concept
After returning from Open Sauce 2024, I wanted to make a small gift for some of the people who helped make the experience great.
We'd already shrunk down Cow Palace for the diorama... why not shrink it one more time?
We'd already shrunk down Cow Palace for the diorama... why not shrink it one more time?
process
Lots of tests. I didn't want to send these out and have them end up leaking or falling apart at their destinations or while traveling across the country.
The laser-eyes were such an essential part of the original piece that I had to include them in the snowglobes. To that end, I tried a few different options before landing on small pieces of fiber-optic plastic lit on the end by two 0603 SMD LEDs. That was powered by a USBC rechargable battery and sips power, so ideally won't need to be charged for a LONG time.
The scene is resin-printed, fused to an FDM printed base, painted and then waterproofed. The domes themselves are just some glass ones off Amazon, and are sealed into the base with E6000 and some Flex-Seal.
The last bit of polish was using the 3D model of the base along with the Blender papercraft addon to get vector outlines of the exposed plastic on the base. From there, I laser cut those out of some sticky-backed veneer to cover the bases.
The laser-eyes were such an essential part of the original piece that I had to include them in the snowglobes. To that end, I tried a few different options before landing on small pieces of fiber-optic plastic lit on the end by two 0603 SMD LEDs. That was powered by a USBC rechargable battery and sips power, so ideally won't need to be charged for a LONG time.
The scene is resin-printed, fused to an FDM printed base, painted and then waterproofed. The domes themselves are just some glass ones off Amazon, and are sealed into the base with E6000 and some Flex-Seal.
The last bit of polish was using the 3D model of the base along with the Blender papercraft addon to get vector outlines of the exposed plastic on the base. From there, I laser cut those out of some sticky-backed veneer to cover the bases.
results
I got to hand off two of them in person, to the COO of Open Sauce and William Osman and it was great to see their reactions.
I made eight total, and still have a couple more to fill and send out!
I made eight total, and still have a couple more to fill and send out!
