დანიელი პავლიაშვილი: lego

Showing posts with label lego. Show all posts

PLC and Hardware Control

Aha! Thank you, Dad for my new Arduino hardware controller (and the partially-outfitted Craftsman toolbox to make my life simpler when building stuff)! Easy easy to program, and easier to wire up!

There was a time a few years ago that we were playing with a Seimen's PLC at my old job, and the process to program it via their development package was more confusing than anything. I've seen Lego Mindstorms being programmed: VERY complicated. Arduino has taken these shortcomings of other PLCs and simplified -everything- to make these things easy to understand. All you REALLY need to know is basic electronics and basic programming structure (preferrably in C) and you too can program up one of these things.

The interface is amazingly simple. No frills, no complicated menus, no toolboxes or hundreds of buttons to hunt for in some confusing tree structure of some far-off galaxy of a development suite. Open the development software and you get a single window with a single text box and a base menu. Open one of the examples from this window (simply File>Examples), and you get another window with some predefined text in the textbox. Simple.

So really, the only things keeping me from creating some amazing electronic system now is 1) lack of resources, and 2) a blockage in my own mental creativity.

If I wanted to create a mobile robotic system, I would need motors and drives for them: something which I simply do not have at the moment. But I don't know if I WANT to make a mobile robotic system. Or a light fader. Or a garage door opener (actually, NO I do NOT want to make this. It's been overdone), or something else. So for now I just have to settle for IBBLs in random or pseudo-random or extremely predictable patterns. Fun stuff though! More to come, maybe!

I want ideas. Perhaps if I open a poll, or something similar, I can get your feedback (and mine as well). I have about 25 minutes, so let's see if I can get something set up in that time...

Edit: See big fat link above (or QR below).

New Classic Uploads

I've uploaded about five new classic animations from 1999.

Lego Wars

Lego Wars - Bloopers

Lego Wars - Ambush

Horse Hunt

Beanie Portraits
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I said five, didn't I? Well, "Beanie Portraits" are still processing, so that'll it'll be a little while until those are ready. Until then you'll get an error on that embed/link.

I found the ORIGINAL tape we did Holy Living Man on, and there I found the whiteboard-based credits Ben wrote. I'll try to get that portion of it up in a couple days, and if popular polls request it, I might splice the two back together or remix the video and upload it in its full-length glory.

ALSO, this original tape contains Star Travels (unabridged). It was a VERY tedious video that I animated which was based more on the background music than any specific plot. Thus, there was a lot of sitting around staring at the same shot while we waited for the music to finish. When I dubbed it over to the tape that I've gotten all of these from so far, I fast-forwarded through these long parts, so the audio would cut out and the dead space would speed up. However, it's just not the same as the original lame cut. Therefore, with my discovery of the original tape, I'll be uploading the full-length version. Oh the horror.

Youtube Shorts - Sony Vegas Testing

Recently (I think I mentioned this before) I found a trial version of Sony Vegas 10 Pro, an excellent piece of software for video mixing in Windows. Well, from Christmas until New Years, I took four videos which I later (just today) finally mixed up at the fastest possible framerate.

See how you like them by watching:

Just in case you were wondering, PPS Classic is still in the process of being converted. I'm also planning a nice intro for them, so such things as lipsynchORswim's Holy Living Man videos will be up soon: as soon as I can get the intros and credits (and no they will not be too long ;)) mixed in.

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmastime...again. Such a cliche statement. Anyway, here's a little thing I put together for ya'll.

Open video in a new window.

Short Intros

Here are a couple more intro shorts for you to choose from. I'll update the poll to reflect them:

Again, comments and suggestions are welcome.

PPSStudios Intro Video

Take a look at my three new videos..actually, I'll make it four.

Comment on these and pick your favorite. I'm trying to put together some kind of intro video for my Youtube uploads and would appreciate any feedback. Also feel free to make suggestions on improvements and effects and the like.

Here's my goal: something that's short, but really neat looking. I don't want it to be as long as the Long Intro video. 30-40 seconds for an intro is just too long. If it could be under ten seconds, that'd be ideal (that's 80 pictures or less at top MovieMaker speed). Something that says "PPSStudios" or "A PPSStudios Production", and possibly "Classic" for the older videos which are still in the process of being ripped.

Maybe I'll put up a poll just so we can get a real tally system. BTW, the short intros are quite small (600KB or so each), so it shouldn't take too long to buffer them and view them in full.

Classic Animation

I just completed uploading two preview videos for the all new Youtube playlist: Classic Animation featuring my very own animations from twelve years ago! And you will HATE them!!

And a quick update on the actual animations themselves: four videos have been successfully converted and are being edited for uploading. Two are fairly long and two are moderately long, so they will be actually uploaded when I get to a faster connection, tomorrow or Tuesday.

Also, with a bit of cyberstalking or whatever..I've found the original writer and creator of Holy Living Man. I'll be uploading a few of these videos in time, once I get them credited correctly with his username (lipsynchORswim).

A quick side note..I sound like I'm speaking to the masses of fans I have, but I don't have that many fans. I should advertise or something..I hear if you get enough views on your videos, you can qualify for promoting which is like $2.50 per 1000 views or something. I dream of that day.

VHS

A few days ago, Mom and I splurged on a DVD recorder! Yes, that's right. We went to Best Buy and bought a Toshiba DR430 DVD recorder for $128. The sole purpose of this, at least for now, is to convert all of our old VHS tapes to something more modern. Like DVD! If you have a DVD, you can easily convert it to pretty much anything else that's modern.

The first thing that came to mind, which really brought this idea into a serious light was my recent activity on Lego animation, all of which I've been posting on Youtube. Of course, I actually started animating back in 1999 or a little before, from what I've seen with all of the conversions I've been making this weekend. This includes working with media such as Lego, clay and Andrea's stuffed animals.

Almost all of the videos we made were low quality (because we were using an old, worn out camcorder with a broken focus on the lens. I had figured out that the camcorder always backed up approximately 1.5 seconds after you stopped recording, just to ensure that there wasn't any static or blank tape when you started the next bit. With this knowledge, I was able to make one to half-second durations of video and pretty much simulate stop-action animation. These videos I am converting now ARE my VERY FIRST ATTEMPTS at this! Well, almost. The very first attempt I made didn't work because I was still discovering the 1.5 second thing, so that one is lost. But I redid that same exact video, which worked, and which I am now titling Horses in the Mountains.

I should remember that. I didn't give it a good title when I converted it yesterday..I called it something like "Lego - Collapsing Mountain and Horses."

Another bit of nostalgia. Shortly after I discovered my newfound ability with the camcorder, I had two of my best friends from Jr. High, Ben Weilert and Max Moe, over for an overnighter. Ben had created this comic strip in school which he called "Holy Living Man" and his head was a block of cheese. Just goes to show you how weird Ben was. Well anyway, we had them over for an overnighter and we created a video using clay (Plastacine), and a white board to caption the characters, and used Ben's storyline from his comic strip.

Well, yesterday I finally converted that whole video, along with an entire 2-hour tape's worth of other videos onto a DVD.

Therefore: I am going to now work on converting these DVDs to something like MP4, WMV...something and upload at least the animations to Youtube. Most of them are poor quality, most of them have stupid outtakes and really stupid story lines. But all of them are my originals and besides, I can do anything I want with my own stuff on Youtube, can't I?

So enjoy!

I'm going to be posting quickie intro and credits videos I made up this morning as a sort of preview to whet the appetite of my thousands of subscribers..or maybe more like five.

Even more Youtube

Here are a few more Youtube videos. I've edited the newest ten playlist to reflect all of them. And good news! I'm done for the day!! I have no more that I need to upload.

New Youtube

I spent a huge portion of the weekend (like three hours) taking photos for ELEVEN new lego animations. Check them out at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=49D922322B602454.

Here is a list of the new ones:

Lego Animation

Just a quick note: be sure and check out the newest animation I did yesterday at http://youtu.be/byEaPd00_Ws?a.

It's probably my best super-short yet, being up to ten seconds long and having more than just one movement out of one character. At least, Mom and Dad thought it was good.

New Animations

I've just put up some five-second lego animations. They're a parody on Batman and the "BOY WONDERRRRR" except I wondered what it would be like if Boy Wonder (Robin) were a total fop.

The Boy Failure 01 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCiu7-EOJEc
The Boy Failure 02 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoMYWEaEawQ
The Boy Failure 03 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK_W0gp4qTo

Update on Youtube Uploads

John Wayne Horse Mount
Horse and Rider

I have more, but they are bigger than average, so I won't post them now. Well, maybe I will if I think hard enough. They're not really THAT big; just 2MB each. I can do it. The last one (Horse and Rider) was 600K...

The other two that I can upload now are Walk in-Roll out, Slave Driver and Spaceman. I'm still not 100% sure on the Basketball Stars Original.

Yes, I will do it. Right now, even!

Youtube update - Belated

Ha! So, update with the Youtube channel thing: I've accepted the new beta design thing that they offer. See it at http://www.youtube.com/depwl9992.

In addition to that, you may see a couple short (10 second) videos I uploaded a while ago but never announced. Be ready for a couple new ones soon (not Cowman unfortunately. That one's gone so stagnant.) I have an equally short one called Spaceman. And I was requested to put the original Basketball Stars video up which I had previously taken down for privacy issues. So you might just see that version as well.

Let's see....what else? If you want to see anything, just let me know. I'm all open for ideas.

Cowman Preview

The Cowman Preview is up and running. Just a quick update...filming **in the generic sense of the word** for scenes 1-13 are finished. All we have to do is produce the clips (but since they're animation clips, it's actually a simple fast slideshow). I'll be uploading whenever all filming and animation is completed, whenever that is.

Youtube

I've finally discovered Youtube's user profile. I've had one for a while, but I finally decided to start uploading my videos. Here's the full-length feature animation of a Star Trek Spoof I did in July, 2007. Acutally it was done by me AND my sister, and she should get some credit. Oh, and also, she's coming out with a new one called Cowman (Batman spoof). Maybe I'll get ahold of the preview for it. It's the greatest. But that's for another day, and another link.

Galactic Conflicts Playlist

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