Camera mapping is a clever technique that allows you to take a still image and convert it into 3d geometry for use in an animation. This powerful technique is used extensively by visual effects studios for feature films, commercials and television shows. It's especially useful for faking helicopters flyovers because it costs just a fraction of the cost of hiring a real helicopter.Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular 3D modeling program or a seasoned graphic artist just inter...
Feel that chilly draft coming through your doors and windows? It might not be as difficult or costly to solve as you might think!
Here is a step-by-step video guide on how to create your own homemade pop filter for your recording microphone, using easy-to-find materials. A pop filter is used to prevent popping sounds while recording. Most pop filters range from $15 to $80. This particular pop filter costs much less, and you can make multiples of them.
Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills.
Sounds like a false promise à la infomercial or typical spammy web headline—how can a 4.8 ounce gadget aid in weight loss? But, in truth, "who" better to act as a dedicated personal trainer and nutritionalist than the iPhone? The smartphone is completely and utterly tethered to the daily life of the average middle to upper class American. It's reliable and exact. All it needs is a charged battery, the right app, and of course, as with every diet and fitness regime, a user with unwavering self...
No time for elaborate practical jokes this April Fool's? Not a problem, it's 2011—meaning, apps can do just about anything these days. Measure beauty, check for STDs, even fix late night drunken social media stupidity. So why not pranks? Below, 10 digital solutions for your April Fool's Day wickedness.
CentsToShare, we salute you. The frugal living blog is seriously dedicated to living on the cheap. Below, their equation (boiled down to the last red cent) for making simple personal pizzas for a mere 38¢ a serving (4 slices).
Call Your State's Nurse Aide Registries for School Inquiries
Nothing sets off your garden beds like a nice, crisp edge. Here are four common tools for edging a garden bed. This video gives you a few options on how to edge your garden.
Watch this video to learn how to install a low cost lawn sprinkler systerm. Steps:
The guys at Poor Man Mods show you how to clean an air filter with a can of brake parts cleaner. Instead of buying cleaning kits that cost $15 and can damage your mass airflow sensor with the oil they contain, a can of brake parts cleaner does the job awesome and brakes down all the grease, grime and oil, leaving the filter media squeaky clean!
Want to keep an eye on your home while on vacation? Terrorize your family pet while at work? A homespun telepresence robot might be just the ticket! Luckily, thanks to shrinking hardware costs and the efforts of renowned hardware hacker Johnny Chung Lee, building a physical avatar has never been easier! Lee's robot has two important parts: an iRobot Create and a lightweight netbook running Skype. Notable extras include a wide-angle lens and a plastic stand to raise the computer to tabletop he...
We got some new things on the farm today! I love the animals so I'm going to spotlight the new Haflinger horse and foal first!
3D TV is hovering in the not too distant horizon, which most likely means costly transitions. Luckily John Sciacca offers some ideas for dirt cheap alternatives.
The average cost of a wedding cake is $543, according to The Bridal Association of America. The more people you need to feed and the more elaborate you want your cake to be, the more it will cost you.
A bike rack that's lightweight, small enough to store in your car, easy to build at home, and only costs 50 dollars sounds to good to be true, right? It's not. This guy built a suction-based bike rack in just two hours with only his jigsaw and a drill. He built the contraption using off-the-shelf suction handles, plastic cutting boards, and a commercial fork mount. All-in-all, it cost him just $44 for one mount and less than $100 to add in a second mount and a rear holder. You can find his fu...
If you're looking to acquire the newest iPod model or latest Xbox without breaking the bank, your first stop would probably be eBay, maybe even the Amazon Marketplace, or any of the other reputable online marketplaces and auction sites. But you probably haven't hit up the penny auctions yet, and that could be a good thing, depending on how you go about it.
There's a ton of videos on the web of musicians playing homemade PVC instruments, but I just recently stumbled upon the impressive work of PVC pipe player Kent Jenkins, aka Snubby J. His most recent video features a duet with his faux-twin, playing "Wizards in Winter" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Turns out, he's been a PVC maestro for awhile now and even auditioned for his inspiration, the Blue Man Group, at the age of seventeen. Though he wasn't picked, they saw potential in him and aske...
This week's 6-part series on Making Art on Your iOS Device comes to a close today with our last segment: a collection of useful apps for touring museums, galleries and street art. The apps below cover some of the world's greatest art meccas, so read on if you're planning an upcoming trip, if you live in one of the destinations listed below, or if you simply want to see what a faraway museum has to offer—from the comfort of your couch.
There are seemingly endless photography apps for the iPhone—it is perhaps one of the most popular arenas for application developers. We've covered a few in Giveaway Tuesdays, but nothing comprehensive.
Sometimes an iDevice is best used for idle, pointless fun. Today's segment of Making Art on Your iOS Deviceis a mixed bag of time-wasting cool effects and random, but useful art-making tools. Below, 10 apps for creating anything from erratic hand-shaken digital effects to your very own DIY Andy Warhol prints.
It's been about five months since Google first unveiled their prototype future computers running Chrome OS, and the time is nearly here for the Chromebooks to be unleashed on the public. But there are a lot of qualms over the release of Chromebooks, with most criticism coming from their lack of traditional laptop-based features such as an optical drive, storage space and the ability to run comprehensive software programs like Adobe Photoshop.
As Popsci says, these DIY snow vehicles show winter who's boss. The Snow Chopper
Home improvement expert Danny Lipford shows how to build and install a cheap dumbwaiter in your home in this video tutorial.
Check out this video to learn how to install a motion sensor light switch. It will save energy and cut down on costs. Install a motion sensor light switch.
This is a detailed description of how-to transfer laser prints to cotton and other surfaces. Works like an iron-on, but without the cost or textile restrictions. Make solvent transfers from laser prints.
Have you ever wanted to make your own carbonated beverages such as soda and carbonated water?t costs very little and can be made with stuff found around the house. It's great for making homemade sodas, seltzer water, and even re-carbonating flat beverages. Carbonate water aesily and for little money.
Nice juggling balls can cost over $45. Make better ones for under $5. They're a great way to make money while traveling, just make some balls and then go juggle on a corner. Sell them to kids and teach them how to juggle. Make juggling balls to make money.
Most cars made in the last ten or fifteen years can be unlocked with a keyless remote, and once you get used to them, unlocking your car with a traditional key feels like a pain. The most common reason they stop working is just because the battery needs replacing, but when they're broken for real, a new one can cost a small fortune. So before you go out and buy one, try this quick fix that worked for Redditor diggalator, and cost absolutely nothing. Basically, he pried the remote apart and to...
Today's segment of Making Art on Your iOS Device takes us into the third dimension. The below apps are suitable for beginners looking to venture into the world of 3d modeling, as well as pros who simply want the basics of Maya in their pocket.
Whereas yesterday's segment of Making Art on Your iOS Device focused on the technical elements of drawing from life, today we enter the painterly realm of David Hockney and Jorge Colombo.
From the onset of the popularization of apps for the iDevice, users have experimented with creating original artwork on their iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. And when famed British artist David Hockney christened the iDevice with his painterly digital drawings, the trend exploded even more.
Most of the indie and vintage games discussed in Indie Games Ichiban are pretty cheap to purchase. They rarely top twenty bucks, which is one of the major advantages independent games have against their sixty-buck, major league counterparts. But if you think $60 for a game and $300 for a PS3 or Xbox 360 seems like a lot, then you haven't played Steel Battalion or seen the TurboExpress. They go above and beyond what normal gamers are willing to spend for questionably entertaining products. Her...
Do you love video games? Would you devote your free time to creating your own game—one superior to the games you already have? Or at least one that has more Neil Patrick Harris jokes?
Are you prone to crusades of the overambitious? Well, here's one for you: try to find and identify every animal on earth. You may think scientists have a handle on this, having pinned down 1.4 million animal species so far, but there are millions more are out there, waiting to be found. Brazilian scientists have put the cost of finding the rest at a decisive $263 billion.
DARPA is at it again. This time, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has announced plans to create nanochips for monitoring troops health on the battlefield.
A DIY car laptop mount that uses the cup holder... You think texting and driving is bad, wait until it's true multitasking and driving. Ouch.
Not all of these involve PVC, but the majority do, and they all have their merits.
Energy Vampires are constantly sucking power through devices around your home, even when these devices seemed to be turned off! Learn how to slay these vampires once and for all so that you can save money and lower your energy costs.
