Wim ten Brink

Software engineering and CGI art

Four models on Shapeways (NSFW)

Posted on 2015/10/26 by W.A. ten Brink

I like Shapeways since you can upload your own 3D designs and end up with a 3D printed model. This allows me to e.g. create custom boxes for small hardware experiments. These boxes are combined with my Poser models and will thus result in very interesting designs. But like everything with 3D, you will have to do some experiments first. I created three new models in Poser named Nora, Tommi and Cassiopa and I used some interesting trick to create a special rack to include in the pose. But first, let’s look at Nora:

Nora was printed in two versions: White plastic and Colored sandstone. And in both models a few flaws were already visible. Nora’s shoes were made of a very thin material and the upload to Shapeways did a repair that removed the very thin parts. As a result, the shoes are flawed.

Well, a bit of glue and plastic can fix that. But her fingers were also a bit delicate and the sandstone version ended up with broken fingers because the fingers are actually too thin. Again, some glue and they’re back in place.

Her thumb is still missing, though. Then again, I was more interested in checking how well the 3D printer handles holes, like the area where she keeps her left hand. In front of her genitals, to keep it decent, yet far away so it doesn’t touch. Combined with the position of her legs, this results in a complex hole to print but it ended up flawless. Even her left hand was intact.

So, what I’ve learned from Nora is that thin elements like fingers and shoes won’t print very well. White plastic does a better job than sandstone, though. That’s because sandstone needs further processing after the printing is done, which requires some manual labour. Thus, small parts can end up being damaged.

Another part that’s important with the sandstone version is the textures. For this, I will check her face:

And in case you’re wondering why her hair is covered by a towel, well… Hair really doesn’t print very well. It tends to generate loose shells or often to parts that are too thin to print. Besides, the towel makes her look as if she’s just out of bath, relaxing.

The White plastic versions shows a reasonable amount of details in her face. Even her open mouth is printed quite nicely. The sandstone model also has an open mouth and you might see her tongue and teeth if you look inside with a microscope. But I’m more looking at her face and eyes.

Printing in colored sandstone has an ink density of about 50 DPI. Normally, a printer would print at 300 DPI so the colors will lose details. But I chose a light-colored iris and Nora has good-looking pupils in this print. Which is important to remember, since dark eye colors might darken the whole eye. It still looks good in my opinion. At least better than what I can do with paint and a brush.

The next model is Cassiopa. Since I know that thin parts won’t print well, I’ve placed her on a towel, hoping for a better result. The result is okay but the sandstone version did not survive the print because the towel was too thin. So I uploaded a newer version of Cassiopa on a more solid floor and in this version, I also adjusted her clothing. Why? Because I need to test more than just panties on topless women. Still, the white plastic version looks okay, although it is a bit small:

The model was almost 15 CM long, but that’s the length of the towel. Cassiopa uses only 2/3rd of this length, thus she’s smaller than my other models. (This also happens with one of my Tommi models.) Smaller means that fewer details will be visible but it is still detailed enough.

The towel she’s on has a hole in it, which is too bad but I’m not too worried about it. I now know that I can’t use these kinds of thin plateaus for my models to rest upon. In the sandstone version, the towel had crumbled away.

The last model is Tommi which I’ve combined with a rack. I made a second version of Tommi climbing this rack but Tommi herself becomes small if you do this, thus losing details. Let’s look at the climbing version first:

I gave Tommi a skirt instead of panties so you should have been able to look up her skirt. However, Shapeways repairs this automatically and as a result, the skirt became solid. And that’s a flaw in the skirt model.

This is a colored print so her texture helps to add details, but she’s too small to be very clear in details. She did have a flaw in her right hand, since her fingers were too thin and either did not get printed or broke off afterwards. A bit of paint will fix that, though. It is just something to remember.

So, remember: make sure thin parts are well-supported and preferably resting against something else and with clothes, be aware that Shapeways might fill in specific areas that you’ve hoped would stay hollow. In this case her skirt but I also tried another interesting top on Tommi but that added a white mass over her breasts since Shapeways was filling the area between the left and right cup.

Next, the bigger version of Tommi with her resting upon the rack. That one was perfect, although one of the legs from the rack had broken off during transport. So, even if a part is thick enough to print, it might still be very vulnerable. With a length of over 4 CM, they can’t handle a lot of stress. Still, this model is great with no broken appendices and even her toenails are visible!

Well, at least I glued the leg back in place. I might decide to remove all four instead, though, if I fear they will break again. This model happens to be quite heavy too, which makes sense since she has the biggest volume of all. Her eyes are nicely detailed and her skin color even has some variation around her knees. And you can see her toenails! A bigger model is nice in that regard so if your model has a lot of fine details, have it printed in a larger scale! Although the price will scale up too, since more materials will be required.

Well, these three models all look reasonable well and taught me what I need to know about printing Poser models: use a reasonable large-scale, support all small parts and be aware that hollow spaces might end up being filled with extra material because Shapeways “repairs” some thin materials.

I kept these models mostly undressed because I know the textures of these models and needed to see how the color printing will support the texture details. Also, it is difficult to find Poser clothing models that are working well when uploaded to Shapeways. These models are not made to be printed in 3D but to be rendered. So finding good clothes to print is difficult. For Victoria 4, her bikini top and bottom do print quite well, though. They too are filled up, but the filling it towards the body of the model and not between both cups.

Another problem is the limitations on models set by Shapeways. There’s a size limit and there’s a polygon limit. (64 MB or 1 million polygons.) Poser models can easily go over this amount of polygons so you will have to find a way to reduce those, while keeping textures intact.

And then there’s the rack used by both models. The rack is the same length for both and I’ve created it myself by using the Firestorm viewer with the Second Life virtual worlds, but I could have used my own OpenSim world too. I just joined several cylinders for the rounded sides and balls for the rounded corners to build the framework. I also created a square plane with a hole inside, which I copied three times and put next to one another. I then exported the whole model from the SL viewer to a Collada file, which I imported in AccuTrans 3D to clean it up a bit and to reduce the complexity of it. (For example, by merging all parts into one single part.)

And then I checked if the rack has enough space for other hardware.

Well, the rack isn’t wide enough for an Arduino board

Since I copied the square plane three times, I had expected all holes to have the same size. And the rack was made so I can add some hardware in the empty rack space and have some wires or other parts move through the open holes to e.g. shine a LED light on the model. So, I was surprised when I discovered that the middle hole was slightly bigger than the other two. Which I discovered by trying to fit an Arduino-board. (The YUN is shown in the picture.) The length is long enough for the Arduino Mega but it will have a few millimeters on the sides of the rack. The pins are actually at the exact location of the long bars. So you could actually put an Arduino in the rack if you don’t mind the width.

But smaller devices like the Arduino Mini, the Trinket, the NetDuino mini and the Digispark have plenty of room inside the rack.

But back to the holes!

Using the climbing Tommi version, I used to try a green LED. It doesn’t fit the top or bottom hole but it does fit the middle hole. Trying it again with a regular lamp of 5 MM diameter, I see it going through the middle hole without effort but the top and bottom ones don’t fit. A laser light won’t even fit the middle hole, though.

The conclusion is that these holes are a bit too small for LED lights. No problem, since I can take a drill bit and make them wider. Still, I had hoped they would be big enough for a LED light. So I have to redo my calculations. And I have to wonder why the middle hole is bigger than the other two, while they’re basically all the same in my 3D software.

Anyway, I now have two great models for containing some of my experimental hardware. I know the racks are open so the hardware would be exposed but that’s something I will solve with a next version of my rack. I also know how thin the walls can be and how thin the walls of my rack are. I can still have the rounded areas but the rack should get more solid walls. Thin walls too, since the rack has a lot of volume.

Next, the question what I would like to create with these models. Whatever I think of should match the model. The three holes in the rack are meant for lights, cables, buttons or something else but I don’t want to show too much hardware on the model side of the rack. I also need to find a solution to attach the additional hardware to the rack, since it doesn’t have any special pins or whatever to hold them. Then again, these models were created to see how well these racks would print. The different hole size was a surprise for me which I need to include in my calculations.

And the three rack-less models? They’re just nice desk ornaments.I have ordered more prints so I will likely have more ornaments soon.

My next designs will have better racks, preferably with extra points to hold my hardware in place. The sandstone prints still look great but I have to consider the size of the whole thing. And I will need to experiment with clothing, to see which items will print best. The same is true with hair, since I still have to find hair that prints well in 3D.

All in all, 3D printing is a very interesting challenge. Slightly expensive too, though.

Why social media aren’t happy with topless women in pictures…

Posted on 2014/06/03 by W.A. ten Brink

People generally wonder why Facebook and Twitter seem to ban all forms of nudity, including the display of bare breasts. (Well, female breasts anyways.) Other sites have less troubles with displaying a bit of nudity. And people will always wonder why e.g. Facebook is that prudish. They even have troubles with pictures of women who are breastfeeding. But on other sites they tend to have less troubles with the same type of content.

For example Tumblr has almost no restrictions to the material posted there, as long as it is legal to publish. On Twitter you’re allowed a bit more, like posting nipples in tweets. They won’t allow pornography, though. Many sites won’t, anyways. Still, there’s a good reason for this. The people who will join a specific site do so because of the generic content of the site.

Many social sites are aiming at teens and young adults and this means that the content needs to qualify to specific rules, especially if the site operates in the USA. For example, most people won’t be happy when their teens are visiting sites that has the occasional nude image. (Like this blog, for example.) They would block those sites, thus the site can’t target those teens with advertisements.

For Facebook, this would be a problem. Facebook has plenty of advertisements but also plenty of games that attract teens and young adults. They use Facebook to meet with friends, play games and whatever more. Thus, Facebook depends on this group of people and thus has to respond when people report “inappropriate material”. And because they have plenty of teens, they are extremely strict at that. Tumblr has less troubles with this. They make money from the bloggers themselves by offering premium services and premium themes. They also provide advertisements, although those are barely noticeable.

Tumblr doesn’t really target teens so the content can include nudity and even pornography. Because of that, it’s no surprise that you can find plenty of those on Tumblr.

And WordPress? Well, WordPress is available in several versions. You can host it on your own server, you can have it hosted by a service provider or you do as I do and let it be hosted by WordPress themselves. The hosted versions might be a bit more strict because the hosting provider has a reputation to keep up. Worse, since the blogger is paying the provider, the provider might prefer to have less visitors instead of many, to save bandwidth. Nude pictures are often large amounts of data and with many visitors the provider loses bandwidth.

Self-hosted WordPress sites have no restrictions, though. The worst thing that could happen is that police will confiscate your hardware and arrest you if you happened to host some illegal content.

So, one main reason to block nudity is because people don’t want their teen children being exposed to it. (While plenty of teens might actually be specifically looking for this material and might even exchange nude selfies with friends.) Social sites will have to know the type of visitors they generally have and adjust their content to those visitors.

At SecondLife, for example, the rules for content within the game were mostly quite relaxed. People were allowed a lot in their own lands, as long as it was marked as mature or adult. But SecondLife got into troubles after it was discovered that many underage teens would play the game too. And those teens were suddenly exposed to nudity, sex and a lot of other things. So they decided to create a separate version just for teens and kicked every teen from the adult world to the “nicer” teen world. And if new teens are discovered in the adult world, they too are kicked to the “kindergarten”.

And they banned most of the adult stuff from most areas except for the adult areas. Since you have to pay a lot to have an adult area, this meant that many people just left the game. SecondLife now has some competition because some developers started to create the OpenSimulator where people could just host their own second world on their own system.

This became even more complex after some groups started to combine forces and started hosting virtual world similar to SecondLife, but for much less money or even free. Because of this and the ban on adult material, SecondLife has lost a lot of people.

There are, of course, more reasons. Sites that want to have viewers in e.g. China need to be aware of the restrictions the Chinese government puts on content. No pornography and preferably no bashing of the government itself. Sites focussing on the USA might also block pornography because there are a lot of people in the USA whose religious views are against such images.

In the UK they’re even demanding that providers just block all pornography and adult sites, which led to plenty of protests because too much was blocked. So, sites who want to target citizens in the UK better clean themselves up so they will get past those (faulty) porn filters.

Again, Facebook belongs to those, thus they definitely want to stay clean. Basically, social sites have to choose between those who claim there’s too much nudity versus those who want to have more nudity. Some want more, others want less. And social sites just tend to listen to those who have the most power. Not the majority but those who have the biggest influence. And those would be the lawmakers.

For example, mentioning the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 will likely get you banned in China. Not practical if you want to trade with people in China. Facebook has similar problems but all over the world. In too many countries the law puts some very strict restrictions on nudity. The USA and UK aren’t even the worst of them.

Facebook is also popular among Arab people, India and plenty of other cultures that frown upon female nipples. They want advertisers everywhere to pay them so they make a lot of profit and thus they have to give in to the demands of those lawmakers. Fortunately they also want to be in Europe so they can’t be too strict on their content, but still…

Nipples are banned because it might offend advertisers in certain areas. That would even apply to pictures of women breastfeeding their child. Male nipples are generally less offensive, though. So yes, there’s discrimination in the Facebook policies. But giving in to the demand to allow more nudity would cost them some of their advertisers, thus some of their revenue. It would only be worth their trouble if people would ban Facebook because of this strict policy.

Unfortunately, no advertiser is blocking Facebook because they don’t show enough nipples. And that’s why social media block nipples…

The web comics I like…

Posted on 2013/03/18 by W.A. ten Brink

All my life I’ve collected a lot of comics. I still have a huge collection of both European comics and comics from the USA. However, the Internet did have an interesting impact on the world of comics, because today a comic can be published world-wide and all the costs is has are the time to draw the comic plus the costs of maintaining a web server. This is then compensated by income from advertisements on the web site and of course all kinds of merchandise that visitors will like to have. Like t-shirts with their favorite character, printed comic books or plushies.

So my interest started to shift from the paper comics to the web comics. I’ve bookmarked these and every evening I like to quickly check them all for the latest updates, just like I check my mailbox, Facebook messages, LinkedIn status and other online stuff. It’s part of my daily routine and keeps me away from viewing the boring television channels that we have here in the Netherlands. At least online, I’m not bothered by the many advertisements…

So, to start: Dilbert! I do think that everyone who reads my blog will know this comic too. It’s also one that’s heavily syndicated, appearing in many printed newspaper and magazines. Basically, it’s something I recognize personally, since Dilbert is an engineer and he has to deal with unrealistic demands and situations on a daily basis. It’s still amazing how he still keeps up trying to do his best, instead of giving up like Wally, another character from this comic. I often feel like Dilbert, not wanting to give up no matter the odds or the Elbonians who will imprison me and then fire me for working too hard… 🙂

Another favorite won’t be a surprise: Garfield. What’s not to like about a fat, lazy cat whose favorite dinner is food? Here’s a comic that’s been popular for decades, just like Dilbert. And the Internet has opened up a lot of extra revenue for its author, allowing them to explore all kinds of other options to make this comic even more popular. Of course, the Garfield movies and animated series also make this comic a great success.

But how about Garfield minus Garfield? This is an interesting concept based on the Garfield comics. The artist here picks some Garfield comic and will erase the cat from the comic, often leaving just Jon in the result. And interestingly enough, this often results in yet another fun situation.

Basic Instructions is a autobiographic comic where the artist draws himself in discussions with his wife, his friends, his employer and customers or his fantasy self. The fun is more in the texts than in the drawings, though.

Dinosaur Comics is even more about the texts than the artwork. Basically, the artwork is always the same, since the first comic it published. And yes, it’s about dinosaurs and it sometimes refers to God too. Which is funny, since Dinosaurs were created before creation itself. An interesting paradox.

Molly and the Bear is a comic about a little girl and her talking bear. Without the bear, she would have a normal life, like any other girl. But the bear adds some fun and a very strange perspective on the lives of children and adults.

Sandra and Woo is also a comic about a girl with a talking animal. This time, the animal is a raccoon who was raised as a pet, then escaped to the wild before becoming a pet again because he’s addicted to belly rubs. Of course, having talking pets always make for interesting stories.

I am Arg is also a autobiographic comic from a Canadian artist who just likes to create some funny strips about gaming, geeks, girls and more.

How about stick figures? The comic xkcd is definitely a must-read for geeks and comic lovers and is updated on an almost daily basis. The drawings are simple, but the humor often reflects personal feelings and often a deeper insight in things we normally don’t even think about…

What the Duck is a comic about a professional photographer in the shape of a duck. When you’re a professional photographer, this comic is a must-read.

Buni is a comic about intelligent animals. Basically, the main characters are bunnies and there are occasionally other animals in it, all drinking at the bar, experiencing life-like we all do. Often going beyond “normal” situations and exploring interesting thinks like the Leprechaun at the end of the rainbow. (Who tend to be mugged or eaten by flying unicorns…)

Marry me is a comic about a famous female singer who decides to just marry some random fan on the spot, less than a few minutes after seeing one another. What follows is a love story where they start to explore each other on a personal level before deciding if they should annul the marriage again or just continue it. And yes, at the end of the first book they decide to stay married and even have a child together. The second book provides background information about one of the main character, which makes it an even more interesting read.

Dork tower is a role-players comic. If you’ve ever played Dungeons and Dragons, then this is THE comic to read.

Looking for Group is a comic about an elven ~~woman~~ warrior who is exploring his roots and who starts to build up his own kingdom. He’s accompanied by several strange friends including a wizard who seems to be the incarnation of pure evil, yet he seems to do his best to be good.

Goblins is a roleplaying story from the perspective of the characters themselves. Although it started a bit childish, with lot of referrals to the players and game master, it has turned out to become a very serious strip with a great story line.

Avengelyne is the story of a female angel who is cast out of heaven to the mortal world, where she will have to continue fighting the forces of Evil.

Another comic for role-players is Weregeek where being a geek is actually a superpower. It provides a real interesting view on the lives of fantasy role-players that’s actually not that far away from the truth.

Elven is a fantasy comic about the daily lives of elven fantasy characters. It’s more background information about how elven mages and paladins learn to become the warriors that are common in role-playing games. Unfortunately, it now seems to be updated once per year or so. I’m hoping it won’t stop, but the artist seems too occupied with other things to do.

PhD Comics is for students and professors and shows the fun side of the Academic World.

Cyanide & Happiness is a simple-artwork cartoon but with funny punch lines and interesting twists. The humor tends to be meant for adults, not minors, since talking about sex is a common topic.

Foreskin Man is more a protest site against male and female circumcision. This site is trying to enact legislation in the USA that should protect young boys from this kind of penis mutilation. Why? Because in most cases there’s no medical reason to do this kind of surgery. Parents often force this upon their young children for aesthetic or religious reasons. Like female circumcision in Africa, it’s a practice that should be stopped since the victims of these operations have this procedure forced upon them, instead of doing so out of their own free will, after being informed about the pro’s and cons of this procedure. Then again, I am glad my parents left my foreskin intact, which is common for many European men.

Faraday the Blob is about the adventures of a blob, a character with no torso, arms or legs. Yet somehow he seems to manage just fine as if nothing is wrong with him. And yes, this is a comic about an absurd world with absurd situations.

Two guys and Guy is about Guy, a young woman (surprise) and her two male friends. One friend is quite intelligent but also a ruthless scientist. The other friend is as dumb as the Monster of Frankenstein without his brain. And Guy herself is the connection between them.

Next, a set of Pixie Trix comics which tend to be slightly NSFW, but still very fun. Three of them rated PG-13 are about a fantasy world in the Harry Potter style, so there’s an academy for super-humans where they learn to handle their powers without betraying their existence to the real World. The two others are about a bunch of friends and are R-Rated because it tends to be sexually explicit, although it doesn’t really display genitals. (Tits, yes.)

Eerie Cuties is where the fantasy stories start. A young vampire girl will attend the academy for the first time, accompanied by her older sister. However, since this little vampire girl was born on Easter, she doesn’t drink blood. She lives on chocolate instead, making her an interesting character. But as the comic progresses, it will also focus on the lives of the other supernatural students in the academy, including the complex hormonal influences of puberty.

Magick Chicks is a spin-off of Eerie Cuties where a group of witches infiltrate a monster academy. After many episodes it’s still not clear why they had to infiltrate this academy, but they are on a secret mission that they don’t even know about.

Dangerously Chloë is another spin-off of Eerie Cuties. Chloë left the academy to become a full-fledged Succubus and is sent on her first mission. She’s to become the girlfriend of a boy who dropped some of his blood on a Satanic statue by accident. He is granted a wish, and wishes for a girlfriend. Thus, Chloë enters the scene and is to become his girlfriend, harvest his soul and then return to the Demon world, well-fed. Too bad Chloë feels sorry for the boy and now wants to help him to escape this contract with the Devil, without compromising her own work. She just has to find some other girl who wants to become his girlfriend and she happens to know the perfect candidate.

Menage a 3 starts as a story about three guys sharing the same house as roommates. But as it turns out, two of them are gay and are caught by the third friend, naked and ‘connected’. They also planned to leave the house but they had put an advertisement out for a new roommate. Knowing their roommate is straight, they asked for female roommates and as a result, two girls turn up to become the new roommates. From here on, the story is about the relationships that develop between these roommates and their friends. Plus, the straight roommate also turns out to be a virgin, so the new roommates are trying to change this.

Sticky Dilly Buns is a spin-off and is about one of the former male roommates, who decides to live together with a female (former) porn star. That too turns out to be very interesting, since they both share a similar interest in men.

Go Get a Roomie is about a hippy girl named Roomie since she just wanders around, sleeping with anyone who offers her a place to sleep. She’s an alcoholic, a bisexual nymphomaniac and at one point she ends up at the place of Lillian who is first just annoyed about her new roommate, yet tolerates her since she’s too lazy to kick Roomie out. Lillian tends to sleep a lot, having some spiritual-like dreams which she shares with Roomie and Roomie’s friends. And their relationship starts to develop to something stronger in a non-sexual way, although Roomie is definitely interested in making things more sexual.

Finally, Oglaf is a comic about a fantasy world with often some very adult content, yet always placed in a fun way. Occasionally, it will have a comic that is safe to view at work but most of it isn’t. It’s a world where men can become pregnant and where the fountain of doubt is doubtful.

Getting the eyes just right.[NSFW]

Posted on 2012/09/23 by W.A. ten Brink

I love creating images using Poser and Vue. Poser is great to create a model based on existing models that’s imported in Vue. And Vue will add the additional landscape, larger objects, plants, water, cloud and lights. The final result can sometimes be very stunning. Unfortunately, there are always some small problems in each item because of flaws while posing the model in Poser. Or because the landscape in Vue overlaps the Poser model.

One flaw tends to be the eyes on models. Each model has two eyes and you need them to look in the same direction. And you’d prefer them to look in a specific direction. So, what’s my trick for this? How to get a model to point her eyes e.g. upwards, because she’s under water, on a huge hook and surrounded by fish? Or have three girls in the grass looking at the same point?

Well, it’s not too complex. I just add a simple primitive, often a ball, to my models. Just one. I also make it invisible so it won’t appear in the rendered result. Once done, I select the left eye of the model and using the “Objects/Point at” menu, I point the eye at the ball. I repeat this for the right eye and the eyes of the other models so all eyes are pointing in the same direction.

Next, I have to move the ball in the direction that I want all models to look at. This means moving it over the X- and Z-axis, preferably far away from the models, else they will become a bit cross-eyed. Then, move it up and down to point them upwards or downwards, and don’t be afraid to put it at -100 on the Y-axis to make them look a bit down.

When dealing with multiple models, like in my image below (which has nudity, thus it’s not suitable for work environments), you might have to do more adjustments. Often, this means that you have to twist and bend the necks and heads of the models while looking if their eyes are put in the correct locations. Since the eyes already point at the right direction, all you have to do is adjust the heads and neck.

A drawback is when you have to re-position the model because that often means re-positioning the ball too. This is something important when you create an animation because you would then have to move the ball to the locations that your model is supposed to look at. But it does make your animated models look more natural during animations. It allows them to quickly move their eyes and even though it’s a very minor detail in animations, it’s still a very simple trick to make their looks more natural. Because the most important part behind this trick is that the eyes are both pointed at exactly the same spot.

And well, as you can see, the eyes aren’t the first things that you’ll notice. Most will notice the nudity in the image, which just happens to be very casual and peaceful. Others will notice that one model, Aisha, happens to be a cyborg with nice, shining body parts. And people will notice the background, the trees, and probably several flaws too. But when you look at their eyes, they’re all looking at the same point, since they’re all pointing at a ball that’s behind the camera. This makes them look straight at the camera.

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