desmoda’s posterous

Weehehe.  Guillaume made a crazy crazy base for LeChuck.  This gets my nod of approval.  Masterfully executed.

Do you guys and gals have mods that you've done to your Ownage figures?  Do share =)

Recently we printed some animals for a job.  So I was bringing frogger across the border to ship and as I was crossing the "Declare" or "Nothing to Declare" area, a squad of customs officials came over.  It wasn't Code Red or anything, but I'm sure they were relishing the chance to lecture someone on the dangers of bringing live animals.  When they realized it was a fake, everyone started cracking up.  Frogger was relieved there was no cavity search.  On the train, frogger got stares all around... handsome little bugger.

So, I hope we won't have to make a handgun.  That's going to be awkward to explain.

When the raw cost of rapid prototyping plastic is $0.50 cubic cm or about $10 a cubic inch, a common question lately is why must a model be so expensive. A typical model is about 10 cubic inches, so why do people need to pay more than $100.

The answer I like to give is this. If you went out a bought a ferrari (typically the same cost of a mid-range 3d printer), and started a business renting it out, would it make sense for people to use it and only pay for gas?

Here's an example

ZCorp 350 Printer $50,000 + $10,000 (for tax and 1 year maintenance package). Material cost = $3 a cubic inch (also accounts for glue used in post-processing). If you charged $10 a cubic inch to print, it would take you 60,000/($10-$3) = 8571 cubic inches to make back the cost. Or if using the 10 cubic inch per model reference, you'd have to print 850 models, or about 2 a day. Two orders a day is a lot! And if you wanted to pay rent, electricity, time and labor for fixing files for printing. Let's say that comes out to about $2500 a month for salary (ur making $30,000 salary a year, minimum wage!). If you're doing 2 models a day or 60 models a month, that means each model would need to add $2500/60 = $42 flat fee on top of the base $10 a cubic inch.  A model that's 10 cubic inches would now cost a user $142 base price.  Assuming you run your printer out of an office that doesn't charge you rent.

Objet Eden 350 Printer $150,000 (after tax and maintenance). Material cost is 50 cents a cubic cm or $10 a cubic inch. If you charge $40 a cubic inch that Shapeways.com does. You make $30 a cubic inch per model. On the 10 cubic inch model you make $300 on the total model cost of $400. To make back the cost of the machine (not including salaries, rent, etc), it would take Shapeways 500 figure type models. Or roughly 1.5 models a day. I'm not aware of anyone that does 1.5 figure type models a day. Maybe little jewelry and rings. But not character prints.  Add in your salary and rent and you're looking at minimum $500 for a character print just to cover costs.  (Now imagine you need to paint it)

I know of some companies that charge $100 a cubic inch for Rapid Prototyping work. Your model that you would pay $200 on Ownage might cost you $1000-2000. ouch!

So if you want to get into the Rapid Prototyping business, start saving those pennies! =D

Update: Ownage is charging users about $200 for a 10 cubic inch print in plastic and painted.  So we're doing real $400-1000 production models for ZCorp price.

Figureprints.com stays in business because their ZCorp figures are 4 inches tall (about 3-5 cubic inches including base).  And they charge $139.99 for it.  It works out about right.

Running Ownage, I meet and deal with a lot of different kinds of people from different countries and different backgrounds.

Lately, I've been hanging out with a lot of factory owners in China, learning from their lives and often discussing politics and metaphysics with them.

It's surprising how much like the US, China is. When strangers come up to me and ask me what I think of their country, I always answer, "It reminds me of the US." Why? There's an air of freedom and opportunity believe it or not. I feel like Japan and Europe come from very similar cloth. There's a lot more emphasis put on traditions, social status, and outward appearances. In China, everyone comes from the same background. So it's a lot like the US in the sense that everyone is trying to succeed, some people have, but most people are pretty head-down, modest but insanely gung-ho about it.

Chinese people admire the US. A lot of businessmen and factory owners tell me this outright. They admire our values, our willingness to share ideas and technologies, our President, and even the principles behind some of the things we do wrong (like the war in Iraq). But why does it seem like the US is always butting heads with China over every imaginable issue (politics, human rights, trade surplus, global influence)? One factory owner told me this: "Mei-guo (Beautiful Country = America) and China are like two brothers. The US is the successful, worldly older brother that everyone admires. China is the rebellious younger brother who looks up to the older brother. Even though a lot of the things the older brother says is right. The younger brother doesn't want to listen because he wants to make a name for himself and not always be in big brother's shadow."

So there you have it. Global politics summed up using a Jessica and Ashley Simpson story.

Miya-daiku is a traditional Japanese craft for shaving or hand-planing wooden surfaces primarily for use in temples.  The art produces mirror-grade wood that can last hundreds or thousands of years without the use of sanding or varnish.  The temples themselves are often built without nails.

The tool for miya-daiku is extremely simple, a razor blade slotted into a carving block that looks deceptively like a vegetable peeler.  It's called the Kanna (kahn-na).  Because the tool is so simple, the technique required to produce miya-daiku supposedly takes years of training.

There was recently a show on NHK about miya-daiku.  They brought a miya-daiku master, Mr. Ogawa, and used electron microscopes to examine his work and his methods.  This particular television series is really great, it does a good job of capturing the art or essence of a master artisan or craftsman using technology (electron microscopes and high speed cameras) and then explaining the science behind the art.  I believe the program is called "Beyond the naked eye" but in Japanese.

On this episode there were some grains of wisdom that the miya-daiku passed along.

1) "Use the material how it was meant to."  This is a saying that the miya-daiku practitioners have.  It means, that every material has a born purpose and is best if used in that way.  For instance, a tree grows with a certain orientation facing south, this side receives more sunlight.  So when the craftsman harvest the tree, they will take note of the orientation and use the wood in the building with the same southward facing orientation.  Supposedly this can increase the lifespan of the piece, but they should have done more scientific analysis here.  In user interface talk, this would probably amount to meaning, "work around what people expect, not against it."

2) "I do not teach my apprentices.  I show them what needs to be produced and they teach themselves through experience."  I'm not really a fan of the "stand under a waterfall" type of training.  In this day and age, tools and techniques should be refined to their essence such that any beginner can pick it up produce a piece that is 80-90% good on the first try.  This is the only way to run a scalable business.  That extra 10% is what separates Masters from the rest of us.  But is it worth it to pay 90% more for that extra 10%?

3) "Techniques and methods can be rediscovered and revived if the building is still standing.  We build temples thinking that 300 years in the future, a craftsman might dismantle the building for renovation and say, 'Those 21st century miya-daiku were really dedicated to their work."  This is a rare sentiment in our throw-away consumerist society.  I would like to write code, build websites, and design action figures such that even a few months from now, when someone is taking it apart for a mod or renovation, they'd think, "Boy... Desmoda and Ownage really cared about this product.  It really shows"

Overall, I was impressed with the miya-daiku process.  By slicing away ribbons of wood 5 microns thick, they were able to produce a perfect surface from an organic material.  Is it possible to apply this methodology to action figure printing?  The spirit and dedication to their art was inspiring as well.

Now, let's go out and build a website that will last 300 years. =D

Today on the subway there was this energetic and cute kid that looked identical to Micah (the kid that can talk to machines) from Heroes.  He was bouncing off the walls, jumping up and and down, telling everyone around him that he's the best ball player in his school.

He goes..

"You know Michael?  He's like the 2nd best player in our school and he kicked a shot and I caught it and Michael was like, 'how the?'"

I was impressed.  And he went on..

"Paul.. you know paul?  He did this shot the other day, where he kicked the ball in mid air.  It's soo cool.  But I know how to do it too!  I know the secret."

I listened intensely, this kid is good.  Maybe there's something this 10 year old Maradona-in-the-making can teach us about soccer.

Then he spills the beans..

"The secret is to press the kick button at just the right moment."




Pause.

You know how people say holding a fart in is bad for you, I wonder if the same applies for ROFLs.

Here's the deal... you want to play DotA, you have your cd-key ready, your frozen throne is patched, banlist is up, and you've got the latest map from getdota.com.  The only problem?  You're in China.

Okay let's get it straight.  Yes, people have computers in China.  Yes, people play DotA in China, probably better than you (thanks to the pan-asian gaming skills)!  BUT, no one in China has an actual legit, paid version of Warcraft 3!

It's kind of weird being the odd man out.  I paid to play the game, but can't find any other players.. lol.  Where are all the DotA players you wonder?  Well here's how you do it.  In china, because everyone pirates their games, everyone plays using a VPN client called G-arena to set up games over Local Area Network.  It's really slick actually.  And actually way better than playing games on battle.net due to the built-in banlist and reputation counter.  Also, you can chat with your fellow gamers using the G-arena client so if your connection/VPN drops, they'll know that it wasn't your fault.

So now you know...

This girl and I need to hook up and make babies.  Lots and lots of knitted babies.

But seriously, she has the knowhow... I have a sweatshop.  In a perfect world I suppose.  http://maggiewang.com/2009/01/26/custom-crochet-sackboys-galore

Check out her custom crotched sackboys.  Only $30 for your very own!  Psst.. I know crotched is pronounced cro-sheyed... but I THINK "crotch" X-D.  What a fox pass!  I mean faux pas.