When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Thursday 28 May 2015

The Worst Blogger Award Goes to..................

I win, I win!

We have been working on a bunch of neat projects since I last posted, all of which I can't talk about :(
We also have been busy with some personal projects as well. Jody has been working really hard at her running, and qualified for the Boston Marathon, by running the Toronto Good Life Marathon!  I have also decided to create a short indy film. So I have been busy working on the props for that, as well as acquiring some gear for filming.

 I did fabricate a pretty slick camera jib. It telescopes from 3 feet out to 8 feet! And is pretty portable for quick shooting set-ups!
The story has been written, and the next steps are working on the story boards and shot lists, so we can be as organized as possible! I have a self imposed NDA on this, until shooting is wrapped at least.........But I'll share two images from the 3rd scene:
And yes, that is a rack of bones being shot!
 Here's through the camera with some basic color grading done.


 But now back to the final few posts on the train build:
 With all of the building components sprayed, it was time to assemble them!
 While I glued up my puzzle pieces into something that eventually made sense,
Jody worked on prepping the 3/4" plywood backers for our building facades.

 Being that all of our buildings are, at the max, 3 layers of 1/4" pvc, we certainly needed a more robust backer panel than the pvc alone. All the pieces received 3 coats of heavy duty contact cement.

Before you wonder about the building choices, we needed to include 2 key buildings from the town of Stettler. One was the new City Hall, and the other was the historic P&H Grain Elevator. The far right building we chose, as it has been a landmark at the corner of town for many, many years!