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Thank you to all of you who joined us for the April 3rd, standing-room-only MUGNY event. Great start to MUGNY’s 2012 season!
MUGNY might be the “flagship” MUG given its proximity to MakerBot HQ, but this particular event was something of a special case. I assembled a heavy-hitter list of MakerBot colleagues to each deliver a short talk on frequently requested topics. Future MUGNY editions will focus on show-and-tell directed by community members, along with a sprinkling of A-list superstar keynotes.1
I am following (cue the TV mad scientist hand-rubbing) a secret plan: the plan to generate a number of great talks and tech demos that can be later transposed into full-out tutorials on MakerBot.com to share with our community — so that all of the MUGs can benefit. Those physically able to visit weren’t the only ones attending — despite our same-day notice, we had at least seventy-five visitors via the event’s livestream, chatting with MakerBot blogger Andrew while following the proceedings. And this is just a piece of the MUG-to-MUG exchange that will become possible as more MUGs come online and swap activities with each other. So keep your eyes on this space — I’ll be blogging about these tutorials as we post them. I encourage MUGs to give these tutorials a try at their own events.
Across the planet, dozens and dozens of MUGs have been forming to bring MakerBot Operators together regularly to share prints, models, stories, and (frequently) pizza. Are you on the hunt for fellow MakerBot Operators to meet with in your area? Or maybe you have a group and you’d like to tell us about it? In either case, drop us a message to mug at makerbot dot com and I’ll be happy to follow up with you.
Wanna check out the run down for the night? Click the “read more” link below for the Techniques Swap summary!
Tonight’s Techniques Swap
Tony and Liz offered what they called a “cooking show demo” that raced the audience from a MakerBot printed object (a “positive”) through to a silicone mold for creating chocolate goodies. And they shared chocolate Stanford Bunnies and Companion Cubes with the audience at the end of the night. (Great way to wrap up!)
Keith and Brian shared their newfound passion for Autodesk’s free 123D Catch software, which allows a MakerBot Operator to take a series of still images of an object — and then stitch them together into a MakerBot-printable 3D model. Brian also shared about his Thingiverse project “ScanCycle” — where he rescues interesting objects from thrift stores, scans them, and then donates them back.
Michael (aka “Skimbal” from Thingiverse.com!) introduced MakerBot’s newly launched Design Studio team, and teased audiences with extraordinarily vague hints about the Studio’s Maker Faire Circuit plans, details he isn’t able to reveal (yet). He ended with a call-to-action to encourage the MakerBot community to participate in the Robotic Flowers project that will become part of this year’s MakerBot booth concept.2
Guru MakerBot-builder Colin shared a home pewtering and casting demo, reporting back the results he has been seeing to the attentive interest of the jewelers and sculpters in the audience.
And finally, Annelise, producer and star of MakerBotTV, shared a great story about collaborating to create her stop motion music video “The Right Heart” (music by Bryan Scary), followed by a never-before-seen clips from a piece she will be sharing on MakerBotTV in a few weeks.
We all had a great time learning techniques and eating chocolates — and had some time afterwards to meet with fellow MakerBot Users in our community. Check out Mark (above) with his “MakerBot vs the Easter Bunny” contribution: a great print of EpicFail’s Killer Cactus.
By the way check out Sydney Brownstone’s L-Magazine coverage of the event — she snapped some excellent photos as well.
- I have lined up some really outstanding contributors for the upcoming season!
- More on this to be announced next week!