CNC Carved Water Surface
Intro: CNC Carved Water Surface
The process of creating water surfaces in clear acrylic.
STEP 1: Deploy Drone to Location and Collect Images
Deploy a drone running ArduPilot software to a fixed location to hover 30 meters above the water. Orient the attached camera to point downward and capture still images of the water’s surface. For the series the drone was deployed to the same location on different days and in different weather conditions.
STEP 2: Convert Images to Bump Map
Using crazybump convert the still image of the water surface into displacement height map.
STEP 3: Import Height Map Into Blender
STEP 4: CNC Toolpath
Create CNC toolpath from the STL file using ARTCAM.
STEP 5: CNC Machining
The 3D models are CNC carved into a series of clear acrylic cylinders.
STEP 6: Finished
This process captured the dynamic movements of the waves and ripples from a specific time and location and suspended the ever-changing water patterns into a static transparent form. More information can be found at www.dwbowen.com
4 Comments
seadraggin 6 years ago
mach1950 7 years ago
Very nice. Very very nice. Your website is an intriguing place to visit; I promptly bookmarked it. Some wonderful installations from a very creative mind.
Benne 7 years ago
Wow awesome! Didn't think I would ever see a project that combines drones and CNC machines in this way!
DIY Hacks and How Tos 7 years ago
Very cool. If you try mapping out other types of terrain, I hope you will post that also.