Clik here to view.
Oakland Squared Redux
Five Ton Crane‘s “Oakland Squared” project was originally conceived for public installation in the outdoor window displays of the SF MOMA Artist’s gallery. After a six month installation there, they...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Maker Faire 2017
I’ve been too busy doing and making to write much this last year but I’ve got to tell you to come on down to the original Maker Faire this weekend at the San Mateo Fairgrounds where you can hear all...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oakland Squared at the Moffitt Library
I’ve detailed a bit of the work done by Five Ton Crane which we have dubbed Oakland Squared. Created for an exhibit at the SF MOMA Artist’s Gallery, the large collaborative panels are composed of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gods in Color: Polychromy in the Ancient World @ the Legion of Honor Museum.
One of my most exciting recent projects was my involvement with the Gods in Color exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco. I was invited by Curator Renee Dreyfus to projection map a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Five Ton Crane Heads to the Smithsonian
You read that right. As part of the upcoming exhibition at the Renwick Gallery, No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, Five Ton Crane has been commissioned to create a mutant vehicle–an art car. In the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man
Five Ton Crane is profiled in the New York Times! So proud of my friends and what we have been able to create for this occasion (and everything leading to it). I visited the Renwick Gallery back in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Capitol Theater at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum
I’m fresh back from Washington D.C., where I attended several days of festivities for the opening of “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man.” An incredible time was had by all. If you read my last...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More Photos from Capitol Theater @ Renwick: No Spectators
Capitol Theater. What a looker. I couldn’t stop snapping shots. I’ve updated the gallery from my last post with a bunch more images. Hurry and glom a seat–the curtain is about to go up! Capitol Theater...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Capitol Theater: Seat End-Cap Inspiration
In my stories about the Capitol Theater, I mentioned the theater-seat end-caps that I designed and which were fabricated from laser cut steel. The mobile deco theater, which was inspired by the great...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fox Theater Spokane
In my last post, I discussed some of the inspirations involved in the Capitol Theater. We are fortunate in this era that despite the loss of many great movie houses of old, that others still are being...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Steadcraft is Back at Maker Faire 2018– May 18, 19, 20
Come out to Maker Faire 2018 for the best and freshest maker goodness and see what has become of the original Maker Faire after over 10 years in action. I’ll be there with Steadcraft, where you can see...
View Article3D Printer Anatomy: 50 parts in 5 minutes (Basics)
I bumped into Thomas Sanladerer at Maker Faire. I didn’t have a chance to chat with him but I can always tune in to hear him talk on YouTube. This excellent intro to desktop filament-style printing is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In VR: No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man!
If you missed it at the Smithsonian you might still get another chance to see it in person. For now, check out the Capitol Theater by Five Ton Crane, and the entire downstairs of the Smithsonian Show...
View ArticleAsian Art Museum: My Photogrammetry Models
I have been hard at work polishing my skills with 3D capture and re-construction. This has been a part of my regular creative process for several years now, but beyond showing off my resulting 3D...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Freshies, Kittens & 3D Printing!
Wishing you all good fortune in the new year and pausing to celebrate my own. I got back on skis over the New Year holiday after several years of not skiing, and it was great on all counts. On the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Passenger Side: Montana
What do you get when you combine photography, illustration, comic books, and a drive-through big sky country? I got inspired. The cats out of the bag. It’s no secret anymore. I love photography. I’ve...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Benchmarks from the Bean
Here are a few shots of my first successful print on my new lcd printer from Kudo3D–the Bean. Overall I am extremely impressed with the print quality of the Bean. At .050 mm layer height (50 microns),...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Building Better Boxes
I got tired of seeing my plastic totes fall apart every few years and go to the dump. When I found a bunch of discounted aluminum channel, I knew it was time to build a better box. In fact, I built...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Capturing 3D Models from Google Earth using Photogrammetry
These are models I started doing back around 2014. I was looking to capture some of the gorgeous geometry I could visit on my flat screen in Google Earth. Now I can visit them in VR, change the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Model-No.
Where did I go? Here I am! After honing my hand-craft and digital fabrication skills everywhere from my home studio to Mythbusters to the Digital Fabrication Lab at the U.C. Berkeley College of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Portland Love
The city of my birth holds a big place in my heart. Within, Forest Park holds a special mystique. After living for 20 years in a cabin in the middle of the wilderness of Canyon, just outside of...
View ArticleStoried Haven is Picture Perfect
Here is a quick turntable video of an ongoing photogrammetry project of mine. I helped build Storied Haven, along with a team of artists from 5 Ton Crane lead by Bree Hylkema. This is an immersive two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From our Boot to Yours
Season’s Greetings. I’ve been working on Storied Haven in different ways since 2015, when I helped Bree Hylkema and Five Ton Crane build it. At the time, my interest in photogrammetry was really...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Neural Style Transfer
I’ve been working with neural net image processing for a few years now, trying to figure out how to make more powerful creative use of this class of tools, which using AI to recognize and develop...
View ArticleUpdated Photogrammetry Collection
As you may know, my great love, next to 3D printing, is photogrammetry, a.k.a. reality capture. I have been working on them side by side for over 10 years, with printing being the perfect path from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dark Horse Rising
As an artist that treads a line between digital and physical, I have always been fascinated with imagery. These days I am leaning into this more as I explore various means of using digital tools to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Astrophotography
I made it out to the Sierra foothills over the weekend for a visit with dear friends and some quality stargazing. Dark skies or not, my camera can see far more than my eyes because it can collect...
View ArticleA Super Flower Blood Moon Timelapse
A time-lapse of the May 15, 2022 lunar eclipse as seen in Canyon, CA. 320 individual frames shot on Sony A7ii. Camera motion with Vixen Polarie. RAW photos processed in Lightroom with pretty heavy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Instagram @grant_diffendaffer
Tell your friends I’m on the gram @grant_diffendaffer ! But while you are here check out this forest find: I’m going to be posting lots of photography, AI generated visual art, photogrammetry, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I asked an AI to Draw me Grayscale Depth Maps of a City
You may have heard the buzz about how Dalle-2 can use your written words to create photoreal art in any style, (and about the waiting list), but did you know that you can do the same thing with Disco...
View Article
