement in Iowa?
Yes. Polk County and other Iowa counties require residents to obtain finished basement permit. State inspectors will survey the project during and after it’s completion to ensure that all work is up to code.
11. Do I Need to Hire Separate Contractors for Painting, Plumbing and Electric?
No. We want to make the basement finishing process as easy as possible for you. We’ll  handle as much work as possible.
Our contractors are experts in painting. So, there’s no need to hire a painting contractor. Using the HomeWorx team will minimize both the cost and the number of people walking through your house.
In certain cases, we may need to bring in an outside contractor for electrical or plumbing work. We’ll find the best contractor in your area and hire them to handle any necessary specialized projects.
12. Can HomeWorx Help Me Come Up with Some Basement Finishing Ideas?
Sure! We’d love to help you brainstorm basement renovation ideas. Whether you’re looking for a traditional living room or a unique and trendy apartment-style remodel, we’ll help you design something you love. Our basement remodeling expert will meet with you to discuss everything from building materials to paint colors along with any structural issues in the home.
HomeWorx actually uses 3D modeling software that enables us to render an image of your ideas before we even start. That way, you can see your design on the screen and make any changes you’d like. It helps you to visualize your dream basement and helps us to create an accurate budget and project timeline.
13. Can I See Some Images of Past HomeWorx Basement Projects?
Our basement finishing gallery is filled with photos of past projects. Click here to check it out!
Or, you can take a virtual tour of one of our recent basement projects!
14. Does HomeWorx Finish Basements Everywhere in Iowa?
We offer basement finishing services in the following cities:
Ankeny, IA
Clive, IA
Des Moines, IA
Grimes, IA
Johnston, IA
Urbandale, IA
Waukee, IA
West Des Moines, IA
In certain cases, we may be able to accommodate basements outside of these cities. Feel free to give us a call no matter where you’re located. We can discuss the possibility of working with you or recommend some basement finishing contractors near you.
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igeekphonedotcom · 4 years
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The Roborock T7 Pro was officially released today. It upgraded the AI ​​binocular visual obstacle avoidance and applied the technology of drone and automatic driving to the obstacle avoidance of the sweeper. Its dual 5-megapixel camera can obtain more accurate information on objects, thereby improving its obstacle avoidance effect, and can also avoid pet cakes.
The Roborock T7 Pro Vacuum Cleaner is equipped with the new RR Mason 7.0 stone robot system algorithm. Its “real-time data management algorithm” is responsible for managing and distributing the environmental data collected by the sensors. It is handed over to the “perception and mapping algorithm” for data fusion and analysis, and then the “navigation and motion algorithm” performs dynamic navigation and planning based on the analysis results.
Under the dual power of CPU GPU, when the robot shakes when encountering obstacles, the algorithm will trigger the map anti-shake mechanism to ensure that the map remains stable. At the same time, when the environment in the home changes, the T7 Pro will dynamically update the map to clean it, without bumping or leaking.
In terms of performance, the Roborock T7 Pro uses the same brushless fan as the T7. In Max mode, the suction power of the fan can reach 2500Pa, the built-in 5200mAh high energy density lithium battery, single battery life is about 2.5 hours, and it can clean about 250 square meters of house area.
The constant voltage controlled water tank equipped with the Roborock T7 Pro has a large capacity of 297ml. In the “small water” mode, it can drag the floor up to 250 square meters at a time.
T7 Pro Design
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In appearance, the Roborock T7 Pro continues to maintain a modular design and appearance that is basically consistent with the T7 Pro but has made some fine-tuning in detail to make the human-computer interaction part of the entire sweeping robot more reasonable. Let’s take a look together.
The packaging is always a stone style. The hard corrugated cardboard box can protect the machine well, and the simple printing of the line drawing and the name can distinguish the different models of machines easily and clearly.
Take out the body, the appearance of the three physical buttons has changed compared to the past, the top surface has not changed much.
The raised LDS laser sensor will quickly rotate when the cleaning robot starts, scanning the surrounding terrain and obstacle information. At the same time, you can see that the T7 Pro has two more 120-degree wide-angle cameras with 500W pixels than the T7. This is also the biggest difference between the T7 and the T7 Pro. What is the use of it? We will talk about it in detail.
There is a detachable water tank on the “butt” of the Roborock T7 Pro. The constant voltage control water tank separates the water tank and the pallet, and when the pallet is not used, the pallet can be removed to perform general cleaning under the state of water storage. It is particularly worth mentioning that it adopts a drawer design, which can be easily removed without turning over.
Open the top cover, you can see the dust box and the cleaning brush. There is also a Wi-Fi indicator and a reset button at the upper right of the dust box. Dust box and filter can be separated and support washing
This is the situation at the bottom. The steering wheel, driving wheel, main brush, and side brush, the six cliff sensors are unobstructed. The driving wheels can be raised and lowered and rubber tire skins are used, which has a stronger grip and can cross obstacles up to 2cm. Not only can the main brush be quickly taken out, but the bearings on both sides can also be quickly removed, making it easy to clean up the hair.
The Roborock T7 Pro supports sweeping and dragging. The carriage is installed at the rear after being installed. Sweep first and then drag to ensure the cleaning effect. The size of the charging base is larger than in the past, it should be to improve the speed and accuracy of the robot’s recharging.
Three, no longer helpless, choose one to explain in detail the new stone algorithm system that can binocularly avoid obstacles. If you have read the reviews of various types of sweeping robots that the author has written before, I believe you will be impressed with the frequent occurrence of “SLAM”.
SLAM is the abbreviation of “Simultaneous Localization and Mapping”. When translated, it can be called “synchronous positioning and mapping”. It refers specifically to the process of planning a map while the robot calculates its position. Roborock T7 Pro is aimed at where and around the cleaning robot. What is the problem, including the two aspects of positioning and mapping, and based on this planning path to avoid obstacles?
In the past, the solutions that appeared in the sweeping robot can be divided into two traditional factions, one is laser SLAM, and the other is visual SLAM.
The sweeping robots we have tested before are basically all laser SLAM machines. They rely on emitting a laser beam and then bounce back, so as to map the distance between the robot and the target location to form a two-dimensional image. Obtaining the angle and distance of the surrounding obstacles at one time has the advantages of fast acquisition speed and a small amount of calculation, and the disadvantages are also obvious. It is impossible to detect transparent objects and it is difficult to accurately locate in a large area.
Visual SLAM can see the real environment. It uses a camera as a sensor and has a higher degree of discrimination for the environment, but it requires higher computing power. It collects multiple frames of images per second to achieve high-definition camera positioning and synchronizes the SLAM composition. However, a lot of The monocular vision SLAM sweeping robot is difficult to accurately locate in dim or dark environments.
Is there a possibility to combine the video function with the laser  SLAM to complement each other’s advantages?
Even Stone himself said that the new RR mason algorithm system is the most critical soft power of Stone. It is responsible for managing and distributing environmental data collected by sensors, and handing over to the “perception and mapping algorithm” for data fusion and analysis, and then “navigation and The “Motion Algorithm” performs dynamic navigation and planning based on the analysis results.
At the same time, it can be noted that the video function of the T7 Pro is not a visual SLAM. The SLAM part is still borne by the laser. After all, the core of visual SLAM is positioning and mapping, but the essence is to use the feature points extracted from the image. The responsibility of the video function of the T7 Pro is to perform AI recognition.
In the test, the author found that under the same size, the T7 Pro’s construction speed and cleaning area are ahead of the past pure LDS lidar products. For example, in some corners, due to table legs and stool legs and other, The interference of debris causes the traditional LDS radar to fail to accurately identify obstacle avoidance and will skip it directly, and the stone sweeping robot can cleverly plan the work path to bypass by virtue of binocular blessing.
Why do binoculars crush monoculars?
The visual recognition system can generally include one or two cameras. A single photo only has two-dimensional information, just like a 2D movie, there is no direct sense of space. We can only rely on our own life experience such as “object occlusion, near and far”. So the information obtained by a single camera and its Limited. And we cannot directly get the effect we want (of course, it can be obtained through some other means, but this item is not yet mature, and there is no large-scale verification).
In analogy to machine vision, the image information of a single camera cannot obtain the distance relationship between each object and the lens in the scene, that is, the lack of a third dimension.
Principle of binocular technology
A single picture is very confusing and uncertain, especially in real-life scenes that are extremely complex. The probability of visual miscalculation from a single camera is very high. And the actual distance of the wrong object may be calculated.
So this requires the robot to be upgraded from a single camera to two cameras, that is, stereo vision, which directly provides information in the third dimension, that is, depth of field information. Therefore, the sweeper equipped with a single camera recognizes all objects as two-dimensional objects, not three-dimensional.
For monoculars, to obtain distance information, you must first identify the target: Monocular ranging and 3D estimation rely on the Bounding Box (BB) of the detection target. Unrecognized objects, the system cannot estimate the distance. For example, if you close your eyes, there is no way to estimate the size and distance of things you do n’t know.
In other words, the monocular sweeping robot can only estimate the pre-trained objects, but the actual home environment is very different, and it is impossible to train all the objects that will cause stuck. It is necessary to assume that the object is on the ground. If it is not, it will cause a ranging error, for example, the object is on a thick carpet. Treating an object as a cube is only a rough estimate, not an accurate distance measurement. It is not known what the object’s actual 3D shape will cause more missed sweeps.
The software algorithm of the Roborock T7 Pro is based on the performance of the sweeper platform. At the same time, it uses the environmental information collected by the vision system (distance avoidance of general obstacles, monocular does not have this feature), combined with AI object recognition algorithm to help the robot accurate Obtained obstacle attribute information, so as to realize active intelligent obstacle avoidance of the sweeper, adopt different obstacle avoidance strategies for different obstacles, evaluate the avoidance distance, and take into account both the sweeping coverage and the obstacle avoidance success rate.
Since AI is used, it means that the sweeping robot can continuously increase the recognition types through the machine learning attribute of AI talent. At present, the T7 Pro has supported weight scales, fan/bar stool bases, shoes, plug-in boards, clews, For 6 types of objects such as 粑粑, OTA plans to add socks, dustpans, U-shaped chairs, and other common debris in the first phase of the follow-up. I believe that more identifiable objects will be added in the future.
Traditional sweeping robots mainly determine obstacles through infrared or ultrasonic scanning sensors, which can identify relatively large obstacles, but they do not know what the obstacles are. This poses a problem, what obstacles need to be avoided, It is impossible to determine what obstacles can be crossed.
The T7 Pro can recognize obstacles like human eyes by using visual recognition technology through the front AI dual camera. Through the above actual measurements, you can see that the T7 Pro perfectly recognizes common obstacles and actively bypasses to avoid Open obstacles.
It is worth mentioning that the T7 Pro adopts different obstacle avoidance strategies for different obstacles and evaluates the avoidance distance to take into account the sweeping coverage and obstacle avoidance success rate: ordinary obstacles < shoes/weight scale/bar stool base / Fan base < Plug-in board < A group of power cords < Baba (the distance between obstacle avoidance is getting bigger and bigger).
It is worth mentioning that in order to better handle binocular data, Stone is equipped with the Snapdragon 8-core processor APQ8053 (that is, the Snapdragon 625 without baseband) for the T7 Pro, and the 8-core Cortex A53 is able to cope with and process image data.
Moreover, T7 Pro can achieve all-weather obstacle avoidance. In order to achieve normal recognition under dim environments such as under the sofa, under the bed, and at night, it uses infrared light to fill the light (infrared is invisible light and will not disturb users).
The dark environment image is still clear and accurately identifies obstacles
According to our understanding, there is generally an IR-cut filter inside the ordinary camera, which brings a contradiction-in order to improve the quality of image generation, infrared light will be filtered out (infrared light is not accepted). In order to receive infrared light in a dim environment.
In order to solve this contradiction. Stone replaced the IR-cut filter with RGB + IR dual-pass filter inside the camera. Under strong light during the day, the infrared fill light does not turn on. And the sensor inside the camera mainly receives visible light. Under dark light, at night The infrared fill light turns on automatically. And the sensor inside the camera mainly receives infrared light. This modification and adjustment of the “big knife” is the only one in the category of sweeping robots.
Daily obstacle avoidance and escape
Under the blessing of the new algorithm led by the binocular obstacle avoidance robot T7 Pro. The stone sweeping robot has more significant improvements in obstacle avoidance and escape. To put it simply, when it encounters obstacles, it will no longer “rump”, but precise strokes. To ensure that the area can be cleaned while passing smoothly without being stuck.
Avoid obstacles while traveling
When it encounters obstacles during cleaning, it can free itself from difficulties. In addition, the T7 Pro also has a certain ability to climb over small steps. It supports up to a 2cm height difference. Some rooms like balcony and kitchen with height differences can also be cleaned freely.
Cleaning and maintenance
Although the sweeping robot is very convenient and fast, cleaning the dust box, filling the water tank. And replacing the mop. These daily cleaning and maintenance require the user to personally complete. And the design is also convenient.
In this water tank design, the design of the Roborock T7 Pro is very intimate. The water tank and the carriage are all designed with drawers. You don’t need to flip the entire sweeping robot when you are installing. And disassembling. Pull the button to pull back, these parts can be easily taken out.
In terms of convenience in cleaning and maintenance, the T7 Pro also performs quite well. The main brush, dust box, mop, these dirty parts can be quickly removed and rinsed with water.
The dust box can be taken out directly by opening the front cover
Take the main brush image
The main brush bearing can be quickly disassembled to facilitate the cleaning of wound hair
In addition, the mop on the carriage is also fixed by the card slot + velcro. After each mopping. You can quickly remove the mop for cleaning. If you find it difficult to clean the mop, you can also choose to use the mop once. You can buy 60 tablets for 99 yuan. Which is cheap and affordable, and enough for you to use for a long time.
In general, the convenient design of the T7 Pro stone sweeping robot in cleaning and maintenance is unique among similar products. This is what a sweeping robot should not be troublesome.
Check Also: iQOO Z1 Review: With New Powerful MediaTek Dimensity 1000+
T7 Pro Verdict
The T7 Pro solves the pain points that the sweeper is often stuck and accidentally stepping on the “minefield”. It provides a reliable solution for users who are pursuing cutting-edge technology. And enjoying quality life, especially those who have cute pets and cute babies. s Choice.
For the industry, the T7 Pro adopts AI binocular obstacle avoidance + LDS laser navigation. This solution was previously restricted to a high-priced exclusive cabinet in the industry for a long time. Which is difficult to popularize. This time the stone is responsible for the role of “smashing” and the popularizer-the price is 3899 yuan, and the new product is 3299 yuan. It can be seen that after 2020, more sweeping robot products will follow The footsteps of stone to launch products of related solutions. Leading to a new wave of competition in sweeping robots.
The AI ​​binocular obstacle avoidance adopted by the T7 Pro allows the sweeping robot to really have a pair of “glasses”. At the same time, the addition of infrared cameras allows it to work normally at night and recognize surrounding objects.
When we choose to buy a sweeping robot, motivation is actually very pure. The ultimate goal is nothing more than to improve the quality of life and make ourselves better “lazy.” However, many people fall into misunderstanding when choosing products. Always paying attention to the hardware parameters such as suction and volume. And ignoring the actual user experience of the robot.
Robot “minds” are often more worthy of attention than their hardware performance. In fact, this is precisely the biggest difference between machines from different manufacturers. Nowadays, the hardware performance of sweeping robots is basically the same. At this time, which product allows users to use it most comfortably. The more it will be favored by consumers.
With binocular blessing, the Roborock T7 Pro Vacuum Cleaner is quite fast in both environmental recognition and cleaning speed. The choice of travel path and obstacle avoidance route is also the optimal solution. Every time it runs. It scans the environment in real-time and updates the map For path calculation. You don’t have to worry about it.
Even the most troublesome cleaning and maintenance problem do not exist in the T7 Pro. All key parts of the whole body support quick disassembly. The water tank and the carriage are designed with drawers. They can be removed by pressing and pulling. Both support washing and drying. Even if you are clumsy, these operations are quite easy.
Finally, on the choice of the stone sweeping robot T7 and T7 Pro. We recommend the following: users with less ground debris at home. Users without pets or children recommend the more cost-effective stone sweeping robot T7. If you like cutting-edge technology, there are children or pets, T7 Pro is the best choice. The basic functions of T7 and T7 Pro are the same. And the cleaning and mopping capabilities are the same. T7 Pro only has more AI binocular system and Qualcomm 8-core CPU.
Overall, the Roborock T7 Pro is a bold attempt to sweep the robot product and its form. The new product is only available for 3299 yuan. Which is more expensive than the current high-end flagship sweeping robot market. “True incense” can be said to be just needed for people who like new technology and enjoy a quality life.
Roborock T7 Pro Review: Powerful And Efficient Robot Vacuum Cleaner The Roborock T7 Pro was officially released today. It upgraded the AI ​​binocular visual obstacle avoidance and applied the technology of drone and automatic driving to the obstacle avoidance of the sweeper.
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superfreakinlonely · 4 years
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This is the new Razer Blade Stealth 13, and I know what you might be thinking to yourselves: Didn’t you just review this about a month ago? That is true, but this is a different model. It’s the base one that comes with the 25W version of Intel’s amazing Ice Lake CPU, specifically the Core i7-1065G7. I was actually kidding about that amazing part by the way, because it’s pretty terrible and the naming scheme is trash.
Specs & Price
Now if you recall reading my article on the Blade Stealth with the GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics card, one of my biggest concerns with that notebook was that Razer was using a 15W version of the Ice Lake processor, which significantly affected its CPU performance. Under a full multi-core load it only reached 2GHz and that also affected gaming performance. Ever since then I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this notebook with the 25W CPU chip to see what kind of performance improvements we can we expect. In fact, is it going to be better than the top tier spec GTX 1650 Max-Q model that costs $300 USD more? Let’s find out.
Alright, so first step I do want to quickly go over the spec differences between this base model and the top tier GTX 1650 Max-Q model. The CPUs are the exact same except for their TDP, the memory remains the same 16GB running at DDR4-3733. Unfortunately SSD storage is cut in half, and Razer does not have an option to upgrade within their site, although it is user upgradable. This Mercury White model does not come with a discrete graphics card and it’s priced at 1500 USD, which isn’t cheap. But if you compare that to the competition from Dell, HP, or even Acer, it’s actually pretty good.
Build & Design
Now from a physical standpoint there isn’t anything new with this Mercury White model. It still maintains the same footprint as the GTX variant. I’m actually really digging this silver finish, it isn’t pure white like the XPS 13 2-in-1 that we checked out recently. It’s matte and interestingly enough it doesn’t show finger pins as bad as the black model.
The key caps are white and I’m still debating whether or not it goes along with the silver chassis. When you’re in a dark room the lighter finish does reflect the colors exhibited by the display and it looks gorgeous. It’s certainly photogenic if you ask me. The keys themselves are okay, they’re not the best in the market right now. I think the Lenovo X1 Carbon takes the crown with that, because it’s got solid feedback when you’re typing on it. I really hope Razer improves the keyboard on their next-gen Stealth notebooks cause it’s the same exact setup that’s found on my higher-end Blade 15 notebook.
The trackpad is one of the best on a Windows-based notebook, and it obviously features Windows Position drivers. I’m surprised at the size of the trackpad, because for a 13-inch notebook it is pretty big, especially when compared to the Dell XPS 13 and even the HP Spectre x360.
Ports & Internals
The I/O remains the same as the GTX 1650 model, so you get two USB Type-A ports, two USB Type-C ports that are also Thunderbolt 3 compatible, and an audio jack. The Blade Stealth 13 comes with a 1080P IPS display. I love the fact that it’s a matte screen instead of the glossy screen that you’ll find on other notebooks, thin-and-light notebooks specifically. This will definitely help you when traveling because you don’t have to worry about reflections or whatnot. It’s a very color accurate panel as well. In terms of upgradability, it’s the same layout as the GTX 1650 Max-Q model, so the only thing that you can upgrade is the storage. Unfortunately, the memory is soldered onto the main board. However, if you pay close attention to one area of the main board, you will notice that that’s where the GTX 1650 Max-Q is housed on the top tier spec model. It’s interesting to see that they’re still using the same layout. Thankfully though now you have two fans just cooling that Ice Lake CPU, which is probably why they decided to go with that 25W version cause they have that thermal headroom.
Battery Life
The battery life on this base model is good, but not great, especially when compared to the GTX 1650 Max-Q model. As you can see it only lasts maybe 10-15 minutes longer than the top tier spec model, which actually goes to show how efficient NVIDIA’s Optimus technology is with that GTX 1650 graphics card.
Benchmarks
And now the moment that you all been waiting for, how does this 25W Core i7-1065G7 compare to its 15W sibling? Well the numbers do make a lot more sense now. Taking a look at Cinebench R15, there is a 30% improvement in the multi-core test, but the XPS 13 2-in-1 still remains the fastest in this test. Single core performance didn’t really improve by all that much, and that makes sense since these notebooks didn’t have an issue running at 3.5GHz to 3.9GHz. However, the Whiskey Lake Core i7-8565U on the older model was the fastest. Switching over to Cinebench R20 the story changes completely, the 25W Ice Lake CPU on this Blade Stealth dominates this test, it’s 40% faster than the GTX model.
Moving onto some real-world tests, starting with Blender running to BMW benchmark, the Stealth continues to surprise me. It is once again 40% faster than the GTX model and close to 30% faster than the XPS 13 2-in-1 notebook. Unfortunately, running DaVinci Resolve Studio on these notebooks is a little bit of a challenge. We tried rendering the exact same project that we use for all of our benchmarks on the Ice Lake notebooks, but with the notebooks that don’t have a discrete graphics card it just wouldn’t work. I think it’s more of an Intel QuickSync optimization issue given that the test runs fine with the GTX1650 model and the MX150 model and basically other systems that run a discrete graphics card. Therefore, I think maybe Black Magic has to do something optimization. It’s certainly not Razer’s fault, but it’s something to know if you’re planning on running DaVinci Resolve on this notebook… even though I would not recommend it because this is not an editing notebook.
However, I did run Adobe Premiere Pro and I expected it to be slower than the GTX models since it is missing a discrete graphics card after all. This test certainly favors that model, but when you compare it to the XPS 13 this Blade Stealth is 14% faster. Interestingly enough, when you compare this to the Whiskey Lake models featuring the MX150 GPU, it’s relatively close. To wrap things up, we have Corona add-in for 3Ds Max and this Razer Blade shines once again and comes in first. Overall, the 25W version of the Core i7 Ice Lake CPU on this Blade Stealth 13 is certainly the fastest that we’ve tested among other notebooks, and I didn’t expect it to be that fast compared to the XPS 13 2-in1 featuring the exact same CPU with the same TDP.
Temperatures & Gaming Performance
This performance advantage has to do with how well Razer was able to sustain clock speeds on this notebook at 2.8GHz under a full multi-core workload. Now I do want to bring up something important, which is that when you hit this notebook with a full load the clock speeds go up to 3.5-3.7GHz, but temperatures reach 93°C and then it downclocks they to 2.8GHz while maintaining temperatures around 70°C.
Can you actually game on this notebook? Well you can’t really throw anything intensive at it since the Iris Plus graphics are really meant for light gaming loads at 1080P at the lowest possible settings. Titles like Rocket League, CS:GO, and Overwatch run pretty well and it’s a significant improvement over the last gen UHD graphics. For some reason 3DMark Cloud Gate refused to run on this notebook. I tried everything I could to diagnose that issue, but I was out of luck.
Conclusion
To conclude this baseline Razer Blade Stealth 13 surpassed my expectations, especially in terms of its CPU performance. It really is one of the fastest that we’ve tested so far, and I really wish that the GTX 1650 model had the exact same configuration. Regrettably that isn’t the case. It’s really weird to have two different versions of the same processor on both these notebooks. And it’s kind of ironic because you’re spending $300 more to get that GTX 1650 graphics card but you’re not getting the best CPU performance on that model. Then again, this isn’t a gaming laptop, I think Razer’s really targeting this towards other thin-and-light notebooks and the competition Dell, HP, and Acer. I wouldn’t say that this is a great primary notebook, I think this would be more of a supplementary notebook that would go along with your desktop PC. Or if you’re someone just looking for a clean simple laptop that has really good CPU performance, pretty good battery life, and looks like a MacBook pro, then why not? I think the price is pretty justifiable, although I am pretty bummed about the fact that Razer doesn’t give you the option to upgrade storage on their site.
Now having said all of that, I want to invite someone who might actually consider switching to this Blade notebook from his Lenovo X1 Carbon… or not, I don’t know if that’s going to happen. However, I’m gonna invite Mike over because he has some thoughts about this laptop.
Mike: So I was never a Lenovo ThinkPad user. I always used the Sony Viao’s, but after the last year of using the X1 Carbon I absolutely love this thing. Would I switch to the Razer? There’s a couple of benefits going in the Razer’s favor. First of all, this screen is so much better than the one I have right now on my X1 Carbon. In addition to that, the form factor is a little bit smaller. The keyboard is nowhere near as good as the X1 Carbon, and at the same time I’m really not a big fan of the white keyboard. Now from a performance standpoint I actually prefer the Razer device. The reason for that I want to have something that’s a little bit more adaptable, because if I want to play CIV or something like that at the airport this is capable of it, whereas the X1 Carbon completely shits the bed. However, as somebody who has a high powered desktop and just want something that’s portable with good battery life would I even think about getting this? It would be on my list, but I would still go towards the X1 Carbon just for all of its benefits.
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jurassicparkpodcast · 5 years
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Jurassic June Highlight: Relive your favourite Jurassic movie moments with these great recreations using Mattel toys!
Welcome back to another Jurassic June highlight – and today we will be looking at one of my favourite toy photographers. Instagram is a great platform for Jurassic toy photography – and I’ve had the pleasure of becoming friends with this person through it!
Jurassic Pics (jurassic_pics on Instagram) describes their account as “Life finds a way...with plastic. Classic Jurassic Park scenes reimagined using (mainly) Mattel’s Jurassic World line”. However, their scene recreations often go above and beyond – capturing perfectly in plastic our favourite moments from on-screen.
I wanted to sit down to hear more about how some of these shots are achieved. Let’s get straight into it.
Hey JP. Thanks for sitting down with me. Starting off light – how did you get into Jurassic Park?
Thanks for asking me to talk Tom. I was eight when the first Jurassic Park movie came out so was immediately hooked after seeing it at the cinema with my family. I had a fair few of the original Kenner line toys back then, but sold them all whilst growing up.
Do you have a favourite Jurassic film? Your feed tends to capture plenty of scenes from the original film!
Yeah, the original is my favourite (closely followed by The Lost World). The combination of practical effects and CGI is so evocative had has completely stood the test of time and the human characters are all so well developed. I do enjoy the Jurassic World movies (a good friend of mine is the guy in the yellow raincoat who gets chased by the T-Rex in Fallen Kingdom opening!), but the human characters and CGI dinosaurs just aren’t as engaging for me.
What was your reaction when you first saw the Mattel toy line?
I had no plans to buy any of the new toyline, I had a few figures from favourite movies on my bookshelves but that’s about it. But the Legacy Collection items really sparked nostalgia in me, and the quality of sculpts, articulation and variety of dinosaurs made me want to start collecting whilst re-living a childhood ambition to do a photographic recreation of the film/s using the action figures.
 Do you have a favourite product from the line so far?
There are so many! But Extreme Chompin’ T-Rex is pretty much at the top of the list. It’s my favourite species of dinosaur and the combination of action features and great pose-ability made it a no-brainer, in fact it was the first Mattel item I bought.
What would be your dream addition to the line-up?
I’d love to see more Legacy Collection humans, especially Lex, Tim and Hammond - plus the Jungle Explorer tour car. They’d make for some great photos and then I wouldn’t have to force Ellie, Grant and other characters into scenes that they’re not part of in the movies!
Jumping into what we are all here for now – Toy Photography. What camera do you shoot on?
I get asked this question a lot, and I always feel embarrassed to say that I shoot all of them on my ancient iPhone 5s (which is long overdue for an upgrade!). Mainly as i always seem to be selecting from my shoots and editing on the move so it’s the most convenient way of maintaining my feed.
You use a mixture of both physical sets and backdrops to achieve your photographs. How do you decide between physical props or a backdrop for a given photo?
Oh, that’s a great question, and one I haven’t really rationalized before. Since I’m based in the UK my options for outdoor shooting to achieve the bright sunlit Costa Rican island look are limited! So sometimes I use a printed background and shoot indoors because it is so grey outside. But I think generally I use backdrops for scenes in the movies that are shot on soundstage and am aiming to shoot more exterior scenes outside now summer is kicking in.
How do you build your physical sets – what kind of materials do you use?
I generally keep things very simple, using a lot of papers, cards and plastics from art suppliers and then combine these with scale foliage and more textured items from model shop. printed elements - either lifted from film screen caps or found online - are a great way of adding a whole level of detail and texture in the quickest possible time. It’s surprising what impressions you can create through a camera lens.
Some of the sets – like the recent JP ones – look quite large in scale. Do you build these for a shot and then dismantle them, or do you have somewhere you store them?
All my sets are hilariously basic and are instantly able to be dismantled. Backdrops or sections of walls are masking-taped onto books standing upright for stability and then I use whatever I have at hand in my studio to hang things from or lean against so they appear in shot accurately. It’s all separate tool kit items that I keep loose and re-positionable for different shots. The most elaborate shot so far that had the most making time spent on it was the ceiling chase from the JP control room, cutting tis strips of silver card to create the grid of the ceiling.
What would be your biggest tip for someone wanting to add more practical effects to their photographs?
I’d say that always viewing and re-viewing your sets through your lens or screen stop you from over-engineering things, as so often I’ve discovered that simpler is more effective. That and I think combining fabricated elements with more organic ones - or varying the textures within a single shot - can make things feel more dense and realistic, it’s all about finding the best way to highlight the figures and their poses as that’s where the action is.
Lighting is a big element of your photos. Do you use any special techniques to achieve lighting effects, or is it trial and error?
It’s all trial and error, whatever emulates the look of the film shot and as simple as possible! My lighting is either just my two desk lamps or natural light from my studio window. Occasionally I’ve used candles, Claire’s flare in my ‘Open paddock nine’ shot was highlighted with a candle and the flickering light on the T-Rex made for some nice variation in shots to choose from. I’m a big fan of using shadows or shining light through and off things to get fun textured effects or blending 2D and 3D elements.
Have you got any special plans for photographs to mark Jurassic June?
My hope is that I can get back into doing some more outdoor shoots in the summer weather. I’ve had a whole herd of Gallimimus figures waiting all winter to do the Jurassic Park sequence, and ever since getting the Parasaurolophus I’ve wanted to do the round up from The Lost World. I’ve also found a brilliant toy boat to re-create the Spinosaurus river attack from Jurassic Park 3 which I get a lot of requests for.
This is going to be a hard one – what’s your favourite picture you’ve got so far and why?
Hmm that is tricky, as so often shots that are very complicated don’t turn out as accurate as I’d like and by contrast others that are super-simple to create look much better than I’d anticipated. I think my ‘When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth’ shot is a highlight of my feed so far and was the first of my photos to get more than 3,000 likes. It was a relatively simple set up - though getting the background printed at a big size cost a bit - bit it took several different runs of poses and camera angles to get the right composition of the T-Rex. And I’d devised these very complicated means to make the banner look like it was free-falling but none of them worked, so in the end a bit of improvisation with a chunk of foam and tape did the trick.
Lastly – what can people look forward to next?
A lot of shots from The Lost World using the green Legacy T-Rex and Tiger-striped Raptors, as I’ve had plans to do set ups from it for a while but needed to source a few specific set items - like long grass! I’ve also recently started collecting the classic Jurassic Park lego items - and am very excited about the mysterious big set coming soon - so I might branch out into some fun Lego recreations too. The support and enthusiasm from followers so far has been incredible, so I look forward to sharing even more nostalgia and dina-infested fun.
Thanks so much for sitting down with us, Jurassic Pics! Make sure you go and follow this account on Instagram from your dose of your Jurassic Park nostalgia fix!
Written by: Tom Fishenden
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