What It Is

A dedicated polygon modeling station. VMK'26 is sort of like a movie prop, or a performance art piece, but also will let me sit at a funky little station and model things that I can then 3D print or toss into websites. 

Under the hood, it is a recycled computer. I designed the whole thing around a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, and very well may make a VMK-MINI some day with that, but realized while looking for used displays that there are just a ton of whole-ass computers floating around out there SO close to going in a landfill. My work in product design makes me sort of pathologically aware of the ability to repeat a build, designing for "assembly optimization",and other high-value nonsense, so projects like VMK'26 both challenge me and let me really sink into the peace and quiet of one-off arts and crafts.  It's the opposite of "design this thing that can be produced super easily", in favor of "design this thing that I'll build at least one of and maybe can't be exactly reproduced on units 2 and 3". It kind of hurts and is kind of liberating, like drawing a bird.

Interactions

I want this to be zesty and stimulating to use. It should build muscle memory and become an extension of the user. The goal of the hardware is to get maximally out of the way so this thing becomes a polygonal model output experience instead of "use the machine". There are some cheeky ideas like a undo encoder: detented rotary encoder with little oled screen showing the last operation. Dedicated knobs for UI colors / theme. Lots of bits and blops to skreep on.

Technology

VMK'26 is software running on some little computer (see the bottom, think I got that nailed) with totally custom hardware for controlling the whole shebang. Not a mouse thing, but a big ol' machine with skronks and sploinks and dedicated biz. This means custom software (vmkOS) and custom hardware implemented as some kind of USB controller. Having it all speak MIDI feels like a magically cool thing, cuz then I donno, it speaks MIDI. It will likely actually speak some kind of HID or USB CDC sort of thing because there are many VM dimensions that need skronking.

Operations

Display

iMac (and eMac 👀) obtained, sure looking like this iMac is going to be VMK'26-01