Coming out of the wood work part 1

I'd have to say that out of every medium I have used, wood has to be my favorite. I love the hands-on aspect of it and I love the practical applications it has (i.e. furniture). Whenever I visit Home Depot I often find myself walking around the aisles drooling over the wood working tools and the work space I wish I had.

Wood shop was my favorite class in middle school and high school; I took four years of it. I've made everything from small boats to chessboards. I think that wood shop and drafting are what got me interested in architecture and engineering, and California's economy and lack of state school funding in the early 2000's is what got me out of it and into Illinois to study 3D animation.

People often wonder how I went from aerospace engineering to 3D animation. In reality they are very similar. One is very mathematical and the other is very artistic. In the end, you have to have an understanding of both to do either, in my opinion.

Anyway, point is, I love wood working. Since I haven't been doing too much visual stuff in 3D and special effects recently, I thought I'd show off some of my more recent wood working accomplishments.

 First series here is a camera stand that I made for my girlfriend for her birthday. When I built it she had recently moved back to Michigan after graduating from Columbia College with a degree in 2D animation. She was pretty had no supplies except a light table and a still camera, so I built her a camera stand so she could shoot her animation. Special thanks to Andrew for the help; good times eating Freddys pizza and watching kung fu movies during this project.

 Main base-plate made of two layers of some sort of clear plastic material (can't remember what it was) separated by about 2 inches to give diffusion. I sanded the plastic plates so that light would shine through, but not blind the camera operator.

 Mostly done, testing the sturdiness with wires and turn-buckles.

 The black piece on top is where the camera attaches to the stand.

 Fully finished camera stand, minus the camera, lights and animation. This camera stand is extremely sturdy and was built to withstand the apocalypse. It is also modular and modifiable.


These next few are presents I made for friends and family for Christmas 2011. I used a combination of carving, burning, and staining.

 Clockwise from top left: Orca, Sea Monster, Sleeping Fox, Dragon.

 Presents for the grand mothers. Top: Butterfly. Bottom: Boat on Silver Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains (favorite vacation spot for one of my grandmothers).

 Presents for Mom and Dad: Identical pictures of the Chateau de Chillon in Switzerland.

Present for Andrew: Horseradish (inspired by the logo of the horseradish humus at Trader Joes).