New editing tools and creating... from the heart! :)

Cyant’s Lab™ editing tools menu, and your ability to create new unique 3D designs with the app, got expanded earlier this month! The menu was updated to include a scale tool and a rotate tool, which you can use on any individual element from your 3D drawings. As with our other 3D drawing editing tools, you can simply tap on the elements you wish to edit, and the editing tools menu will appear. You can then select the rotate or scale tools to change the orientation or size of the selected elements.

To see the new tools in action, let’s create… from the heart! Here is a quick tutorial video which will show how you can create, in a few steps, a unique 3D flower from a single heart you have 3D drawn.

Happy creating!

Editing your 3D drawings in Cyant's Lab™

In the past few months, we’ve been adding new editing tools in the latest versions of our iPad app Cyant’s Lab™. Whether it is to copy a full 3D drawing, or just an individual segment, or move existing segments to a more suitable location, or deleting segments that are no longer relevant, those tools make it easy for Cyantists of all ages to edit their 3D drawings and use them as basis for new creations!

You will find them in the Portfolio area (copy an entire existing creation), or in the 3D sketchpad. In the 3D sketchpad, you can select (and unselect) an individual segment by tapping on it to edit it. Below is a video that demonstrates how easy it is!

Stay tuned for more in coming months! Happy creating!

Summer STEAM Pop-Up Events, hosted by Project Farmhouse and GrowNYC!

If you are in NYC in July and August, mark your calendars: we have two pop-up STEAM events with 3D Printing for kids, and we are thrilled be hosted by Project Farmhouse ! Project Farmhouse is a state of the art sustainability center and event space operated by GrowNYC steps away from the Union Square Greenmarket, and we’ll have a chance to visit this iconic farmers market as part of these STEAM workshops too!

The first workshop will take place on July 27th, 10:00am-12:00pm, and focus on plants. Plants have long been a great and important source of inspiration and a resource across many fields, and there are already quite a few connections with 3D printing... So we are really looking forward to meeting with new young cyantists to discuss technology, sustainability, plants and a small 3D printed project.

The second workshop will take place on August 17th, 10:00am - 12:00pm focus on Summer Fruits! Young cyantists will learn about the technology, sustainability aspects, summer fruits and create a small 3D printed design which they will be able to take home too!

If you are in NYC, make sure to bring your kiddos and join us!

Today's #CyantistWeLove: 3D Artist And Asset Builder Christina Douk

The movie and entertainment industry at large has been embracing digital design for some time, and increasingly 3D Printing, with 3D printed props and assets used in movies ranging from Black Panther to First Man. Behind the scene, 3D artists and asset builders such as today’s #CyantistWeLove Christina Douk create 3D modeling, geometry and 3D printing magic to make characters and set designs appear! A past #3DTalk speaker, Christina has recently worked on films including Thor: Rognarok and Captain Marvel. In addition, she has created her own robot toy line and more! We are so excited to feature her, how she works each day, her advice to young Cyantists interested in this field, and of course, her favorite thing to draw! :)

Cyant: It is exciting to see how 3D modeling and 3D printing are being used in movies and are creating new visual effects and experiences. Can you describe how they have been part of your work in recent movies you have worked on?

Christina: Most of the work I do in feature film uses 3d modeling, where we build many assets for films as well as work with client files to optimize them for our production. I work on the 3d visualization side which incorporates: “pitchvis", a production that we do to give the clients an idea of what the film can look like before it is greenlit; “previs", the production where we develop the look and storytelling through set designing and shot creation; “techvis", the process of preparing camera and set information to assist with filming; and “postvis", the process of combining filmed plates with our CG work to give an idea of what the film looks like before sending it to finals visual effects companies.

Photo courtesy of Christina Douk: French Hallway Environment made for Eve Skylar from her concept - 2014

I've been a part of all of the processes building assets and more. Although my 3d printing side isn't visible on the screen, I use the knowledge that I've learned with printing in my modeling for production. There are times where I have to clean up and prep models from a client that are very high resolution, 3d scanned actors or environments, or models that contain geometry errors. I use Zbrush a majority of the time to clean up models and prepare them for “retopology” in Maya, so that we can use them in our workflow.

Photo courtesy of Christina Douk: An environment for the animated short Break Free by Nicole Ridgewell - 2012

Cyant: What is a typical day and what are the creative and technical processes you follow? How do you work with the other team members on the project?

Christina: A majority of the projects we work on are collaborative, so we are constantly working together. Usually we start off with asset builders like me who create the characters, environments or props needed per sequence. This process involves us modeling, texturing, lighting, and rigging every asset. And when we get to a good point, then we introduce shot creation which is where animation comes in to use the assets we make and compose shots to tell the story. When an new asset is requested or something breaks there's usually one asset person on hand to get it done. Depending on what process of production I'm in, my workflow uses Maya or Zbrush for modeling and UVing, then I texture using Substance Painter and bring it all back to Maya to finish up the model and rig and light them if I need to.

Photo courtesy of Christina Douk: First projects modeling and texturing for games - 2009 (Christina’s bedroom)

Photo courtesy of Christina Douk: A vehicle from Thailand made using games modeling technique - 2009.

Photo courtesy of Christina Douk: Robot fun using Modo - 2010

Cyant: What did you study and how do you think your studies prepared you? What did you have to learn?

Christina: I went to school for animation originally, but it never really clicked with me to be an animator. Within that process of studying though, I realized that I liked building sets and set dressing a lot more, so I geared my focus to that. I started taking classes that were more focused on game design and modeling and I felt a love for sculpting and building anything. Whenever I saw a beautiful concept I just wanted to build it in 3d because then I could see a design come to life. I kept on this path for many years, working in games first then commercials, toys, and now films all of which my knowledge has grown in each industry. I also take classes on 3d printing, clay sculpting, digital sculpting, drawing and pottery on the side to keep up with many skills and to expand creativity for myself. I never stop wanting to learn, and that continued growth has always fueled my want to keep making, designing and building.

Photo courtesy of Christina Douk: The Accountant designed by Doktor A and produced by Mold 3d, modeled by Christina.

Photo courtesy of Christina Douk: Coal from A Dragon Named Coal by Rachel and Ash Blue

Cyant: You are also a creator of 3D printed toys! What inspired you to create these toys, and how is your work different, creatively and practically, from the work you do with movies? What has 3D printing enabled you to do? And what are some important lessons you've learned along the way?

Christina: This was a fun little side thing I love to do. I slowly came to this point where I wanted to do more than what my day job was. Once I found 3d printing and printed my first model and I realized this was a whole new market of creativity for me. I could make anything I wanted and produce it in a physical form. These little robots came out of some simple sketches I was working on for fun and I just kept drawing and modeling them. I’ve always been a fan of robots and these little guys always make me smile when I see them.

Photo courtesy of Christina Douk: First model made of the robots by Christina and a sketch over done by friend Tu Anh Nguyen to help figure out shapes and forms.

Making designer toys is a little different because the process involves closing the model up and making it watertight in one solid piece or multiple solid pieces with keys. There is some more planning on how I pose pieces too because I want to try and duplicate them by molding and casting as well. I start off using Maya to get basic shapes in and put together the look, since I am faster in that program, then I use Zbrush to combine all meshes and seal the model and prep it for print. Once the print is done, I let the model cure then break supports, sand it to the right smoothness and either prime it with spray paint or move on to making duplicates.

There were many routes that I wanted to take the toys, like mass production, but instead I wanted to control my own product and so I learned how to mold and cast pieces on my own, allowing me to make however many copies and I get to tint them to whatever color I want. It's a lot of fun producing my own work and I love how they all come out.

Photo courtesy of Christina Douk: First 3 robots created.

Cyant: On your Instagram feed, your tag line is: "Manipulating geometry one vertex at a time". As an artist, has working with 3D modeling and 3D printing changed how you use and view geometry and mathematics? How?

Christina: 3d modeling has changed the way I look at the world. I love geometric shapes maybe because of what I do, and I also have worked in this field for several years and noticed that sometimes how I look at the world is a little different. I break down items in our lives into simple geometric shapes and figure out how I can model them. My brain looks and sees repetition in buildings, cars, and products to see how can I optimize the amount of geometry to make that model. Sometimes if I work too much, I see the geometry and edge flow on the real life object, which can be weird, but is how my mind works these days and I find it interesting.

Photo courtesy of Christina Douk: Casted models of the robot design.

Cyant: What advice would you have for young (and not so young) cyantists who want to work with 3D modeling and 3D printing in the entertainment or game industry?

Christina: Just hit play. I really believe that once I started printing my own work I became more and more motivated to keep creating. And I think it's because having the physical product in front of you can show you and influence you that you can make anything. When I first started 3d printing I would model and sculpt many different things in preparation to getting my first printer, but even when I got that, there were so many complications with the ones I had, and there was one printer which didn’t work for me at all, so I ended up waiting another year to get my own. Instead, I ended up sending my stuff to print through a bureau and through friends in the meantime and that's when I realized that I wanted to design and create more. I'm a plug and play type of person. I want to focus more on the art and design vs the process of printing, so once I began making more and more content, I bought a printer to fit that mentality. I own a Form 2 at the moment and literally whenever I have an idea now, I'll model it, send it to print, and share it.

Cyant: And last but not least! What is your favorite drawing or thing to draw? :)

Christina: My favorite thing is drawing without a purpose. I don’t know what I will draw, but I doodle lines and see what comes out. It is like an icebreaker for myself, to break the need to draw something exact, I instead do whatever. My robots actually emerged from this method. Its freeing to kinda see where the lines go every time I do this.

Thanks so much for sharing your work and inspirations Christina! If you want to learn more about Christina, make sure to visit her website HERE and follow her Instagram account HERE!

Today's #CyantistWeLove: Pauline Eveno, Music Lover & Founder of Syos

Photo Courtesy of #CyantistWeLove: Pauline Eveno, Syos

Albert Einsten, a musician and a music lover, is quoted for having said: “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician.”. 3D Printing now offers new ways for the two fields to intersect, and today’s #CyantistWeLove, Pauline Eveno, has been able to combine her love of music with her physics background. She has created 3D printed custom mouthpieces that can be tuned to a musician’s preferences, and founded the company Syos to serve the music community at large. We are excited to feature her and her team’s work, which will no doubt inspire all music loving Cyantists!

Cyant: Can you please tell us about Syos, Syos’s custom mouthpieces and why they are so unique?

Pauline: Syos, which means Shape Your Own Sound, is a French company founded in 2016 by two acoustic researchers from Ircam: myself, and Maxime Carron. Syos lets all saxophone players get their own sound more easily thanks to 3D printed custom mouthpieces. Syos makes mouthpieces that are more in tune, more homogeneous, easier to play and optimized to the sound each musician is looking for. We developed an algorithm that translates the needs of the musician, that he/she expresses by filling out a questionnaire, directly into the geometry of a mouthpiece that will give him/her the sound he/she wants.

Photo Courtesy of #CyantistWeLove: Pauline Eveno, Syos

Cyant: What led you to the idea and why use 3D printing? Did you have a background in music?

Pauline: Syos wouldn't exist without 3D printing. Indeed, it's the only way for us to make a unique mouthpiece for each musician. It makes the customization possible at a larger scale.

Yes I have a background in music. I have been playing flute for 20 years and more recently I started bass guitar and saxophone. But more importantly I have a PhD in acoustics. I did my PhD at Ircam on the acoustics of wind instruments.

Photo Courtesy of #CyantistWeLove: Pauline Eveno, Syos

Cyant: What type of expertise and team did it take to be able to first prototype the pieces and then produce them on a larger scale?

Pauline: First we needed to understand the acoustics of the mouthpieces and what was the influence of the geometry of the mouthpiece on the sound and playing characteristics of the saxophone. Then, we needed to translate the needs of musicians from the words to the geometry of the mouthpiece. So we did tests with thousands of musicians. Of course we also needed to design the mouthpieces using a 3D modeling software, Solidworks, and find the right technology to print the mouthpieces.

Photo Courtesy of #CyantistWeLove: Pauline Eveno, Syos

Cyant: How are musicians using and responding to your innovations? Is there a fear that the sound may not be the same? Are they able to create new sounds?

Pauline: Musicians love the mouthpieces! But there are still some musicians who are suspicious about the material. There are a lot of myths in music and one of them is that the material the instrument is made of has a strong impact on the sound. It's actually the case for string instruments, because it's the vibrating body of the instrument that radiates the sound, but in wind instruments it's the air that is vibrating, so if you have a hard material, it doesn't matter if it's plastic or metal, what's important is the internal geometry. We actually have a blog where we explain the science of musical instruments: syos.co/blog

Moreover, since we are the first manufacturers to use the color a lot on our instruments, a lot of people see them as toys. It's kind of sad because I want to believe that color isn't only restricted to kids. But now that we have some of the best saxophonists in the world playing on our mouthpieces, minds are changing and more and more people believe in us and ask for colorful mouthpieces!

Photo Courtesy of #CyantistWeLove: Pauline Eveno, Syos

Cyant: What is next for the future of sound/music and 3D printing in your mind? Will there be more development to completely re-invent instruments, or create new ones? Or combining specific re-designed pieces with traditional parts?

Pauline: For me, 3D printing will really help getting more and more personalized instruments. So we expect to extend our model to other musical instruments. 3D printing can also completely change the way the instruments are distributed. Instead of producing all the instruments in one factory and them shipping them all over the world, we could have a 3D printer in every music shops and directly print the instrument there.

3D printing is also really useful for prototyping things faster, so a lot of musical instruments could be redesigned to be easier to play, more in tune, etc. During my PhD I developed a software that is helping craftsmen to predict the characteristics of their instruments before making them. Jerôme Wiss for example, used the software to design a trumpet that is completely in tune. He then used 3D printing to prototype and test the trumpet he had designed, and now he is making it by hand in metal and it works great! There is also a project at Ircam and LMA (two acoustic labs in Paris and Marseille) to make a new clarinet, more intuitive to play. So yes, I'm sure there are a lot of things that will be happening in the musical instruments.

Photo Courtesy of #CyantistWeLove: Pauline Eveno, Syos

Cyant: What is your advice for young cyantists who are interested in the intersection of music, sound and 3D printing?

Pauline: They should apply at Syos ;)

My advice is to always do things you are passionate about, with passion you can really reach the stars :)

Cyant: Finally, what is your favorite thing to draw? :)

Pauline: I’m really bad at drawing... I'm more into music.

Cyant: So that would be… sheets of music! ;)

Thanks Pauline for sharing about your innovative work and inspiring music loving Cyantists! If you want to learn more about Syos and their custom 3D printed pieces for musicians, make sure to visit HERE!

Bringing On Paper Sketches & Photo Inspo To 3D life With Cyant's Lab™ 1.6.0

“Pen and paper” never gets old, and neither does photography! We for one love to see creativity and drawing on all types of media from paper to digital. And to help bring “on paper” sketches, writings, kids drawings (anime and video games’ ones too! ;)),… to 3D life and 3D print them, a new version of our iPad app Cyant’s Lab™ is available on the App Store: cyantists of all ages can now use a photo from their library as a template and/or inspiration for their 3D drawing!

What will you create? :) ✍️

New Ocean Templates Available On Cyant's Lab™

June 8th was World Ocean's Day and we were excited to make new templates that feature marine life available in our iPad app Cyant's Lab™ that day! Kids of all ages can already 3D draw and obtain 3D prints of four faves, and we'll add more this month and in coming weeks too!

Our oceans are under enormous stress but 3D printing has a significant potential to help keeping our oceans healthier by ushering in more sustainable design and production methods, new business model around a circular economy, new environmentally conscious materials, and even helping ailing creatures and inhabitats with prosthesis.!

We are truly excited for this potential!

Today's #CyantistWeLove: Brian McLean, Director Of Rapid Prototyping At Laika, And The Laika Team

“Creativity can manifest itself in many different ways and you can find the connection really unexpectedly.”

"If you must blink, do it now... Pay careful attention to everything you see..." urges Kubo, the Hero of Laika's latest Stop Motion Animation feature film: Kubo And The Two Strings. And if you follow his advice, not only will you be transported into his enchanting journey and story, but you will also be left with wonderment at the creative and technical works that supported this beautiful animation.

Source: LAIKA Animation You Tube Channel on 2016-10-05.

Laika is a pioneer in using 3D printing in Stop Motion Animation, and their approach has enabled a brand new appreciation for this form of animation. We were so fortunate and grateful to have a conversation with the force driving this artistic and technical evolution, Brian McLean, Director Rapid Prototyping at Laika, who received a Scientific And Engineering Award (Academy Plaque) from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work. Brian works everyday at the intersection of art and technology, but always letting the creative side drive the technical side, and making sure everything is rooted in the practical. We are excited to share a summary of the Q&A we had with him:

Cyant: As a "traditional artist", what brought you to 3D Printing and how did you introduce the connection between 3D Printing and animation?

Brian: From a young age, I was very drawn to arts and sculpting. When I got out of college I actually did not know how to write an email. I had worked on traditional model making and sculpting, and computers felt very intimidating, just like 3D Printing can be intimidating today. And I rebelled against it, I wanted nothing to do with the computer. I focused on traditional model making, and was introduced to people who'd made a name for themselves doing practical things. And that was at a time where most of the studios were moving to digital. My wife enrolled into an industrial design degree, and as I helped her learn some of the required digital tools, I became more comfortable with the technology. Fast forward two years, I was teaching a class on traditional model making and I was exposed to a 3D printer. Thanks to Yves Behar's leadership, The California College Of The Arts was investing into Polyjet technology, which could offer fine details and dimensional accuracy. I was put in charge of researching and buying the 3D printing equipment, teaching it and bringing it to the curriculum for the industrial design and architecture students. Because of the exposure to that very type of 3D printing technology, I called an old colleague, Martin Meunier, to take a look and give his thoughts. We started to ask: "Could it be possible to do stop motion animation?" with this technology, which could yield objects almost as smooth as you could expect from mold and cast. We submitted the idea to Laika and they accepted it. If we had known how hard it was going to be we may never have done it! But we were naive and eager, and very focused on the practical, physical objects we could hold in our hands, which were beautiful. And it quickly grew and grew from there.

Photo source: Laika

Cyant: Your department unites arts and technology and is a true “Cyantists” department! Could you please describe how you assembled your team, and how this diversity has been working well to produce a film like Kubo And The Two Strings?

Brian:  Throughout most of Coraline, what made it successful is that the people we brought in had practical, art backgrounds, they were not "computer people". Coraline was the first stop motion film shot in US in over a decade. But the fact that we were coming with a practical background helped showcase to the community that this could help the field, not hurt it. So we were hiring people with practical skills and teaching them technical skills. For follow on films, Paranorman, The Boxtrolls and Kubo And The Two Strings, which were getting more complex, we had to bring in people with more computer skills and teach them the practical side of things. It turns out it was difficult to do in this way around: they were computer geniuses but were missing the practical and physical experience on how objects fit together. So the balance has been hard to achieve. However, we have definitely found over the years a whole group of people who were mostly working in the physical domain to start with, but had transitioned to digital over time. And it's those people who have that passion for the practical who really make it work.

Photo source: Laika

Cyant: So for Kubo, what had to be created to make this movie so visually and artistically stunning, and elegantly showcase the beautiful storyline, while seamlessly blending several technical elements including Computer Generated effects?

Brian: Starting Paranorman, Laika started doing "hybrid film making", that is we were focused on the story to be told, and creating the world we needed to create to do that, without letting ourselves be limited by the media of stop motion animation. We always try to have everything we do rooted in the practical. So we try to figure out how to do things in the real world first and then determine if it needs to be transitioned to CG. For example, Oliver Jones and the team at the rigging department had to prototype crashing waves with a black plastic bag on an undulating grid and filming it frame by frame, or taking chunks of cut out paper also on undulating grid system, and animate it frame by frame. Then once we'd figured out what that needed to look like, we transitioned it to Steve Emerson at the visual effects department, so they could recreate the effect and rebuild the scene while keeping it rooted in our original world because that CG effect was going to have to live side-by-side with it. It is the attention and dedication to that process that has allowed us to make it invisible to the audience members. And throughout our process, it is amazing how often the creative side drives the technology use.

“3D Printing is on the cusp of allowing everything the human race has ever designed to be redesigned.”

Cyant: What has 3D Printing specifically enabled and what envelop did you push to make each movie and Kubo And The Two Strings in particular?

Brian: With Coraline, we were using Polyjet technology with hand painting. We moved to ZPrint technology for Paranorman, and were able to print faces in color. And with this shift, we had to develop a number of post processing techniques and make sure we were achieving the necessary consistency. One of the limitations of ZPrint technology is its dimensional accuracy and fine feature details. For Kubo, we had to produce really detailed characters, and the technology that had been the backbone of the two previous films was no longer going to be sufficient. So we were able to leverage the reputation that Laika had acquired, and work with the 3D Printing company Stratasys to obtain one of their early technologies, the Connex3. This technology allows 3 color 3D printing but does not make it possible to print gradients. We worked in partnership with them to co-develop our own software and texture mapped color assignment, and we worked very closely Jon Hiller, independent software developer, to take his AMF software and tweak it for our production needs. Still again, the creative and physical requirements of how the characters should look were driving the final decision making. Thankfully our technical strategy paid off and the 3D printed faces, Monkey in particular, were approved. So what had held Stop Motion Animation back and we were able to solve with our technology development over time, is keeping the audience fully engrossed in the movie and characters, and maintaining the emotional connection, through fine details and facial expressions. This was something that Computer Generated Animation had addressed because it could bring that additional resemblance to real life. But we were able to solve this with 3D printing because we could obtain a dynamic range of subtle and precise facial expressions. To put this in perspective, traditionally, there are several techniques for Stop Motion Animation: claymation which can be messy, and with which the work is more visible; mechanical animation, which uses silicon skin that is pushed around as need be, but is not the best technique for broad expressions and changes; replacement animation, which uses hand sculpted expressions, but is ultimately not good for subtlety because of the variations between each sculpt. So 3D printing has allowed us to obtain the same type of subtlety that can be expected with Computer Animation, and combine it with replacement animation to enable greater expressiveness.

Photo source: Laika

Cyant: What words of advice do you have for parents, and young Cyantists, who are inspired by your work and might one day want to work at the intersection of 3D printing and stop motion animation / storytelling? Are there skills they need to acquire? How can they cultivate their creativity?

Brian: I can speak as someone who from an early age on, was drawn to the arts. Creativity can manifest itself in many different ways and you can find the connection really unexpectedly. Being able to encourage kids to be creative and artistic and allowing them to explore fields that may not seem like opening a career, is hard to do, but I think it’s necessary. Looking back at my journey, if I had not had the support from my family I may have had to choose another career. Arts and creativity are so important in our culture and our communities, and it is important for parents to find ways through which kids can feel supported in those fields. And as kids grow as students, there may be zigzags, and exposure to different people and different techniques, but it is part of the journey and learning who you need to be. The more tools they will have under their tool belts, the more they will be able to solve problems. And twenty years ago, the drive to find that art-meets-tech connection was not obvious: you were either art or tech. But there was never this idea that they could come together. Thanks to recent technology changes, such as smart phones, app development, building things really quickly in software or with 3D printing, the art-meets-tech connection has been brought back to the forefront. And we benefit from that everyday, that is a perfect blend of artists, technicians and computer geniuses that come together to solve a common problem.

Again we are grateful to Brian McLean for this Q&A, and Laika Publicist, Maggie Begley, for permission to use the images shown in this post. We leave you with a featurette that recounts the crafting of Kubo's magical journey, under the vision of Travis Knight, Laika's CEO.

Source: Laika YouTube channel. Hear from some of the filmmakers and voice talent as they discuss what went into designing and creating the world of Kubo.

Today's #CyantistWeLove: Artist Rogan Brown

Via NPR: "Is This A Snowy Wonderland Or The World Inside A Petri Dish?" & courtesy of Rogan Brown

“By mixing science and art, observation and imagination I hope to elucidate both, the breathtaking detail and complexity that exists at every level of scale in nature transformed by the eccentricity of the individual imagination.”

Artist Rogan Brown takes inspiration in Nature and the infinitesimally small to create one of a kind paper sculptures, and works in an interdisciplinary fashion, for example by meeting with microbiologists, to help planning his exhibits.

The execution process, while relying on planar material, becomes inherently 3D as the artist conceives the final sculptures, and assembles layers to create them. So this art-meets-science work already highlights a very interesting element of 2D to 3D thinking.

The layers are painstakingly cut by hand, and interestingly, via laser cutter for most recent works. As digital fabrication progresses, the use of technologies such as laser cutting and 3D printing opens the door for artworks that push us to see Nature under different lights and better grasp some of its dimensions, and perhaps its beauty. Could this intersection of science and art also help approach learning and teaching science in different ways? :)

Throwback Thursday: How 3DPrinted Butterflies Brought Together Young Cyantists At Make San Leandro

As we prepare for our attendance at San Jose's Mini Maker Faire, we take a look back at our participation to Make San Leandro, the first Mini-Maker Faire of the city.

San Leandro has been a fast growing hub of makers and 3D printing businesses. Last year, it held its first Maker Faire, which coincided with the city's Annual Cherry Festival. And Cyant was there to showcase how 3D printed hand drawings and writings can be used to make a fun collaborative artwork!

Naturally, our theme was around cherries, and cherry blossoms more specifically. These ethereal blossoms are celebrated in the Japanese culture, and we could not help but draw inspiration from Japanese art and a poem from Arakida Moritake to engage the young Cyantists visiting our stand!

While discussing 3D printing and our theme, our visitors lent a hand to make a hand painted background for the artwork, and assemble our final mixed media project.

By the end of the day, we had a beautiful piece ready to be collected by the San Leandro Downtown Association!

So we look forward to seeing what we'll be creating with Cyantists at San Jose's Mini Maker Faire!

And if you would like to bring this experience to your event or engage your students in this STEAM activity at your school, contact us!

First Art-Meets-Tech Workshop at the Museum of Children's Art, Oakland

We are thrilled to start our Art-Meets-Tech Workshop at MOCHA on May 13th!

This workshop, ideally suited for children aged 8 to 10, but open to ages 7 to 11, will provide a first introduction to 3D Printing, while keeping them engaged with traditional arts.

With some inspiration from the enchanting world of "My Neighbor Totoro," we will work on a mixed media artwork which will feature 3-D printed pieces from the children's own hand drawings. Over the four 2 hour sessions of the workshop, children will discuss the workshop's theme, draw and make some of its characters, learn about 3-D printing (how it works, how it is used) and digital creation. They will assemble a mixed media artwork which will be on display at the MOCHA gallery!

We are delighted that our collaboration with MOCHA is opening STEAM Wednesdays at the Museum. The Arts have an intrinsic cultural and human value that help us develop and deepen our understanding of the world. So STEAM, an educational framework which highlights the essential role of Art in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education, is a natural way to engage children, boys and girls, around learning, creative and collaborative activities, and tease all their senses in the process.

And participants to the workshop will be able to receive a 10% discount on additional print orders of their creation via the 3D printing service Sculpteo, if they wish to continue to have fun with their creations and showcase them to their friends and family!

So we forward to going full STEAM ahead with new young Cyantists as we learn about art, technology, and have fun!

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