Evil Dead Cabin
A week or two ago I was working on printing out the house from Nightmare on Elm Street. I found a model on Thingverse called “the puritan” that was really close, so I downloaded it to make some alterations. That’s when I realized the house was actually in pieces, like a model… there were over a dozen STL files. After altering the front so then I had the windows I needed, and extending the porch awning a little, I virtually assembled all the pieces in Microsoft 3D Builder. I’ve been dabbling in Builder here and there, mostly using it as a print engine rather than a design space because it’s so limited. However, when somebody suggested I should do the Evil Dead cabin next it got me thinking about the way I had assembled the Elm Street house.
Typically I use Bryce 7 to do basic 3D modeling. It’s good for organics and basic things, like the nerds candy mascot or a simple spaceship, and is really good for rendering with the way that it puts mapped textures on the models. However creating an object like a cabin, with the physical textures of the slats in the shingles on the roof would be incredibly difficult. Each tile, each board would have to be created individually and there’s no way to shortcut that in Bryce. There might be a way though, in 3D Builder!
While I can’t create complex shapes or use Boolean objects in 3D Builder, it does have a feature that’s incredibly useful. You can transfer two dimensional objects into three dimensional ones. That doesn’t mean that you can put in a photo of something and it’ll create a model of that, but if you take a black and white image, say something like a flag where you change the red stripes and the blue field to black and left the white parts white, 3-D builder will read the two different colors, and import the white elements, and give them some mass. It’ll treat the black elements is negative space and leave those flat. If you look up on Thingverse you’ll see a number of lithopanes done in this manner. I thought, “well what if I apply this to making the cabin?” I started off with a base, the walls have to be about the same size. On that base I drew stripes where the slats would be, and then added two squares for the windows, and one additional one for the door. I also added two black squares beside each window where the shutters would be. After creating the main part, I added a flat base for it to lay on, then created one more picture… The door frame and the details on the shutters (represented in green for the illustration) . I imported these three images into 3D Builder, then layered them one on top of another, each creating just a little extra upraised detail on top of the previous one. Once those three layers were created, I merged them into one object. This gave me my complete wall with wooden slats, and upraised frames and shutters. I repeated this process three times, creating each wall in the shape and detail that I wanted. Once I had all four objects created, I was able to assemble them, much the same way I assembled the Elm Street house.
That just left the roof.
Instead of creating individual shingles, the way I would’ve had to in Bryce, I instead drew a profile of the roof. It’s basically a big arrow, with jagged edges going up and down I drew this shape three times, altering the edges each time so that if you were lay those three images on top of each other, you would see some of those edges poke out from underneath each layer. That’s not too far from what I was planning to do in the first place here. I imported each of these images in the 3D Builder, and gave them a little bit of width, then stacked them on top of each other, creating a small portion of roof. I merged, copied, and then pasted. Now I have six sections of roof. I merged again, copied and paste it. Now I have 12 sections. I kept doing this until I had enough length to cover the top of the cabin, and ended up with a nice, rickety looking shingled roof that was uneven and detailed, perfect for what I’m trying to create.
There’s a few extra touches, adding the floor of the porch, and the four wooden supports in front of the cabin, adding the chimney and even the electric meter for kicks. But all the work this time around was done in 3-D builder. I ended up printing it out without any supports, just for the heck of it… I figured I’d have to go back and try and do the roof separately, but the way these shingles were designed, it actually ended up supporting itself, doing each tile individually, which gave it enough time to cool and set in place.
The end result is one of the 3-D builds I’m most proud of. Not just because of how nicely it came out, but because it’s something new, something different, done in a completely different program in format than what I’ve done before. 3D Builder is not replacing Bryce anytime soon, I still need to be able to do organic shapes and more complex objects then 3D Builder can handle, but I can definitely see myself leaning more and more into this app. It’s great to have another tool in my repertoire.
Bruce Campbell signing
I’ve actually done pretty well meeting actors from Series I admire – I’ve got the autograph of every original Star Trek cast member with one exception (dear DeForest Kelley passed before I started doing conventions). When it comes to horror, I’ve met just about everyone… Freddy, Jason, Pinhead, Leatherface, the tall man, Candyman – icons like Lance Henriksen, Felissa Rose, George Romero, scream queens and monsters and directors.
Still there’s always one personality that has always alluded me – and that’s Bruce Campbell. There’s no good reason for it, we just seem to keep missing each other – like at Horrorhound a few years ago when the ticketing system messed me up and I missed my chance? I’ve got a bunch of stories just as arbitrary. Of course, as his popularity has grown, so have his fees. He’s one of those guys where I actually understand the higher 
charges – if you didn’t have a higher price to discourage some of the punters, he’d be at his signings forever. Still, as it grew to $40 and then $80 at wizard world (A con I won’t attend because they create and encourage exactly this type of inflation) it was becoming increasingly clear that I probably wasn’t ever going to get a chance to meet him. When it was announced he was doing a book signing in Westlake, a suburb in my own backyard and a mere 15 minutes drive away, it should have been a no-brainer right? Still I struggled with deciding whether or not to attend – the crowds, the hassle, it promised to be a circus and almost trying to be more trouble than it was worth. After turning the discision over and over in my head for a month and a half, I bought my copy of the book friday afternoon and on Sunday night set my alarm for 6 o’clock.
The store opened at nine, and promised to start handing out wristbands when it did. The number on the band would correspond to your place in line later that evening at 
7pm. After getting dressed and ready for work, then picking up my breakfast and coffee I arrived at Crocker Park at about quarter till seven AM and surveyed the landscape. I never expected to be the first one in line sitting at the door, but I was hoping I wouldn’t be at the end of a huge mass of people. There were about a dozen folks assembled in a queue that went several feet from the entrance and past the second window of the store. I sat down my folding chair and announced to the two men chatting at the end that I knew I hadn’t been crazy to show up this early! They happily agreed with me and introduced themselves as Marcus and Chris. I spent the next two hours hanging out, talking filmmaking and conventions and practical fx and where to go seeing old movies in Cleveland. Around 7:45 I spotted my friend Michael and his lovely bright Pam walking down the sidewalk and wave them over… Make sure his head with a smile.
“Why am I completely not surprised to see you here?” he asked.
Turns out it wasn’t their first time seeing Bruce. Pam mentioned to me “There was this 
one time I was helping out at Vul-Con…”
“Oh my God, I was THERE!” I exclaimed in shock. “Only I didn’t know he was only appearing on Saturday! I worked weekends then and didn’t make it untill Sunday! I was PISSED.” We all laughed hoping it would turn out better this time.
By the time the store opened at nine, the line stretched down the block, A sea of black T-shirts curling around the corner where a trendy restaurant sat. One of the workers came out of the bookstore, handing out small lattes – a welcome change from the acrid black coffee in my thermos. We filtered into the 
store, and the manager warned us to not all get on the escalator at once (or it would stop). This isn’t a admonishment that you hear often, on the other hand you also don’t often see a couple hundred people swarming into such a small space as soon as the door is open. They usered us throgh the queue quickly, checking books and peering at recipts to make sure that the volume had indeed been purchased through Barnes and Nobel, then passing out bright orange wristbands with numbers printed in sharpie. I discovered I was number 16 in line, a low number that I can hardly complain about considering my friend Mark and Johnny ended up with number 371 in line. By the time I exited the shop, the upstairs line wrapped around the balcony twice.
I sat at work, listening to commentary tracks from the Evil Dead movies and occasionally glancing over at the Facebook thread for the signing, watching with sort of helpless fascination as people Who had valid directions or gotten there early enough vexed and complained. Not even high school levels of drama, junior high at best. I was particuarly amused by the ones screaming “Well I’m just not going to go now because it was such a mess!” Cool. Smaller crowds and more Bruce for me. We all win!
6 o’clock rolled around, and I swung by Trader Joe’s to make a dinner out of their free samples (really good orange chicken) then take my place in line. My friend Jerry was at the head of the line so I drafted him to take photos for me after he would get his signatures.(No personal photos or posing was allowed, but that didn’t deter me). The same crew from this morning was 
around and the familiar faces waved me into my place in line.
The more compressed line inside (as opposed to the way we had spread apart outside) got us together to see people I hadn’t talked to in the morning as one person showed us his mounted laserdiscs he was getting signed and another whipped out his hand made book of the dead. Two young women joined us and regaled us with their lament over losing a cell phone when a house survey ended up actually being a drug deal (and I thought I had a rough day!). We stood trying not to freak out 
(“It’s actually going to happen this time!” I assured myself) and discussing what we wanted to talk about.
“I’m just afraid I’m going to fanboy out,” one guy told us. “Like I’ll just lean over and say ‘smell my beard….’ “.
“I’d like to get video if you do that,” I replied.
Overhead the speaker blasted static, a booming noise that coalesced into the dulcet tones of the King. Bruce himself went over the rules for the evening, and assured us that he was going to stick around to make sure we all got our items signed.
“Items to be signed should be legitimate. DVDs, posters, photographs. Don’t bring me 
your Hello kitty phone case to sign. That kind of stuff freaks people out!”
He continued on the subject of candids.
“Now I know we can’t stop you yahoos from taking photos so we’re not even going to try! But we’re not going to help you either…we’re not going to stop or pose…so if you want to take a blurry photo of the top of my head while I’m signing something… go for it!”
That was prophetic. My photos did indeed turn out blurry. Curse you Campbell!
The line moved swiftly and I was at the head of it. Still, I got a moment to speak to Bruce and considering how fast they were moving along, he never made me feel rushed or ignored. It was cool to find him to be so friendly – even for a moment.
Jerry walked me out as he handed me my phone back and I stopped outside the store one 
more time for a chat with new friends. Marcus was swapping stories with a young woman whose husband had come out to get her wristband that morning since she worked day shift and he was working nights. Everyone was genuinely happy and that’s really one of the best parts of the thing – the sense of community. While it revolved around the event, the meeting was a minuet or so. It was the hours before and after, hanging out with new faces and old that really made this affair so special.
Great night – new book to read and my Evil Dead 2 poster is finally finished!
Groovy.
Argo City Comics 