Easton is one of the number of young GrabCAD users out there – an embryonic Engineer. We noticed all of these interesting designs in the library and found out that Easton was all of 14 years old. I don’t know where you were at 14, but getting a computer with a Graphic User Interface was probably a tough job for half our user-base. We got in contact with him and had a nice chat for our Engineer’s Spotlight!
Easton has been homeschooled his entire life. His Dad showed him Solidworks for the first time when he was 6. “I thought it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen! From there on out, my dad had me read and watch tutorials to try to learn what I could. As time went on, I got into more complex modeling and learning more of the little but powerful features of SolidWorks.”
He’s been working his talents, finishing this model below of the Epoch spacecraft (from the game Chrono Trigger) just in for this interview. I asked him how he made it.
The way I will normally begin something is to first find out what I’m making, or imagine what I want to create. For the Epoch I made, I went on the internet and found several pictures of the Epoch; side views, variations, detailed images, etc. Then, I try to find the most basic main part of the thing in question and try to match it the best I can, or change it slightly to my liking. Then I add the smaller details and then even finer details until I think it is complete. Sometimes when I’m done creating a model, I use a program called binvox to import the model into MineCraft.
His introduction to GrabCAD also came through his Dad, who suggested he try out a few of the GrabCAD Challenges. If you check out Easton’s profile, he submitted some designs to the Toyota iPhone Dock Challenge, the Figulo Challenge and our Grabby Mascot Challenge. One of his favourite designs is the Lego Bionicle by Graham Mansfield. “I’ve been building with Legos for as long as I can remember, and my favorite theme is Bionicle.”
Of course, no one really gets good at anything without fiddling with their tools. Easton has been getting deep into programming and computer hardware, ‘to get the best out of my machines.’ He recently began getting heavily into Java, if only to mod MineCraft skins and textures. “With creating mods, came texturing for which I used MCSkin3D and GreenFish Icon Editor. I won 2nd place in a contest with my texturing abilities. Along with that, I wrote a tutorial about how to make MineCraft run faster that was very popular HERE on PlanetMinecraft.com, the website where I posted it.”
For a young guy starting out, Easton has got it locked down. But what’s in the cards next? Engineering? Game Design Product Design? “Game Design is something I’d like to get into, and I like programming, modeling, texturing and music; but designing for Lego has been my dream for a long time, too. So, maybe a combination?”
Go for it Easton - Can’t wait to see what a combination would be like!
