Now that the conference is over, What did YOU learn.

[DonCP]

I would just like to say that Michael's presentation was very informative and was obvious that it took
a lot of preparation to put together.

Thank you Michael !!!

[mtylerfl]

I would just like to say that Michael's presentation was very informative and was obvious that it took
a lot of preparation to put together.

Thank you Michael !!!

Thank you very much, Don!

[mtylerfl]

Ok. I have to tell my little story...

The day before my presentation, a friend of mine (Jim Uroda) brought in some hand-carved items he wanted to show me. These had nothing to do with CNC machining, but Jim knows I love to see the carvings he does by hand. One item was a Bear that he carved from a roughed out blank he bought at a hand-carver conference (I think he said it cost him about $20 for the blank).

That got me thinking whether or not I could create a rough blank using the CarveWright Rotary Jig. So, I asked Jim if I could borrow his Bear for a few minutes. I didn't tell Jim what I was up to, but I took his Bear, went into the CarveWright show-and-tell room, set up a pedestal using a table I borrowed from the hotel foyer to place the bear and took a series of about 60 photos all around it to create a photogrammatic 3D model from.

I returned to the conference room, gave Jim his Bear and proceeded to upload and process my photos whilst David Jochim was giving his presentation (sorry David!). Took about 22 minutes to get the model completed and downloaded from the cloud. Unfortunately it was a complete failure. When taking the photos, some people walked into the room and unintentionally altered my background of the photos. That was enough to throw off the photo-model stitching process.

So, I asked Jim if I could borrow his Bear AGAIN (he still didn't know why). This time I took the bear up to my hotel room, set an overturned trash can on the coffee table, moved a couple lamps to get some good lighting without severe shadows and started to take another set of photos (I think around 50 or so this time). During my photo-taking, I had a knock at my door. It was the maid service and two of them were looking into the room with wide eyes, seeing my trash can "pedestal", my iPhone in hand and lamps re-arranged in the middle of the floor. I told them as soon as I finish taking photos of my bear, they can come in and clean the room. After closing the door, I heard quite a lot of chatter (in Spanish) outside the door and intermittent laughing from the two maids. I'm sure they thought I was some kind of nut! (I guess I probably am.)

Anyway, that set of photos worked perfectly and I got the 3D model. The next day, I showed it during my presentation to "prove" you can do this stuff at a moment's notice. I didn't create the full-3D rough blank for the rotary until I got home, but did briefly explain how it could be done in a few minutes using the free program MeshLab and the CarveWright STL Importer. I also explained how that model could make a nice relief carving using Sculptor (just like my horse example).

[fwharris]

My camera wasn't working, so I didn't get any photos. Joe is trying to gather photos that people took to put together a follow up.

Please send photos to marketing (at) carvewright.com

Connie

Well I thought something was amiss with our normal photo bug since you were not posting any of the normal activities that were going on. I kept looking but was not seeing anything..

[fwharris]

Well maybe I was just a bit early with my asking about the conference results. It does take a day or two to get back to normal after a long weekend of carving brain overload.

Michael,

Thanks for sharing parts of your presentation. Now I do really feel bad for not being able to make it this year. It looks like some great information and techniques that opens up more possibilities. Looking forward to seeing more on this.

[SharonB]

I think any of us that have attended the Conference in the past and was not able to attend this year are jealous of those of you that attended this year. It's been several years since I had the pleasure of seeing the Library and look forward to seeing any and all photos of it now. And Michael, I would have loved to attend your demonstration as I learn so much better seeing rather than reading about it. I do hope other share what they learned.

[mtylerfl]

Sharon and Floyd - I (we) sure did miss you two! Maybe next year will work out better for your schedules. Plus, I really wanted to meet Steve N. and many others in person too. It's hard to fit everything in our busy schedules these days!

[SteveNelson46]

Wow Steve, I am surprised at the response from LHR, especially since you are usually one of the LHR cheerleaders. You jumped on me once for criticizing and usually I am the critic.

Well, actually Norm I am usually the dissenter and I didn't use the right wording to express myself. Consequently, it was misinterpreted. Also, about being critical of you, sometimes I express my point of view a little more emphatic than necessary. We are all supposed to be friends here and I certainly do not want to change that.

[Sliverfoot]

Michael
Please consider making a video or tutorial of your presentation on creating 3d models. I for one would be very interested and I'm sure many others would be too.
It sounds great!

[fwharris]

The following link is from Joe's blog on the 2016 Conference http://www.carvewright.com/the-2016-...ht-conference/

Thanks for putting all of this together for those who could not make it.