I like to make stuff in my spare time. Here s where I share them.
I picked up the new Pokemon Legends: Arceus last week and my boys and I are really enjoying passing the controller around to take turns roaming the open regions of Hisui in search of new pocket monsters to nab. It s inspired me to prototype a monster battler of sorts but built specifically for multiplayer! [ ]
After years of dragging my feet, I finally buckled down and gave Blender a solid few nights and weekends to learn. I ve been reluctant to give it my time only because I ve invested years of experience into Maya, but what pushed me over the edge was seeing so much incredible work being done with Blender [ ]
My kids and I have been watching the Avatar series both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. We love so much about the universe the mysticism, the fight choreography, the factions, the individual journeys. It s so so good and I can t believe it s taken me this long to dive in! I [ ]
It s hard to believe it s been FOUR YEARS since I first played with EVA foam to make the Boba Fett helmet. Since then, my two boys have really gotten into the Mandalorian, so we made Din Djarin s helmet to complete the squad. It took a few tries to get the Beskar color and finish looking [ ]
This Christmas, my wife s side of the family decided to do Secret Santa. I made my brother-in-law a glasses holder out of scraps of wood. Does it look like his dog, Fred?
For Halloween this year, we dressed up our giant puppy, Domino, as Avatar Korra s trusty companion Naga. How do you think it turned out?
I had the great privilege of being invited to speak at GDC on the making of Crash Bandicoot 4: It s About Time. Never would I have thought my first GDC presentation would be from the comforts of my own home what a strange year it s been! Usually these talks sit behind a subscription, but [ ]
With the player prefab mostly in place, I duped it and wrote a special controller script to drive it around autonomously as a bot. I sketched out an initial plan for its search and destroy behavior flow. I gave this new prefab a big, green, cone collider attached to the end of its nose. They [ ]
With the core shooting mechanic mostly in place, I took this little prototype a few steps further by building out several new systems. First priority was to write the sign in flow and lobby to match players together for a game. Once in a room, the server randomly generates an arena and replicates it for [ ]
With a little bit of hacky Photon experience under my belt, I was keen to do something a little more involved than just replicating the movement of some colored pills on an open plane. I fumbled my way toward a third person artillery mechanic where swiping left/right changes the tank s facing, swiping up/down changes the [ ]
It s been a long while since I ve last built something in Unity so I decided to jump back in and try and learn more about real-time networking. Turns out, Unity doesn t yet have a native solution that s battle hardened in 2021 (surprisingly!) but there are good third party alternatives Mirror and Photon Pun seem [ ]
It s a big year for my dad as he turns 70! I drew his portrait to celebrate and hang up on his wall. Here s a quick time lapse of this fun project. (Done on an iPad with Procreate)
What started as a series of random experiments with drag and drop behavior evolved into a lite wandering into UE s Behavior Trees. That then evolved into cloning parts of Clash Royale. Why? Not entirely sure. This is what came of it before I abandoned things. Go get that defenseless tower, minions!!
If you ve got a stack of cardboard boxes lying around and you re looking to make a fun project out of it, I m going to show you how to build a simple, working pinball machine with just cardboard, rubber bands, disposable chopsticks, and glue no electronics required! Step 1: Position the Playfield Decide how large [ ]
We ve successfully constructed the foam helmet, so it s now time to give it some color and finish. Here s what you ll need: Kwik Seal adhesive caulk Plasti Dip rubber coating (black) Protective Respirator Painter s Tape Acrylic paints Paint brushes Thick paper towel or a sponge Optional: Airbrush Step 1: Fill in the Seams Identify the seams that you d [ ]
Now that you ve designed your custom pattern, it s time to use those pieces to cut up your foam and assemble your helmet. Here s what you ll need: Exercise mats (EVA foam) Xacto knife Hair Dryer or Heat Gun Contact Cement (ie Barge) and/or Glue Gun Optionally: Dremel Step 1: Trace Pattern Onto Foam Take your pattern pieces [ ]
We re going to design a custom fit helmet, so the first thing we need to do is create a frame over the subject s head to base a pattern from. Once we have a pattern, we ll use it to cut out the foam parts to assemble back into a helmet. Let s start with designing the pattern. [ ]
My 4-year-old is bonkers for all things super heroes and Star Wars so I decided to make him a Boba Fett helmet out of the stack of spare floor mats we had when he was crawling around as a baby. It was my first time making anything cosplay related and I learned a lot in [ ]
(Update 12/3/19: portions of this project are described under Patent US10493363B2) I ve hacked together a first person driving experience that uses a natural steering wheel to control an RC car. The experience is a lot like playing a Racing Kart game IRL. It s probably easier to understand if you see it in motion. Check it out: I got [ ]
As a test, I decided to hack an existing piece of consumer electronic and control it with an Arduino. I took apart my son s $10 toy RC car and used a wire to contact the battery s positive terminal to random points on the circuit board until I isolated which circuits control the steering and motor. Once I located these circuits, I [ ]