How To Fail 

You need one of those 4K pin beds.

The low pass filter sweep is a win!

Yay. An art video. I know some people don't like em but please keep doing them

Huh, the 90s versions of these I remember had *metal* pins, which were apparently a lot more uniform, and heavier so they'd "settle" better. I didn't know they'd gotten cheaper...

You need to find a pin bed with metal pins!

Experience is a thing that comes just after you need it!

It looked best when the pin-bed was lowered only a little bit over the raised letters. Then when the pin-bed was lowered more, additional surrounding pins began to get pushed up, reducing contrast and increasing distortion. I think I would have tried making a set of letters about half as tall and trying it that way.

This video demonstrates a property called anti aliasing. Windows uses ClearType to anti alias fonts and text. Perhaps you could do something similar here, with less sharp text edges

Metal Pinbeds tend to have better alignment - perhaps try with one of them :)

You can also experiment with the light angle. Maybe have a light moving across the top of the pinboard, that might be a cool effect, casting a constantly changing shadow.

Could add a back light or led strips around the edge pointing inward. And have 2 or so different coloured lights to add depth.

Try painting the tops of the pins black and shoot the video off angle. Maybe try stop animation. It looks neat in my minds eye.

Anytime working with foam around light weight non conductive objects static electric (electret) charges can be a problem. It might be worth trying to laminate aluminum foil onto the letters (and connecting together and to ground) or increasing the humidity or using a source of ionizing radioactivity to make the air slightly conductive.

Was worth a shot! Would be amazing if they somehow changed colour when pushed up

Suggestion: Do each letter as a full size that takes up most of the whole pin bed. Film each one being lowered separately and then paste them all together and reduce the total size to the width of the video frame. I know, a lot of work, but if you adjust the timings you could also get it so that each letter comes through individually to form a sequence.

It’s refreshing to see you post a behind the scenes video. Based on the title, however (and coming from a software background… especially in combination with the video thumbnail you chose) I was hoping you might have added a bit of clarification and explanation of how to differentiate between success and failure. Something like setting the “goal posts” somewhere they could be more clearly identified by the audience, and hopefully applied to other, more general problems. As always, I appreciate the great content, and thank you for sharing a bit of your process with us.

Metal pin bed, and it’s a wrap!!!❤❤

Try photographing a couple dozen "fails" and feed them into an image-stacking program as is done in astronomy to average out the distortions.

I would put the pins piece in portrait mode and do one big letter at a time and _merge_ the letters in edition.

Well the stencil in itself is awesome art, just keep this.

Hmm.. what about a red or blue light shining at a shallow angle across it? I think it has potential.

I note that the pin-art toys of the era have the pins set-off diagonally; each row and column is skewed by 1/2 pin width. That probably works well for "analog" images like faces and fingers. Your template is more digital: strict vertical and horizontal lines. I don't know how to do it, but what if the letters were arched on top? The worst failure is giving up too early.

What if you angled the text clockwise a little to align with the pins, where the pins are in a straight line?

Try do in reverse mode, you must organize the bed first and film you taking it out. Then reverse the tape. Brasil loves you!

I think the problem in the first one was the depth of the foam. The pins making the letters didn't have enough fall distance to differentiate.

Pin bed with finer metal pins would work perfect. They're more expensive though.

a font change and success, but this requires a open mind to change, and the inability to accept change is often why failure occurs.

I was expecting this to evolve into a custom pin bed with smaller pins and tighter spacing for better resolution.

One letter at a time, and animate it. The pin board will work. It is quite similar to a Lite-Brite, looking at it a second time.

Still cool, even if it's not super sharp, good enough I'd say. Might have better luck with the metal pin ones, they tend to be more precisely made and more of them for higher resolution.

instead of pushing the board onto your letters, just reverse the board, apply your stencil on the back of the board, hold everything all together, then slowly reverse. This way the unaligned beads will have no choice to be aligned.

This is probably not what you're going for but my first thought would be to try a high contrast filter in post. I'm probably missing the point though. I enjoyed the video.

Ah... Put it away and tomorrow or the next day you'll see how to make it work. Pin beds are FUN to play with.

Just a step to getting it right! Cute project. The edges on the foam are slightly jagged, I wonder if laser cutting would produce smooth enough edges.

i hope you still use it for intros. it would, of course, be used for only extras special intros, but def keep it in the back pocket.

First one did work a bit if you look back at the result on YT. Almost like TV lines the "scanning"didnt have high enough resolution on the 2nd

It looked as though the pin box overlay needed risers too so it didn't lower as much because it seemed to only lose clarity at full depth? Anyway, it was fun to watch. LOL

Going double height probably made things worse? Seems like the pins tilt over a little when pushed all the way up. Maybe take advantage of that by beveling the edges of the letters so the pins around the edges of the letters get pushed in? But mostly it does seem to be a resolution problem.

Or suck a plastic sheet over it with a vacuum pump - that could look effective if lit with different olor lamps from diferent angles.

“Fran Lab, where art and science meet!” ❤

Thanks Fran! As a recovering perfectionist, I need reminders like this that failure is human. Watching too many over-edited channels is bad for my brain. Thank you for bucking the trend.

In Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Electronics, you have to document the fails, so people in the future can save time and learn what not to do. Making future projects more successful. You rightly recognised resolution, so finer pins might be the way forward. The principle being quite sound to begin with.

Homemade foamcore. That's what I call hardcore crafting

Maybe just do one big letter at a time, and edit together just like with the display used in previous intros?

Just keep failing until you fail to fail!

Interesting. At first, I was thinking to go for more moody lighting to try to boost the contrast. But now I think the pin board might work better if the pins weren't offset, but lined up vertically and horizontally, the way the letters are aligned. Offset the way they are might work better with rounded or skewed letters. Oh, but that's a lot more work. It really works pretty well the way it is. No worries!

Seems like part of the problem is the diagonal alignment of the pins. Maybe if they were aligned in a straight grid?

Back to the old drawing board..

First time I've seen 8th grade art class have real-life use.

4:20 (!) - The 'delta' arrangement of the pins doesn't help either :(

I think we learned that a large, blocky type face, sized so the pins can fall as straight to a line as possible just might work. Just. Might, lol.

First I thought this could fixed by matching the letters to the pin spacing, but once you showed the randomness of the pins on the back side I think this is not going to work.

You could maybe do the pins in ink or water, press them on to paper to mark the dot matrix, then draw the letters as connect -the-dots, and cut accordingly.

I wonder if it would look better if the shafts were painted black?

This prototype is not a failure, It was just a successful technological demonstrator ... Maybe increase the front by, let say one pin count ...

Sounds like a new project making a new pin bed with better resolution

No matter what it is it was you being creative. 😊

Cool idea meets harsh reality - I know that space well 😛. Don't give up - you'll figure it out! It looks like the rows of pins are staggered - I wonder if that might be contributing to the problem?

I love Fran lab... Fran lab is great.

i know how to fail i just have to be myself

I find this pretty good actually. Congrats, you failed in failing! Loved the Galaga perfect score in bonus stage theme at the end!

cool Idea! would make an awesome intro Fran

It was fun, and that's what's important. I thought that first shot was CGI until your hands came into frame 😆 Pretty good effect if you ask me, just need a little lighting

I'd say this is somewhere between failure and success, leaning more toward success... I think when the pins are fully extended (with the first template) they sorta flop over in random directions and you lose the resolution. so maybe try the first template again but put something under the pinart frame so that it can't go down all the way.

You could fake it with computer graphics

Easy does it lol

That works ok, don't beat yourself up too much!

An A for effort! Not a fail, but not a success either. There must be a solution.

❤

Successful fail

I don't look at this as a 'fail'. I look at it as 'proof of concept' - in which the idea is successfully demonstrated and shown to be viable, but also as a recognition of the limitations of the currently available materials. A larger pin bed, with more pins, and larger stencils, would resolve this, I am fairly certain. Of course, the current status of 'unobtainium' of a larger pin bed means this isn't feasible. RIGHT NOW. You COULD endeavor to construct a larger pin bed yourself, if you really wanted this to work. I would estimate a 50% increase in width and length, and attendant increase in the number of pins (assuming you maintain current resolution) would yield a successful outcome. Of course, a lot of work for a comparatively 'small' outcome. but might I suggest doing this 'virtually'? Using 3D modelling software?

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

It's a lab!

Not a fail...you found methods for working with those pin bed things..

What are you talking about it looks fantastic you just have to squint your eyes a little ;)

I was entertained. success

❤

Why didnt you know exactly how to do this in the first place? Kidding but if COVID taught me anything many people dont understand the first thing about iterative investigations!