WELCOME!

It is hard to believe that it was almost ten years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated and simply had to have one! Although I had been in the creative end of the three dimensional sign business for most of my life I didn't really know what I would do with one of these machines - but I just knew it could do fantastic stuff.

Along with the CNC router I discovered the wonderful material called Precision Board and the glues, primers and other companion products they offer. Since then we have gone through many tons of the material using it in most signs and projects we tackle. This journal will chronicle our many adventures both past, present and future. I'll talk from the perspective of someone who pushes these products to the creative limit on a daily basis. I'll be adding to the stories two or three times each week. -dan

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Last steps to create the crest relief


The last two elements were the most complicated or at least appeared so. But as always it is simply a matter of breaking things down into little steps and then putting everything tougher. The bird was first. The wings were be done in two layers, one slightly thicker than the other and then merged together. the tail is done as a flat relief. These were then merged highest to the border relief that circled the bird.


The bird body is done as a domed relief. The beak was done as a bevel relief. Both were merged highest to the outline relief.


The bird was then merged to the shield background by adding it to the base relief.


The last step was to add the eye by modifying the shield relief.


The book was then next step. It took some head scratching as there were a few things that made it tricky... the first being the 45 degree edges on three sides. But after some thinking I figured it out. I created a book shaped vector - shaped like a flying bird. I also made two vertical lines which would be the rails I would use to create the mesh using the sweep two rails function. But first i created a relief using the bevel tool.


The book shape would be created as a mesh using the sweep two rails function.


Both the relief and mesh were selected which allowed me to go to the next step using the merge lowest function.




 I then created a flat relief that was both the book cover and would also be used to define the top edge of the relief when it was merged highest.





The completed book relief was then merged to the crest relief by ADDING it to the base relief.


All those little steps combined have brought us a completed crest relief - easy as that!  :)





I'll send a screen capture to m client for proofing before I send it off to the MultiCam to be routed fron 2" thick Precision Board. I'll post a picture when I'm done.

-dan