Two weeks of MakerBot Unicorn tutorials and printing!

[Matt G]

Hey folks,

This weekend I'm hard at work prepping for a Unicorn tutorials series
that will launch at blog.makerbot.com starting this Monday. I'll be
sharing a bunch of techniques for using the Unicorn as a drawing tool
-- drawing in a vector-based app, working with scribbles.py and
tuning the g-code results, tracing pixel-based sources, crosshatching,
printing to a sticky pad, and using the Unicorn to make animations.
I'll be alternating days with tutorials with days where I put up lots
of things to thingiverse that I have been making, so there will be
lots of unicorn stuff up there two weeks from now!

Are there any types of work or challenges that you folks are really
hoping that I'll cover? Or specific content you'd like me to work
with? I'll definitely take anything you folks suggest into
consideration. And please jump on to comment at the blog to let me
know how the tutorials are going!

Thanks!
Matt

http://www.thingiverse.com/mifga

[Matt G]

Hey folks!

Two notes:

1) Yesterday I launched the tutorial series that I spent all weekend
writing and creating work for, here:
http://wiki.makerbot.com/unicorn-tutorial-01

I have two more tutorials in the late stages of revision that I will
be putting up probably tomorrow morning and then Friday morning --
with lots of new examples to print.

2) The Eggbot folks are starting to share their plots on
Thingiverse.com. You can actually print their SVG files if you follow
the pipeline I setup in my tutorials series. And they can print your
stuff as well, with some modifications. Make sure to check out
wiki.evilmadscience.com to download and experiment with their Eggbot
Extensions -- many of them work great for Unicorn files (especially
their script to "regularize" the out-of-the-box pretty wild Hatches
(rough) Inkscape Live Path Effect. And they have put quite a bit of
time into some of their tutorials for hatching and also for the
process they use to dither images and then apply a partial-solve
Traveling Salesman Problem script to create a path between all of the
dithered dots to create 2D meshes that optically resemble the
photographs.

Note that the Unicorn is a stippling monster and its looser, more
illustrative hand works against that effect slightly, but in a later
tutorial I'm going to show how you can use the TSP art script to
create awesome compositing elements and backgrounds.

Please do share comments here and at the blog so that I can tune this
tutorial series to serve you folks. This process is a bit involved,
but I assure you once you get the tools up and running you have a
TREMENDOUS amount of power and flexibility to make strong illustrative
work and animations and flipbooks and stickers.

Also, I'm putting up lots of videos showing printing to give you a
sense of what the MakerBot Unicorn is capable of. But if there is a
print you'd like me to video, let me know and I'll put it in the
queue.

As for lasers and PCB etching, I'm hoping that folks like Will will
pitch in about that stuff as I am very focused on the visual art/
graphic design opportunities.

Thanks!
Matt
http://www.thingiverse.com/mifga

[Matt G]

Thanks for the feedback (especial via email) -- I received some really
useful suggestions for how to structure the tutorials to suit what you
folks are needing most, and have been revising both current and
upcoming tutorials to suit this. I'll be launching more tutorials by
tomorrow, so please drop me a message or follow up here if there are
specific techniques or elements you need help with so I can see about
folding any last minute stuff into the mix. Will be glad to help out!

Thanks!
Matt

> Matthttp://www.thingiverse.com/mifga