ROCKETS!
November 7th, 2008 @ 16:23 by NormMonkey
I love Rockets. As in the Ce De Candy, although I do as a general rule enjoy and admire the, uh, fuel-propelled ones, too. Around this time of year (post-Hallowe’en) one can always find Rockets in my general vicinity.
Yankeestanis may recognize these as “Smarties”. Enlightenment is just a click away. What we Canuckistanis know as “Smarties” are a Nestle candy that doesn’t show up south of the border. The closest I believe you can get to Smarties in Yankeestan is M&M’s, a poor second (if you’ve ever experienced Nestle Smarties vs. M&M’s, you know what I’m talkin’ about).
If you’re a geek like me you’ve noticed these circular treats pack nicely into a hexagonal formation on a two dimensional plane. Perhaps, if you’re an uber-geek, you’ve opened a pack of fifteen and formed them into a triangle:
* * * * *
* * * *
* * *
* *
*
… before devouring them, one row at a time in an orderly fashion while plotting to destroy the world with your orbiting brain lasers.
After watching a great Inkscape screencast-tutorial on half-toning I wondered about using a similar technique to figure out how to create an array of Rockets based on the Rockets logo.
I unwrapped a fresh roll, scanned it and brought the bitmap into Inkscape where I performed a judicious application of the tile-cloning function on a circle I created in the bitmap’s general vicinity. Disposal of the wrapper’s contents was a delightful byproduct of this endeavour.
The tile-cloning thing worked out better than I expected, and I unwrapped another roll. This time I threw the wrapper away and laid the contents out underneath a white light to get a better idea of the colours. Any rocket afficionado knows there are six colours (pink, purple, yellow, green, white, orange). You can even differentiate their taste if you can discern it, hiding behind the onslaught of sugary sweetness as it does (HINT: stuff a few of each colour in your mouth at once). My goal here was to approximate their colours in RGB, which I could then apply to the array I had formed with the aforementioned cloning.
Naturally, once I finished my spectrographic analysis of these citrically-infused calcium stearate units their disposal became a primary concern. This task was completed with efficiency, if not with grace and panache.
The next path on my journey was the most daunting: re-mapping the colour of each circular treat in my digital array to conform to the six available. However, by this time idle curiosity had transformed into focused determination of a clear end-goal, which shall be revealed here in due time. Mah hunnybear provided pleasant distraction, making the task less heavy.
The process of colour-mapping begged the question: how many of each colour are there in your average packet of Rockets? This question becomes important when you consider the end-goal which will be revealed later, but which you may feel free to guess at now. Thus another facet of this project was discovered. Following this project thread to its termination revealed, among other things, that white Rockets are relatively rare. I thus had to make significant adjustments to my design to accommodate this unfortunate fact.
Speaking of designs, let’s have some eye candy (heh. heh. heh.):
The Rockets Project: CAD
Here is the result of my most recent foray with Inkscape. Perhaps now the end-goal of this project is more obvious. If not, perhaps the phrase: “BREAK GLASS IN EMERGENCY” may enlighten. Ooh, that reminds me. I need to acquire a small metal hammer.
Some other results:
Colour Count Analysis
On the left we see a sample count and percentage analysis for the count of Rockets in an average sample. We see that pink is the most common colour, and orange occurs the least frequently. These results prompted me to use the yellow and purple horizon design you see in this post’s first image.
On the right we have a count of the number of each colour required for the project (2512 required in total, or 168 rolls if they happened to come perfectly packed with the colours I need), as well as a projected number of rolls (each roll has 15 rockets) and number of bags (each bag has 90 rolls) required based on the average frequencies.
Before converting to the purple/yellow horizon design, I had outlined the entire thing in white. Even after cropping the design down to just two extra rows and columns surrounding the main design, eight bags of Rockets would have been needed. I think the design above, requiring just over three bags (or 286 or so rolls, give or take), is more interesting and less wasteful. Disposal of Rockets not required by the project will be carried out under strict conditions by responsible adult personnel.
(The ’strict’ bit is a bold-faced lie)
(Ditto the following adjective)
Dimensional Analysis
For the end-goal of this project it is also important to know the size of Rockets. To reduce the margin of error, I lined a sample of 25 Rockets up end-to-end (25 being the number that would fit against the length of the measuring scale I used). My Inkscape-aided design needs 101 Rockets for each of the widest rows, dictating a project width of about 48 inches. Given the aspect ratio, the height will be about 10.5 inches.
The height will come in handy when it comes time to set the router depth for the frame (I think we all know what the end-goal is now, yes?). I plan to dry-fit everything (no glue, thanks) so it’s important that I use a well-sized frame. Failing that, a larger frame with a foam insert cut to fit would also work. I might want to line the frame edge with some sort of foam or perhaps velvet in any event.
The final project will, I hope, have a small plaque along the bottom of the frame with that phrase I used above. A small glass-breaking hammer will depend from the project, although I shall be quite put off should anyone decide to use it as intended. Other possibilities include small lights mounted above and facing into the project, as the pale colours would benefit from a contrast-enhancing light.
