Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Trace

Adobe has a PDF that describes their TRACE command that will help you convert a rastor image into vector art (in CS2). It also explains the difference between the two well (often a difficult concept for unfamilar people to grasp).

Additional information about how to use the trace command:

Adobe Design Center
Watch a tutorial video
Tutorial 9 site

What is nice about CS2 is that it really helps to relate graphic work to CAD. We can lay something out that has a printed graphic and send that to be printed, and CNC the substrate all from the same file and be assured that they will line up nicely (always depending on type of material the graphic is printed on off course).

Similar to the other converters, if you aren't using CS2 (or the new additions) already in your work, it may not be cost effective.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

"Walking Mad"

Take a look at this video of Walking Mad, produced by Hubbard Street Dance. We built the set piece - and it was an interesting project. The piece had been done previously, but we needed to recreate all of the tricks based on images, videos and very basic drawings of the structure. A few tricks that the sets uses is alignment pins to help guide the walls together w/ receiving holes, DeStaco clamps to hold the walls together, and a clever cantilevered stacks of weight to counterbalance the walls.