In CULTURE

Creepy, Surreal 3D Printed Zoetrope

2 Mins Read

This is what I would truly call ‘a 3D movie.’ This ‘3Drehkino’ is a series of 3D printed figures of a man walking. An LED is triggered by each passing figure in his appropriate pose, illuminating it and giving us the illusion of motion. Tobias Krawutschke designs all kinds of Zoetropes (which you can see here), but recently jumped into 3D printing. This particular ‘disc’ was printed by Shapeways. Tobias has kindly documented the whole process. You can make your own Zoetrope and have tiny little men running around your workspace!

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In CAD

SpaceClaim Launches SpaceClaim Engineer 2012

4 Mins Read

Low and behold. SpaceClaim, the company slapping the history out 3D modeling just launched SpaceClaim Engineer 2012. As the name implies it’s for Engineers only. Just kidding, it also works for people who write ‘Engineer’ on a piece of paper with crayon and tape it to their chest. Features? We talked with Blake Courter, co-founder of SpaceClaim, last week and got the squeeze on the new capabilities coming to the 9th version of the direct modeling app.

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In FAB

PotteryPrint Introduces 3D Printing to Kids

2 Mins Read

We all know what happens when you sit young children down at a high-speed pottery wheel. It’s not pretty, especially when the cat is used to ‘improve carving technique.’ However, clay provides endless hours of moldable entertainment for young minds. Add an iPad to the mix and you’ve got days of pure, clean finger-jabbing fun. A new app is taking it one step further by teaching children about pottery and how 3D Printing can make the creations real.

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In DESIGN

Great Ideas Never Die: The Jerrycan

7 Mins Read

This is our new column “Great Ideas Never Die.” Here at SolidSmack we talk a lot about the future of Design and forget the History behind the tools, the inventions and the processes we use. Not to mention the rather kooky, inventive and slightly crazy designers behind them. So we decided to give them a spotlight – enjoy!

All is fair in love and war. A good design is no different. Do you ever wonder why they call the Jerrycan a Jerrycan? On the surface, the Allies stole the design from the Germans and renamed it to replace their own inadequate gasoline canisters (Jerry was war-time English vernacular for German – somehow “Kraut Can” never caught on). In a poor attempt to cover their asses, the US named them J.E.R.I. Cans, an acronym for Journey Extension Refillable Item. But the truth is far more entertaining – and is the first topic for SolidSmack’s “Great Ideas Never Die” column.

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