Paul Krush

I added a model search page to the site. Just a different way to look at the models I have for free download. I’m not sure if I will add models to this database in the future. I think the most useful jewelry model database would just be elements of jewelry(or related items) that are very standardized.

In fact, I am actively working on some of the ideas outlined in this post from June 2007:
The merging of model sharing and jewelry design software.

Currently I am writing a plug-in for Rhino using C# & .NET. It’s my first venture into .NET. I know VB & some C++ so it’s pretty easy. As always I am working on jewelry software for the end user/consumer that they can use for free. It will be 5 years in October the I have been toying with ideas for this project. It’s frustrating because I have yet to release anything useful over the years.

I can’t wait till I have a useful product out there. I don’t think this will take too long. Well, at least a useful product for people that already know Rhino. To make it simple enough for non-CAD people will take much longer.

I am writing a jewelry design tool that non-CAD users can use for free. As a side effect this also can be used as a basic standalone jewelry design Rhino plug-in. It will also be a back end to a web based mass customization system.

There would be no cost to the non-CAD users. You can download and use Rhino for free permanently as a model viewer. My plug-in will be free as well. These users will be able to save parameters of a piece they designed using the plug-in. Jewelry manufactures can use these parameters(a file or link) to build the piece, or as a starting point to design what the non-CAD user wants.

I plan on releasing every Monday night for 8 weeks. Yesterday all I had was a ring rail tool. These releases will be in Alpha, as in buggy. Releasing unfinished software is a necessary evil as I need I to create a feedback loop with the users.

At some point I would like to write a front end so this can all be done over the web. One thing at a time. I feel a Rhino plug-in would be the most useful (and hence profitable) starting point.

Here are some cool Maxwell renders.
http://henriquelana.spaces.live.com/
Henrique is a an instructor at an Brazilian university. Some of these were downloaded from PaulKrush.com. That Maxwell put a ton of fire into the diamonds. They look real Henrique!

Here is site another from Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam::
http://www.jewelryrender.com/designing.html

So I posted those 3D jewelry models last month. To me the surprises were:

• There were a lot of professionals against me putting out free models. They thought it was dumb and threatened them in different ways.
• The number of models downloaded (132,300 so far and still over 3000 a day after 5 weeks).
• I’ve had a large number of people tell me they would never use a model downloaded, but were looking at them to be inspired to help them model in Matrix/Rhino better.
• Another interesting thing to me is to see what people choose to download the most and least. I would love to recursively evolve models from the top downloaded files.

It’s a surprise that no one told me it was a bad idea to post models that are not perfect for making jewelry. There are some real issues in this group of models. Some have channels too thin and prongs to close or too small. A lot of setters work in different ways, so automatically some models are wrong for them. One of the reasons I got out of this is I never formed a very good relationship with a setting to get into a grove of designing “correctly”. Basically, all models can’t fit every application. Most people are not very good at this, so our medium level work looks awesome to a lot of people out there.

I put a 166 free jewelry models out on my site.

I don’t need them any more. I want them to get used as we put a lot of effort in them. I have become far more interested in simpler models that can be created by consumers inside of a browser. For those of you who know me I am have been working on this stuff off and on for years. Manually designing models was more of a break while I was waiting for better software. Well the time has come. Adobe is releasing some very powerful tools that will let programmers design in 3D, in real time, right in browser. Basically think Matrix Builders in a pop up Flash advertisement that only requires a click to use and no user permission to install. Adobe Flash has a larger installed user base the Windows. I have been dreaming of this sense the summer 1996 sense seeing 3D with Java and VRML. The time has come for real time 3D in the browser!

Enjoy the models,

Paul Krush