Tonight, MakerBot will host a very special MUGNY (MakerBot User Group NYC) meeting at the beautiful Marymount School Fifth Avenue Campus right across from the Met Museum, preceded by a RSVP-only walking tour through the Met with a handful of the artists who participated in the Met MakerBot Hackathon.

While the free Met Tour event is ”sold out” at this point, I do want to remind those who managed to reserve a ticket that the Walking Tour guests need to check in with me (Matt Griffin) on the left hand side of the Met lobby (near the Greek/Roman entrance) just before 5:30pm to get your Met pin and be ready for the tour to depart — promptly at 5:30pm.

Glenn Berry will be handling the check-in list at the Marymount School starting at 6:00pm across the street. After the Walking Tour rejoins the reception, MakerBot Operators, Thingiverse Makers, and the curious public will be treated to refreshments, snacks, the latest community show-and-tell, and inspiring keynote talks featuring the Met MakerBot Hackathon and the Capture Your Town project.

MakerBot User Group meetings are monthly meet ups where members of our world-wide community get together locally to share what they have been up to with their MakerBots. The events typically include a featured guest or keynote arranged beforehand, and tend to attract a large crowd of those from the general public as well as those actively involved with MakerBot and Thingiverse — all are welcome!

And here’s a sneak preview of the mini-master class in casting to be given tonight by 3D designer and jeweler Jason Bakutis. The work he is bringing will drop some jaws, and offer all of those curious about creating replicas of physical objects a few new routes for finishing!

A mere two days from now — 50 hours, to be precise — we will host the second big MUGNY (MakerBot User Group, New York) event of the year. We have been invited by Parsons School for Design, part of The New School in New York City. Check below for important details on how to be a part of this event.

For fans of 3D design, creativity, awesome things, learning, and making (did I leave anyone out?) this is going to be a blast. At the last MUGNY, we featured some MakerBot staff members and various short tutorials. This month, we will have two rock star designers from our community: PrettySmallThings and Cushwa.

PrettySmallThings, occasionally known as Kacie Hultgren, is a scenic designer, among other preoccupations. She uses her MakerBot to print scale models of detailed furniture and sets for Broadway productions, and you’ll see she has nearly 30 beautiful, original designs on Thingiverse. This is a rare opportunity to hear a specialized artist speak in person about her trade. Awesome!

Tom Cushwa, or Cushwa on Thingiverse, is similarly specialized. He creates 3D models for film and television, and has lately become fanatical about making his digital designs tangible with a MakerBot. His Owl Statue has been downloaded over 1,200 times; WHOA.

This event is open to the public and not one to miss. Check this address carefully, since Parsons does have buildings in different spots of the city. Join us on Thursday for enlightening talks and a chance to meet other MakerBot operators.

Where:

The New School
Parsons School of Design
“Masters in Design & Technology Thesis Show”
6 E 16th Street
12th Floor, Room 1200

When:

6:30pm – 8:00pm
MakerBot will provide light snacks and refreshments.

The May 10th installment of MakerBot User Group New York (MUGNY) will offer MakerBot operators, Thingiverse makers, and Parsons students a rare glimpse into the working methods of two revered Thingiverse designers: Cushwa and PrettySmallThings. For the many of you who wrote in asking for in-depth design demos — these two demos will deliver knowledge and then some!

Special thanks to Parsons for inviting MUGNY to host this meeting in their beautiful space — a great chance for students using the Parsons MakerBot to learn more about the community of makers they are joining.

Where:

The New School
Parsons School of Design
“Masters in Design & Technology Thesis Show”
6 E 16th Street
12th Floor, Room 1200

 When:

6:30pm – 8:00pm
MakerBot will provide light snacks and refreshments.

Kacie Hultgren – “PrettySmallThings”

Kacie Hultgren, also known as PrettySmallThings on Thingiverse, is a scenic designer in New York City.  She uses her MakerBots to build scale models for set design models.  Kacie works as an associate on a variety of Broadway, US Tours and West End productions, in addition to pursuing her own design work in NYC and around the country.  At the May MUGNY, Kacie will share her work process and showcase scale models she has been working on.  She’ll also speak about how to harness the design constraints of printing with MakerBots to create models that bend the rules and push the limits of DIY 3D printing.

Tom Cushwa – “Cushwa”

Tom Cushwa, known as Cushwa on Thingiverse, is a 15 year veteran of the computer graphics, specializing in creating 3D models for film and television. He has worked with major studios all over the world. Tom has created characters for national ads, Superbowl spots, and major motion pictures. Always trying to stay ahead of the curve, Tom dived into 3D printing this past fall, creating models for the Thingiverse Playsets projects to be printed for the MakerBot CES booth. Recently, Tom created an Owl statue for Thingiverse that has now been downloaded over a thousand times, with over 40 people posting pictures of printed Owls on the site. Check out a small sample of his work as Big Character Inc. here.

Parsons The New School For Design

A pioneer in art and design education since its founding in 1896, Parsons has cultivated outstanding artists, designers, scholars, businesspeople, and community leaders for more than a century. Today, when design thinking is increasingly being employed to solve complex global problems, Parsons is leading new approaches to art and design education. Students at the Design & Technology program pursue forward thinking, creative, commercial, research-based, educational, and art-based career paths. Areas of study include Interaction, Physical Computing, 2D and 3D Animation, Motion Graphics, and Digital Filmmaking.

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!

Read the rest of this entry »

1. I have lined up some really outstanding contributors for the upcoming season! [↩]

The live stream for our April MakerBot User Group New York meeting is below (6-8 p.m EDT). The theme is MakerBot vs. Easter Bunny and we’ll be hearing brief talks from some of our staff. Watch and listen live, but also feel free to join us in a live chat over at USTREAM.

The MakerBot User Group New York April meeting is sold out! But never fear, USTREAM is here!

We will be live-streaming the meeting tonight for all to enjoy, East and Left coasts, and far flung coasts, too!

At 6 p.m. EDT, you can tune in at this link, or come back to this blog to watch the stream. MakerBot staff will also be live chatting the event, so come share your thoughts with us.

Come be a part of this!

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to reserve your spot at tomorrow’s MakerBot User Group New York! We’ve added a few seats to the event and want everyone who is interested to be there — but we need to see that RSVP!

Chocolate MakerBot Bunny by cushwa

The Plan, Stan:

Community members will get to share their 3D-printed creations from the series “MakerBot vs. The Easter Bunny”! We asked you to create Easter-themed designs (uploaded to Thingiverse and tagged with “Easter”). Your imagination is the only limit on what you come up with!

Those in attendance will get some updates from MakerBot Industries, along with some instructive talks from our staff.

• Annelise, producer of MakerBot TV, will talk about collaborating on creative projects. And she’ll give us a sneak peek at a work in progress!
• Liz and Tony will show how to make molds from the things you print on your MakerBot. Like, say, an Easter Bunny.
• Colin will talk about using low melting point metals like pewter for home casting projects.
• And more!

For more details, please visit the invitation page. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Untitled by cushwa

This thing brought to you by

Easter is right around the corner, which means the New York MakerBot User Group April meeting is even righter around the cornerer! If you haven’t already, you’re going to want to reserve your spot. Here are a couple of things on tap for the evening.

There will be talks from several MakerBot team members, including MakerBot TV producer Annelise Jeske, who will describe the joys of collaborating on creative projects like the stop motion music video she did with musician Bryan Scary (below). You’ll also see a sneak preview from Annelise on a project she’s working on right now!

Liz Arum, our education evangelist, will give a talk with Tony Sherwood, our web developer, to demonstrate how to create a food-safe silicone mold from a positive printed on a MakerBot. If you don’t know where this is headed, maybe this picture will help.

Come one, come all! MakerBot Operators, Thingiverse Makers, and anyone curious about the rapidly exploding (extruding) world of 3D printing. On April 3, 2012, MakerBot Industries will host a special gathering of MUGNY, its flagship MakerBot User Group group here in New York City, at Tekserve in Manhattan. (Make sure you RSVP quickly. Seating is limited.)

Across the known universe, MakerBot Operators have been assembling in small gatherings (MakerBot User Groups, or MUGs) to swap tips and stories, tune each other’s bots, and generally plot the overturning of all things dull and uninteresting in the world of science, art, architecture, and design.

Several members of MakerBot’s staff will be on hand to share updates from the BotCave including a sneak preview of a unreleased video from MakerBotTV from Annelise, an opportunity to participate in MakerBot’s Maker Faire Bay Area project from Skimbal, a brief silicone mold-making demo from Liz, and more.

The highlight of the night will be an opportunity for the MUGNY community to head to the podium with printed objects and Thingiverse postings of projects created for our “MakerBot vs the Easter Bunny” challenge below.

MakerBot vs the Easter Bunny Challenge

The “MakerBot vs The Easter Bunny” Challenge picks up on the craft-spirit surrounding Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets, and chocolate Easter bunnies — as seen in the Easter-related items created for Thingiverse every year — and stirs into this mixture the Stanford Bunny and its mashup tradition. Participants will be encouraged to create interesting mashups or new designs in honor of this holiday and bring prints and images to the event to share with the community. Your invention might be a fearsome concoction that will encourage the Easter Bunny to keep its distance — or it might just become the center of some family’s best Easter egg hunt ever! We’ll take your picture along with your creation, and share you with other MUGs of the world.

Location:

Tekserve Seminar Room
119 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011

Time:

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 from 6:00pm-8:00pm (ET)

Read the rest of this entry »

We constantly get great ideas for additions or improvements to ReplicatorG from our users. They range from the fantastic to the fantastical. Almost always it’s hard to tell someone: “No, sorry, we can’t work on that right now.” Since our hardware and software are Open Source, it’s possible for people to add their own features to it, but it’s not always practical.

I’m sure many of our readers know that what Open Source is, but I want to take this paragraph to explain as a refresher. While there is some lawyering as to the exact definition of Open Source, the general idea of Open Source is: Users get the design docs as well as the product, so they can understand and modify what they use. For MakerBot that means our hardware designs as well as our Source Code are available on the web for our users (and anyone else) to inspect, mutate, or just ponder. A great example of how open source super-charges innovation is some of the great work Rob Giseburt has done to tweak his own setup, and support the MakerBot community. Because we open our designs to the community, Rob has been able to create nifty hardware add-ons as well as some great software updates.

We’d like to make this kind of innovation easier for MakerBot users, to help them expand, tweak, and improve their own setup. To that end, we are hosting a “Tinkering on ReplicatorG” class for the New York MakerBot User Group and other makers. It will be an introduction to updating and changing ReplicatorG. The class will be on December 8th, from 6:30 to 8:30PM, at the MakerBot Workshop (314 Dean St in Brooklyn). Hosted by MakerBot’s own Software and Support folks, it will be an hour of setup, tutorial, and discussion, followed by an hour of DIY workshopping. We will have experienced ‘botters on hand to answer questions, help out, and give suggestions.

If you every said “Geez, it would be really cool if this window did X” or “Wow, if only I could make the program also Y” this is your chance for some hands-on help doing that. All you need to bring is a laptop that has a USB port and runs Windows, Mac, or Linux. Well, that and some curiosity and creativity!

The Skinny:
Tinkering on ReplicatorG Class
Dec 8th, from 6:30PM to 8:30PM
@ The MakerBot Workshop
314 Dean Street (between 3rd & 4th Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11217