Broken Dishes Model

I created this model of broken dishes while participating in the Community Modeling Sprint for the Durian Open Movie Project.

Feel free to download and use it under the Creative Commons Attribution “By” 3.0 License.

• Download the .blend file for the broken dishes model

Dead Rat Model

I created this model of a dead rat while participating in the Community Modeling Sprint for the Durian Open Movie Project.

Feel free to download and use it under the Creative Commons Attribution “By” 3.0 License.

• Download the .blend file for the dead rat model

Vereda Logo Desktop Background

This animation starts when you move the cursor on top of it.

I created this new Logo and 3D animation for Vereda. The concept by Juan Astorga was to use the platonic solids edges as a base for creating the letters that form the company name. This animated logo is being used on all new websites of Vereda.

Modeling was done in Wings3D, the final animation is a mix of Yafaray renders and Blender renders, Photoshop was used to save the images as sRGB and Flash to create the final interactive animation.

The image above is a preview of a desktop background version which is based on the version for print.

This animation started out as a test to construct a building using the hair particle system with only a few low poly construction models. The result was achieved very quickly and I then had the idea of letting some kind of craft fly by.

Animation in Blender 2.5 Alpha 0 was strait forward with nice features and some bugs as is to be expected from an alpha release.

I also made extensive use of the node compositor to achieve the final visual style.

Rendering speed was pretty decent with about 1m 18s per frame on a MacBook pro.

Blender Christmas Cookies

What’s the best way of spending Christmas? Doing some cookies or doing some Blender? Well, I made some Blender Cookies with Blender
Modeling was done with Wings3D, I then imported the models into Blender 2.49a and then appended the models into a new Blender 2.5 Alpha 0 document (Import functionality in Blender 2.5 Alpha 0 is not yet to par with 2.49)
I added a Subdivision Surface, and a Displace modifier to the cookies. Only procedural textures were used, most of the materials have SSS enabled, I used an area light and ambient occlusion approximate to light the scene. The crumbs are done with hair particles using random crumb models from an object group. Defocus achieved with the defocus compositing node, other than that no post production done to the image.
Render time is about 17 minutes which is quiet fast considering that my machine is a HP Mini Netbook.
I hope you like it and wish everybody a happy new year!

Gaby

Marcel

These were done with MyPaint and Gimp on my HP Mini. Thanks Gaby and Marcel, you’re formidable models!

Give root password for mainenance
(or type Control-D to continue): _

Further, you’re not presented with any console to login and perform the manual fsck. So the only option is to do the fsck from LiveCD. Normally this is fairly simple:

sudo fsck /dev/sda1

Replace sda1 with the actual name of your partition. If you don’t know you can start the partition editor from the administration menu and check.

This is not so easy however if the partition you need to check is part of a RAID because you have to configure and start software RAID first. This is done with mdadm, however mdadm doesn’t come with the Ubuntu LiveCD.

So I ended up using a KNOPPIX LiveCD to be able to finally perform the manual fsck on my RAID partition:

• Scan the RAID partitions. You’ll also be verifying that you’re using the correct partitions that belong to a RAID.
  sudo mdadm --examine --scan /dev/sda1
sudo mdadm --examine --scan /dev/sdb1
  The output should be something like this:
  ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=a28090aa:6893be8b:c4024dfc:29cdb07a
• Now edit mdadm.conf:
  sudo nano /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
  and add the above output line to the end of the file with the following modification:
  ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=a28090aa:6893be8b:c4024dfc:29cdb07a devices=/dev/sda1,/dev/sdb1
  where devices=/dev/sda1,/dev/sdb1 are the two RAID partitions you want to perform the fsck
• Start the RAID setup:
  sudo /etc/init.d/mdadm start
  sudo /etc/init.d/mdadm-raid start
• Perform the fsck on your RAID partition:
  sudo fsck /dev/md0
• Finally restart into your now booting Ubuntu system

Sources:

• Recover Data From RAID1 LVM Partitions With Knoppix Linux LiveCD
• Launchpad bug report

LightGreyV2 MinimalSpace

I created this XFwm4 theme for use with the LightGreyV2 GTK Theme and for netbooks or for people who want or need to use an interface that doesn’t use much pixel space. It’s based on the LightGreyV2 theme.

1. Download LightGreyV2 MinimalSpace XFwm4 theme
2. Extract LightGreyV2 MinimalSpace.tar.gz
3. Copy the LightGreyV2 MinimalSpace folder into your /usr/share/themes/ folder (You’ll need root priviledges to do this)
4. Select LightGreyV2 MinimalSpace from the Window Manager window

RoboShot

I switched from Ubuntu to Xubuntu and started to scribble in Gimp noticing a much better performance. Eventually I ended up drawing this robot…

G-Pen 560 on Jaunty

Update (11/11/2009) for Karmic: In Karmic the .fdi files are still working dispite the deprecation of HAL but you’ll have to create/edit them again if you’ve upgraded from Jaunty. However the Wacom driver which I was using in Jaunty doesn’t work anymore. The Aiptek driver works but with poor pressure sensitivity support (To use the Aiptek driver follow the instructions I’ve updated at Ubuntu Community Documentation: Aiptek Tablet). I’m using the Wizardpen driver as the pressure sensitivity works much better (Download and install the Wizardpen driver for Karmic and follow the original instructions below).

I finally got my G-Pen 560 graphic tablet working on my Ubuntu Linux which at the time I write this is 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, and you know what? It’s easy!
Update (7/29/2009): At the moment I’m using and recomending the Wacom driver. Skip the Wizardpen part and scroll down to read instructions on how to enable the Wacom driver for your tablet. Continue reading from here if you prefer to use the Wizardpen driver.

1. Download the Wizardpen driver DEB package and install it on your system
2. Create a new file with gedit by starting the Run Application dialogue with Alt F2 and executing:
   gksudo gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/gpen560.fdi
   note: you will be promted for your password
3. Paste the following content into gedit:
   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
<match key="info.product" contains="Aiptek">
<merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">wizardpen</merge>

   <merge key="input.x11_options.SendCoreEvents" type="string">true</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.TopX" type="string">185</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.TopY" type="string">372</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.BottomX" type="string">11811</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.BottomY" type="string">8793</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.MaxX" type="string">11811</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.MaxY" type="string">8793</merge>

   <merge key="input.x11_options.TopZ" type="string">32</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.MaxZ" type="string">1023</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.BottomZ" type="string">1023</merge>

   </match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>

4. Save the file and close gedit
5. plug in (or re-plug in) your tablet and you should be done

Note that if you want to make use of pressure sensitivity you’ll have to configure it on the specific applications.
Also note that I haven’t figured out how to make the two buttons on the stylus work.

For other Wizardpen compatible tablets you’ll have to find out the right configuration for the .fdi file. Other than that it’s the same process. Consult the sources at the bottom of this article.

You could instead also use the Aiptek driver, or the Wacom driver, have a look at this Ubuntu forum post: Genius Mouspen 8×6 under Jaunty Jackalope. When I tried them, one of the stylus buttons worked as right click, but performance overall was not as good as with the wizardpen driver.

I’d recomend you to try the Wacom driver nevertheless to see for yourself, which one you prefer:

1. Disable the .fdi file previously created so it doesn’t interfere with the Wacom configuration (only if you followed the instructions above about configuring the Wizardpen driver):
   Open nautilus with root priviledges by starting the Run Application dialogue with Alt F2 and executing:
   gksudo nautilus
   note: you will be promted for your password
   navigate to /etc/hal/fdi/policy/ and rename gpen560.fdi to gpen560.fdi.wizardpen
2. Open the Wacom configuration file using gedit with root priviledges:
   gksudo gedit /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/10-wacom.fdi
   note: you will be promted for your password
3. Change the line:
   <match key="info.product" contains"Wacom">
   to
   <match key="info.product" contains_outof"Wacom;Aiptek">
4. Save the file and close gedit
5. plug in (or re-plug in) your tablet and you should be done

By the way the Windows driver is buggy and the driver for Mac doesn’t work, at least not for leopard. Update (7/29/2009): However, the guys at Genius sent me a link to a newer driver (probably beta) which does work for me. Try it!

Sources:
The Digital Blue Wave
Genius Mouspen 8×6 under Jaunty Jackalope
Genius G-Pen 560 Tablet on Ubuntu Linux 8.10 Intrepid
Ubuntu Community Documentation: TabletSetupWizardpen
Ubuntu Community Documentation: Wacom