Welcome

May 9th, 2009

You’ve arrived at my portfolio site.  I maintain this home page as a news / graphics / design blog - see posts below.  For examples of my work, visit the portfolio page.

S2 CAD/CAM Project

June 21st, 2009

This session, pupils in our S2 classes are creating CAD 3D models in Pro/Engineer, and uploading them to www.shapeways.com to be manufactured using the 3D printing process.

3d_printing_0059d2We recently received our first batch of 3D printing from Shapeways.  Photos and renderings of the products are now available to view in a gallery at http://jimblack.jalbum.net/3d_print_gallery/

Blender in an Australian School

May 10th, 2009

Recently, Blendernation featured a story about Urangan State High School, in Queensland, Australia.  Pupils at the school are creating a short film that includes live action and animation.  The animation and 3D modelling is being done in Blender, the open source package that we use in school.

The project is around a year in to an eighteen month programme and has attracted around $50,000 funding.  Several professional artists have become involved as tutors and mentors.

Dodgem car 3D model created and rendered in BlenderThis superb 3D model of a dodgem car is just one of many renderings posted on the project’s site.  It was apparently created by a fourteen year old.