This is one of the ICF (Insulating Concrete Forms) houses I worked on last summer. It was a cool project to be a part of. It’s located in this really nice development sitting right next to Smith Rock and having views of Mt. Hood, Mt. Bachelor and the Three Sisters, with lots of green grass, and a vineyard.

This was my first time building in Central Oregon. It definitely provided some interesting experiences. First off, the geology over there is unique with a wide variety of rock types in a relatively small area. We literally had to rotary hammer holes into the rock to sink our concrete stakes into. Once they’re in, forget about moving them. We either had to drill new holes, sink new stakes, or bend over the existing stakes to keep our forms for the footing nice and straight.

The other excitement happened when we poured the footing and first couple courses of block. We told the concrete pump guys to only fill it about 24 inches high and even pointed, “fill it up to about here”, but for whatever reason they wanted to fill it all the way up.

When they got about halfway around the house, all the sudden a couple screws broke that were holding up one side of the form. About a 10 foot section of the wall tipped over and everyone started scrambling. I ran and grabbed a couple big rocks and some 2×4’s to lever the broken side of the form back up, but there was too much weight, we couldn’t get it to budge.

We then proceeded to use the concrete vibrator to help get the mud to flow down the form to a section that wasn’t broken. I was on my knees digging in the form like a dog to help get the concrete to move. All the while the pump guys kept pumping and the homeowner was watching us with a very concerned look on her face.

Finally we get it to where it was light enough we could lever it up, level it and put some more stakes and screws in to support it. At this point we didn’t have to worry about driving the stakes into the ground, they would be fine just sitting on top of the rock and being supporting horizontally by the hat channel we run on top of the forms to support the block.

When it comes to pouring concrete you can’t stop and take a break, especially when it’s a 100+ degrees (Fahrenheit) and 0% humidity like it was on that day. You can try to delay the next truck to buy yourself some time, but depending on the travel distance it isn’t always practical. The other option is to add water to the concrete, but the more water you add the weaker the concrete becomes.

Pouring concrete is always stressful, even for the guys that have been doing it for 20+ years. There’s no CTRL+Z with concrete, only concrete saws, sledge hammers and jack hammers. Busting up and hauling off concrete is no joke, take my word for it! Fortunately I’ve only had to do it to fix other peoples mistakes, or for remodels.

I’m just glad in the end, everything turned out okay. All in all it was a fun project. Plus, there’s tons of good beer over there in Central Oregon! One day we managed to go to 10+ of the 15 or so breweries in Bend, I gotta say it was a good day!

I accidentally shot a nail through my finger today, it just had to be my mouse trigger finger. I was working in tight quarters and had to use my left hand to fire the nail gun (I’m right handed), my right hand was holding the boards. When I shot the nail, the gun jumped as they commonly do, moved over and shot a 2nd nail through the edge of the board and my finger.

The entrance wound is the bloody spot on the right, the exit is the hole on the left.

The entrance wound is the bloody spot on the right, the exit is the hole on the left.

I know better than to have my hand in harms ways, but because of the awkward positioning I took the risk. Working in construction you always try to keep in mind where your hands are at, but working on a single project you’ll literally fire off thousands of nails and 99% of the time it’s uneventful.

Fortunately for me the nail missed the bones and doesn’t seem to have hit any ligaments or tendons. All this because I didn’t want to take the time to go get a clamp… Well at least now I have a dumb story I probably shouldn’t tell anyone…

I used a combination of characters. For her body I used:

This is an add-on texture set for my Superhero Monokini. I spent way too much time working on it, but I feel like it has some pretty cool textures. I’m a big sci-fi fan and really enjoy shows like Continuum and the Star Wars series. Another genre I’m into is the medieval times, I really like Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings. I like to think this texture set captures some of the essences from both genres.

Using ambient lighting I was able to give the textures a glow in the dark appearance (which can be turned off for when you don’t want it).

I also used displacement maps to help some of the colors really pop and add a little more character to the textures (can also be toggled on and off).

This texture set is available on DAZ3D.com.

As always, let me know what you think!

LayLo

My first commercially available 3D product for DAZ Studio and Poser.

Available here.

I think of it as a swimsuit or superhero outfit.

Please, let me know what you think and if you have any ideas on how I could make it better in the comments below.

Thanks,

LayLo

Here’s an improved version of my Miss Renderosity 2014 submission.

I tweaked the lighting a little bit and fixed the shadows. I also tried to make her shoes look more like they’re sunk into the sand.

Let me know what you think!

LayLo

This is my Miss Renderosity 2014 submission for the swimsuit part of the competition. Sadly I didn’t advance to round 2.

The character is various G2F characters that I then sculpted into the shape I wanted. The swimsuit I made and is actually available on DAZ3D.com. Everything else was made by other people.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to dial in the lighting and get the shadows lined up, or make her heels look better in the sand before the deadline.

You can view all the contest submissions and winners here. My entry is #286 on page 8.

Let me know what you think!

LayLo