Not long after we purchased our MultiCam I was looking through my old collection of National Geographic magazines looking for inspiration. I came across a picture of a fish skeleton which had been fossilized. The picture was great! And it inspired an idea I just had to do.
I scanned the picture into my computer, opened it in Photoshop and set about making the image suitable for use as a bitmap. I made it a black and white image, then adjusted the tonal balance, cleaned some things up and added missing details. I spent about 10 minutes creating the bitmap I wanted and which I knew would work for the idea I had in mind.
I then created a second black and white image in Photoshop using a large speckled brush. I called it spilled Coke. This one took only a minute or two to make.
I also spent about ten minutes creating the vector files for the panel shape and lettering which would form the border. All of this was imported into EnRoute pro. I created the reliefs forming the medallion shape and then using the bitmaps I layered them onto the surface one at a time. It only took a couple clicks of the mouse to make the magic happen. I tool-pathed the file and sent it out to the already warmed up MultiCam.
In less than an hour the panel was routed from a piece of 30 lb Precision Board. I whipped on a coat of acrylic paint and put it under a large fan to dry while I mixed up some glaze. The panel had dried sufficiently by the time I was done. I slopped on a quick coat of glaze and then wiped it off with a shop towel. It was done that fast.
Thinking back to how I might have done the panel in years past it was an amazing process now. It took about an hour and thirty minutes (half of which I was doing other things while the MultiCam worked). The panel had gone from inspiration to completed project in this short time. The piece was so much more detailed than I ever would have contemplated in years gone by. I even incorporated a slight dome to the panel - something that was very labor intensive previously. Had I needed s second copy of this panel (in any size) the working time for each would be cut in half as the file was already done.
This project really sold me on my MultiCam and just how useful it would be in the years to come. Just imagine the things I could create...
-dan
