PURSUIT OF ARCHITECTURE

Autocad and the Growth of Fluffy-Muffin

2012-04-30T23:38:00.002-07:00

How's Everyone doing? Just wanted to give everybody an update on how stuff has been going. I am just now getting over a pretty bad cold. Right now at school we are working on putting together the early pages of a CD (Construction Document) set. Apparently one of those first pages is a Demolition plan. Basically what we're doing here is taking the survey, editing out a ton of information we don't need, and then highlighting things like ares to be demolished, staging areas, trees to be removed, and ares to be protected. It makes you think a lot about all the measures that must be taken to ensure safe work to people and the environment during construction.

In other news the Fluffy-Muffin website is going great! Still growing. Here is one of our popular comics. I can't express how much fun I have working on this website!

come check us out at the Fluffy Muffin and please like our Facebook Page to show your support! Until Next Time~

More Playing with Flash

2012-03-18T01:09:00.001-07:00

So here is a super low quality video that is a combination of flash with some terrible audio installed in windows movie maker. Yea during the recording of the audio the dish washer was running. This is a super rough test and exploration for what we could be using in the beginning of all future fluffy muffin videos.

Playing With Flash

2012-03-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

I had my first encounter with Flash last night and so far it has been very fulfilling. Adobe's tutorials are top notch in helping you to get to know the basics. Today I plan to learn a lot more and eventually put all this fun to work. Here is a quick animation I made after only about 20 minutes of reading.

Now if you can imagine putting any artwork as those circles and any movement over time as their paths and the possibilities really seem endless. I am also super excited to include audio. End goal of this is to make a really cool video intro for the fluffy muffin videos over at the website I've been telling you guys about. Fluffy Muffin Try it out if you have the chance! You can download the free trial of Flash Pro at adobe's website!
Until Next Time!

Playing with Thea

2012-03-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Today I have been playing around with Thea Render a bit. Here is one of the Example Models I applied some material to and rendered. This could turn out to be really fun!

This image is composed of three textures. One for the floor, one for the Thea logo, and one for the white tiling. Other elements is that the entire model is surrounded by a box with a light emitting surface made to look like a window so you see that reflection on the surface. Time to go play more! Until next time~

Final Project

2012-03-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

Here is the final layout for the Ballard Neighborhood Design Studio. I think it turned out fairly well. Some of the most valuable feedback was the disconnect in ideas between the greenways and the intersection.

On Wednesday we are doing an open house to the community in Ballard. Wish us luck!

Ballard GreenWays Update

2012-03-05T23:52:00.003-08:00

This is what im working on tonight!

Thea Render

2012-03-04T22:22:00.000-08:00

I just now made my very first rendered image using thea render. I'm pretty excited to finally get my hands on this program. The price for students is insanely cheap. About 100 bucks for me.

I got the program itself which allows you to import models and two plugins which allows you to render from the programs itself. I will definitely keep posting my progress on here. As of now I've only had a bout 20 minutes to play with the program itself so we'll see where this goes! Also update on how the fluffy muffin is doing. We have just been approved for google adsense so thats a step in the right direction!. We are adding a new section as well. Something about surviving life/college. I'll be posting on that a minimum of once a week and the other team mates will be posting as well. AND we are currently in the process of reorganizing and redesigning the entire site and the GUI. Stay tuned!

Taiwan-Summer 2011

2012-02-29T12:01:00.001-08:00

Hey guys I thought today (Randomly) would be a good day to post some of my pictures from Taiwan. Keep in mind these are unedited and I haven't put too much thought into what into what's going up. Here it goes!

There are alot of pictures so click below to see all of them! Oh and don't forget you can always scroll through the higher resolution images by clicking one of the pictures. Enjoy!

Until Next Time!

Ballard Community and Designers Meeting

2012-02-27T14:45:00.002-08:00

Friday we had a quick meeting/review with the Ballard Community Council to give them an update on our progress and developing ideas. Here is part of what we showed them. We got some good feedback and direction/voiced concerns over the course of the day so that now we can address them over the next two weeks. Please Click the Picture for Higher Quality Images

I think from here we are moving to a more over-arching theme of Health in the project. Taking the health themes expressed on page 1 and pushing them and calling them out throughout the whole project. Thanks for checking it out!
Until next time!

Healthy Places

2012-02-21T23:50:00.001-08:00

Hey guys quick update on how this week is progressing. My professor has encouraged us to think in the direction of healthy places and healthy neighbor hoods. So what kind of health are we talking about? There is obviously the health of body then the less talked about health of mind and finally we need to promote healthy relationships. I want to take this new angled look at the project over the next few days. Here is a couple images to go with that.

Also, in other news, tonight Alice and I went to a seminar/ demonstration of Photoshop at the Adobe building in Fremont. It was pretty cool, artist David Julian was there showing some of the techniques he uses in his art. It all seemed pretty basic techniques, such as using masks, but he uses them in a way that stuff turns out really well.

Camera Posts in Rhino 4

2012-02-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

Hi guys. Today I am going to be doing a quick tutorial on making rhino camera shots. Its quick and dirty. I am Helping out a friend tomorrow on this subject and just wanted to make sure I can still do it so here we go.

First I've set up a basic land form that you may want to camera shot different angles of.

This first thing you want to do is make some "camera posts". Now usually if you want a specific view you are trying to get a view of a human at your site. So I've made my camera posts 5.5 feet tall and put them at several corners of the landscape. You can put these posts anywhere you wish. Its easiest to put them at corners, edges, intersections, etc because then you can snap the end of your line to one of those objects, just make sure your snaps aren't disabled at the bottom of your screen.

This is the landscape in perspective view after the posts have been added. Also when you are drawing your post lines make sure you are holding shift on the vertical scale so that your posts are strait. make sure you draw them in them first in the top view then finishing them in the front or right view to ensure that you aren't flying off into space.

So now you want to first double click the perspective title in the perspective viewport. Then right click that and hover over "set camera" then on the next menu click "set camera and target". Then with click the top of the post you wish to be the source of your first view. Then with the second click on where you want the view to be looking. You will probably get something like this. pretty narrow viewport.

So here I wanted to get a slightly more panoramic view so double click the perspective title again to go back to your four viewport screen. Then in top view click release then click and drag slowly the edge point of the camera box to widen the view. If you cannot see your camera outline thus are not able to manipulate it right hit F6 or right click the perspective title >>> set camera >>> show camera. now you should have a more desirable view.

Now to save your view you want to click and hold the little car icon at the top of your screen. and click the grey car with the floppy disc icon next to it. The command bar is going to request a name but be sure that when you name your view you DO NOT include any spaces in the title. You pressing space bar will end the titling and start new commands. Once your view is saved you can always access/manage it by pressing and holdign the red car again but this time clicking on the grey car with the pointing finger above it. Click the title of the view you want and your set! These views will exist regardless of what new modeling is added or old modeling is manipulated, You can even delete or hide your camera posts for rendering. Hope this helps!

Until next time!

I Love Hexagons!

2012-02-19T19:18:00.000-08:00

I heard some quote or something the other day about how you should never say that you don't have enough time in life to do this or do that, because you have the exact same amount of hours in a day that the great doers of the world had/have. Then the quote went on to name some great accomplishing people, Einstein, Mozart...etc etc. And it kind of struck me. Its true? The more i thought about it and discussed it with a couple people. Yea that the quote is a little bit generalized, but nonetheless it has kind of given me some fresh encouragement that I'm not sure is correct.

My biggest issue in life I think is that I want to do so many different things. Sometimes I get frustrated with the whole path of things that you have to finish one thing before you can start another. I have to finish this degree before I can start another. I have to make money in this profession before I start another. But are those people who were great, did they always stick with one thing. What if you have several passions? How do you choose which to pursue. I guess my question is can I pursue all of them????

I dont think it's indecision as much as...indecision.. whatever.

Back to Ballard. This last week are putting together some design refinements for another presentation to the Ballard Community council on the 24th of February. JJust been putting together some basic graphics to show them which will go through another round of work before our final on march 9th.

In other news, I finally met with my professional mentor! She was great and encouraged me to apply to more internships. It was great to meet with somebody that is fairly recently out of a Landscape Architecture program and so is very familiar with the current Landscape Educational experience and had some great advice! and im not just saying this in case you read this! :D Anyways.

This is what we are working on the Ballard Project. Some rough graphics. Click the images for Larger, more clear views.

and next I am trying to come up with some ideas for an overlying portfolio theme thing... here is something i threw together today.

I love hexagons.
Until Next Time!

LID Enhanced Greenways and Stops as Destinations

2012-02-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, today we met with community members of Ballard and bounced some ideas off them on the future of Ballard around a series of Rapid Ride Stops. It was a good experience and it always helps to work with real people to get a sense of real world concerns. I have found myself concerned more and more with the financial side of projects. I was telling my partner today, I dont see a beautiful canopy spread across the intersection, all I see is a giant $ falling crushing the entire project from reality. What I am interested in is rooting out community support and community groups that are already established and working with them to make some of the project cheap, and thus more likely to happen. Because in the end what does it always come down to? Will power and money? Mostly money. Here is a couple photos I took while working in the studio on Sunday for the Monday meeting.
I should mention those green corridors being sketched out are planned to be Low Impact Developement (LID) enhanced greenways, meaning that they share the road with the little vehicular traffic that exists there.

Next we move into the digital stage and further look into funding and areas that we can possible do some rezoning....touchy.
Until next time! :D

Internship Applications as Practice Portfolios

2012-02-04T21:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I submitted an application to another internship and I came to realize that as I apply to internships it becomes a little easier each time to submit "sample work" It's an abbreviated portfolio so to speak. Now the last internship I applied to I was even less satisfied with my application than this one,but this one I have started to think about the style I want to show, and themes and types of works I want to put forward. Here is what I submitted yesterday.

The reason for these particular pieces is that the call for applications specifically mentioned the adobe suite, CAD, and Sketchup, so for this particular submission I didn't include any Rhino or physical model building.
Until next time!

Getting Dirty Digging

2012-02-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

Hi guys, today I'm just going to be giving a quick update about what the future of the quarter is looking like. It looks like its going to be fun! I have to admit that thus far the quarter has been pretty slow going, and I think that is mostly my fault for not taking full advantage of my time. This quarter in Restoration Ecology we are going to be getting our hands dirty in restoring part of the Union Bay Natural Area. We have compiled a rough, super simplified, restoration plan and now are doing peer reviews. After the reviews we will be revising and adding to the plan then submit it for final approval to our professor. Once we have approval we can get on with the dirty work! Just wondering....should I buy more waterproof boots? Probably...
The next hands on activity is we have the option, which I am taking, to help design and build a rain garden at a residence in the Ballard neighborhood with Mithun.Also very very exciting. Yes I know, to some of you building a rain garden is not a huge deal but its a first for me!.
More new stuff, I am debating on getting a kindle or kindle fire for reading the large amounts of online reading that this program requires as I find myself falling further and further behind in assigned readings. But most likely that's just an excuse I'm using. Need to find a job first!. Anyways, we are also having our mentor meet and greet this Friday. There is going to be food, drink, and some interesting presentations!. Now what picture should I include on this post....how about one of my desk! Delicious...

Urban Agriculture

2012-01-26T22:16:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!
This week in studio we presented our findings about our topics of interest. Mine was Urban Agriculture. The first page of the document I put together outlines words we associate with the two separate terms, "Urban" and "Agriculture". It then goes on to explore why we as a society grow in one place but not in others. Then breaking that down the document explores precedents that have broken out of the normal box of food production to try something "new" in the urban environment.

The examples on this page explore three different reasons why people decide to grow in an urban environment rather that the traditional rural. The first reason being that in Gaza they are effectively cut off from a rural food supply thus they must grow their own food on their roofs to survive. The second example is of a company intending to make money by eliminating the need for land, soil, and much water through the science of hydroponics land "vertical farming"> Green Green Earth company is based and Japan and serves companies like Subway, Disneyland, and the US Military according to their website.

The last page brings the issues closer to Ballard and shows that the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle has a real desire to move into the area of Urban Agriculture. We can see this in these examples which are very few in compared to the many out in the neighborhood that are currently active.

There are some URL's in the bottom right hand corner of the final page if you want to learn more!
Until Next Time!

From Beginning to End: Sketchbook

2012-01-22T15:48:00.000-08:00

This post is going to be the first installment of projects that I have completed from "beginning to end" meaning the initial concept phase up to the making of a final prototype project. The first project is a sketchbook I made for my girlfriend for Christmas. Alice does all the comics for our website Fluffy-Muffin so I thought I'd give her this to make it a little more official.

The first phase obviously was thinking up what to do in the first place. This is what some of the initial sketches looked like.

I kind of mulled about on this concept for a week or two then ended up going in an entirely different direction and decided to go strait to a RHINO model. First I was going to go landscape orientation but decided on portrait just because she usually likes that better.

I then exported these vectors to autocad and simplified it to make a CNC laser cutter compatible file. All that really means is making the lines you want cut to be red and a 1.00mm line weight and the lines you want etched in blue. everything else should be on a no-plot layer.

The cuts came out fairly nicely.

Then here is the final product after staining, sanding, and glue!

I am definitely going to make some variations of this in the future. My next one I am planning to use cut stainless steel on the front rather than wood stained a different color. I'll let ya know how it turns out!

Until next time!

Arrivals

2012-01-20T12:47:00.000-08:00

I finally was able to pick up my books the other day. I'm so happy to be making my library larger. What do I need now? A proper bookshelf.

There are a few things I want to make in the schools woodshop these coming months and I'm trying to prioritize them. There is a stand for my computer monitors so I can free up some desk space. Actually need to make 3 of those. One for home, one for studio, and one for a friend. Next is a coat rack. My little studio is cramped on space and not having a proper coat rack usually just results in my hanging my coats and hats on the door, but then I cant close the door, so a coat rack is needed. Next is the bookshelf, I keep telling myself that if my books are out where I can see them more often I will somehow absorb the information contained in them just by staring... Last but not least, I want to make a shoe rack for hanging my shoes on when I come in the door. I usually take my shoes off but then they just pile up around the door, and since my fridge is by the door I can't get into my fridge....and thus cannot eat....see the issues here? Anyways.

I mostly want to treat these projects not just as building projects but also as finished work projects, and I want to build them all in autocad and Rhino 3D before I build them. I think it will give me some necessary practice in both of those programs. So over the next few weeks hopefully I'll be posting some of those. Right now I'm in the process of taking inventory of all the materials I have (and got for free) so I can minimize spending money on materials. That factor will be one of the primary design influences.

So this week has been an interesting one at school. So far this week we have had only one day of actual class, Tuesday. Its been snowing all week! Me and my buddy here attempted to make a giant snowball but it ended up taking about 2 hours for not that big. Snow wouldn't stick. But, as you can see, I haven't really been getting that much work done this week. Snow is great, but it is definitely a productiveness killer. What I'm supposed to be working on is a precedence study on Urban Agriculture. I've been doing a lot of reading into the subject and now I'm just trying to think of a way to put it in the context of Ballard. One of the first things I watched was The Future of Food It is a pretty interesting film seems a little biased but I highly recommend it. I has certainly changed the way I think about "traditional" agriculture. Anyways this very much fits in with the ideas of Urban Agriculture, the organic movement, farmer's markets, and the like. I am very excited about this whole idea. So the posters I am working on I want them to convey the reason's for Urban Agriculture, the challenges, etc etc and I very much want to look at both sides equally.

Hmm..what else did I want to talk about today...
I think thats it!
Until next time~

A look at Ballard's Transportation System

2012-01-15T03:16:00.000-08:00

This week was a busy week indeed. Apologies for the intermittent posting this quarter so far. On Monday we took a field trip to Seattle's Ballard neighborhood and met with some representatives of the community there to talk about some of the outstanding issues in Ballard and some of the qualities as well. What makes Ballard Ballard?

After the meeting we spent the rest of the week compiling data about various areas of focus on the neighborhood. We then presented our "class findings" to those same community representatives and to the rest of the class. With further input from the community we are compiling all the data into a booklet for the class' use for the rest of the studio. Here are the pages that my group made!

In other news, this Friday we had our first UWASLA (University of Washington American Society of Landscape Architecture)meeting of the quarter.We have alot of events planned and I've renewed my commitment to updating the blog for the group that is meant to give prospective applicants to the program a chance to see the type of work we do and the culture of the studio in general. On top of that we are going to have a mentor-mentee meet and greet in a few weeks for those of us who have been paired up with a professional mentor through the department's mentoring program. I must say I am very excited for the whole thing.

Until next time! Hope you all are having a great 3 day weekend, unless you don't get this holiday off. In that case go let off some steam :)

Mastering Autocad

2012-01-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

So today in between classes I've begun to go through my autocad book i mentioned in my last post. So far, its pretty nice. I'm only on page 10 as of now but the pictures and diagrams are very clear and helpful. Even though I'm going through the basics right now I am still learning little things that I didn't know before. And what has it brought forth so far? A polar array of an offset polyline. Amazing, possibilities...

Until next time!

10,000 Views! A New Day.

2012-01-08T00:03:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Today my blog hit the 10,000 view mark. It's pretty funny, more people come the more you post...and spam your facebook status. Anyways today I'm just going to give a quick update about the NEW quarter so far, some NEW books i'm getting in, and a NEW view on high organization!

So far this quarter I've had a few lectures, just introductions into hydrology and site engineering, site restoration, and two quick studio sessions on neighborhood design. For the site restoration class we are going through a series of different natural ecosystem types and looking at the best ways to go about restoring them from man made disturbances. Unfortunately this has yet to yield any good pictures...Anyways, what I'm finding really interesting about the class is towards the middle of the quarter we are going to start a real life restoration project as a class at Ballard in Seattle. I have no idea how we are breaking up the assignment class-wise yet but it is going to be a new experience for sure. I will keep you guys updated as we go.

Books

So to compliment all these new classes I've purchased some books that are recommended and one that I've been wanting for a while. That book is Mastering Autocad 2012. I feel pretty confident in my basic autocad skills but in terms of advanced use, I am nowhere near where I want to be.

The other books I am still waiting for in the mail are Site Engineering for Landscape Architects,by Steven Strom, Kurt Nathan and Jake Wolandand and also Soil Design Protocols by Timothy A. Craul and Phillip J. Craul. At first I bought these bad boys at the local University bookstore and they seemed rather interesting at first glance. But of course they were a good 50 dollars cheaper on Amazon so I returned them. I'll let you know how they turn out!

Other News

In other news the Fluffy-Muffin website is coming along nicely. We have fixed a few bugs like getting the images not to flicker when you hover over them. We have also been able to get the links to the Facebook Page and the Tumblr and the Twitter all set up so that's good. The biggest thing we are having issues with now is getting enough content up for google to be able to accept our site as legit so we can get advertising up.... hopefully that will happen sooner than later.

Well Until Next time when I have more pictures to show!

When the Rhino Terrain Trial Expires.

2012-01-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

If your design program is anything like the Landscape Architecture Program at UW then you have run into this dilemma, or one similar. It's this. Some software is free to students, software like autocad, or pretty much any Autodesk software, some is deeply discounted, such as Rhino 4.0, Adobe Suite, and well pretty much everthing. The issue? Sometimes even though the original software is deeply discounted the plugins (ad-ons that make the software a whole lot more helpful) can cost just as much if not more than the software's original price, even when discounted. I've found myself in this very situation when redoing a project last quarter where we used the Rhino Terrain plugin for Rhino 4.0 to import GIS data directly into the model in 3D. BUT now my Rhino Terrain trial has expired...what to do? Well here is a work around that is MUCH more work but gets the same thing accomplished more or less.
First thing you want to do is to get your GIS data properly clipped, oh and if you take any GIS course you can most likely get a year license for free. If not, you might be stuck using a school PC or you are just SOL.

Next thing you want to do is download the trial plugin of Rhino Resurf. Now what Resurf more or less allows you to do in this case is to fit a NURBS surface to a point cloud....something not built into the naked Rhino. Now what I did here most likely isn't the most efficient way but its a way nonetheless that I arrived at through trial and error! I then opened my data set in ArcScene and turned the contour lines into a 3d model and exported the scene as a VRML file. Luckly Rhino cad import this file type, the only issue is that everything comes in unaligned, but with a little tweaking its not that big of a deal. You can then have the 3D contour lines exported form arcscene, using the point tool to make a point cloud, then use the Rhino Resurf plugin to make your nurbs surface! Viola!

Downside? Well with this data I had to raise the buildings manually which can take a while if they are on a slope as shown here but there is another way if you know your way around 3DS Max outlined here where I got some of my help from. Hopes this helps people in the same boat. There is always a work around!
Until I have unlimited funds for software!

Fluffy-Muffin has Arrived!

2012-01-03T00:15:00.001-08:00

Hello everybody! The fruits of my winter's break labor has finally been revealed! The website my friends and I have created is now live and ready to be critiqued! I really encourage anybody reading this to go take a look. As of now we only have one article and one comic up but we are adding more content 3 days a week. Ultimate goals? Well in my mind one of the ultimate goals is to have the site grow to a place where writers and comic maker's alike can create and post their own content and have it recognized! Or just entertainment...either way I've had a lot of fun and stress, yes stress is good in this case, getting the required elements together along with my teammates. There is still much much more to add and I cant wait to see where this all goes!

Anyways in another front do you think I should include some of the graphics for the web site, in a portfolio page? I am seriously considering it.
Until next time!

Not this Time

2011-12-30T12:17:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a failure in one area that made you work harder, faster, and with more motivation in all areas? That is what I feel like right now. I was unable to procure the internship at the firm I was applying to and I completely understand all the reasons for that. Reaction? Work hard and get it next time, or the next one, whatever the case.

Alright so what is on today's agenda? First thing is, as most of you probably know already, we are launching fluffy-muffin.com on the Jan 1st. Hold your breath! Every day it is coming together more and more, When we launch it's going to be a rough polish meaning that not everything is exactly how we want it, annnd since we are not really being paid in any way it's most likely not going to get to the perfect point any time soon. BUT! Amazing none the less. So here are a couple more images that I didn't post last time of more sneak peaks at some of the functioning parts of the website. Also not to perfection YET.!

Alright! So now I'm off to work on that stuff some more, and my portfolio, and! a ASLA submission.
Until next time!

Annnd We're Back!

2011-12-28T23:56:00.000-08:00

Hope everybody had a good Christmas,or other holiday that you celebrate, and are refreshed for the next long haul! I know my Christmas went fairly well and I am here to give you an update of what happened and what is sure to come this following quarter! First thing that happened over the break was, as I mentioned in an Earlier Post, I broke down and bought CS5.5! So far its been amazing, I have been going back and forth between the programs with such ease that its unbelievable. When I get back to Seattle later this week I am going to start the process of de-papering my apartment with the acrobat pro's pdf scan function.

So what have I been working on this break? Well I've been working alot on a project my girlfriend, check out her tumblr and blog :D, and a couple friends and I have been working on called Fluffy-Muffin.com. We've decided to launch a website about daily college life and post college life in the format of Comics and literature based musings updated several times a week. SO FAR its turning out to be a huge amount of work but very fulfilling.

We plan to pay for the hosting, and maybe an extra bit more, with ads placed within the site and a paypal donate button. Who knows, maybe we can come out even here! Anyways we are launching on the first so its been a scramble to get everything done for the big day. I'm realizing more and more though how its going to be a huge amount of ongoing work. We can do it! Check out some of the Images that I've been working on the last few weeks. All the hand drawn style elements are products of Alice Lee and the formatting is myself.

Finally, there is something I am very excited about! When I get back into school this coming weeks I am going to download and POSSIBLY purchase the student license of Keyshot Rendering. I've seen it do some incredible things and if all goes well with the trial I just might purchase. HOWEVER, I am so insanely broke right now I don't know if I can even afford the 100 bucks. SO. if you guys want to HELP ME PURCHASE :D all you have to do is take a look at my lovely advertisements :). I hate begging for money.... Until next time!