Online snowflake makers

Amtrak's snowflake maker is pretty cute--simulating cutting a snowflake out of paper. Needs Flash, I think. What appears to be exactly the same snowflake maker is also available at Popular Front. (I think PF created it for Amtrak.) Here's my snowflake (have to wait for it to load, and then to "fall" (labeled "your friend's"); may take a while; may not be worth the wait).

Barkley Interactive has a similar snowflake maker, though the interface isn't quite as nice.

At Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, you can create a snowflake using a little application written in the amazing Processing graphics language; you can output it into various vector graphics formats formats, and then if you have access to a "CNC machine, laser cutter, 3D fabber, vinyl cutter, or so forth," you can create a physical copy in vinyl, metal, or other material.

At Zefrank, the snowflake drawing tools are more limited, but you can rotate the result in 3D.

See also a page on cutting a Koch snowflake curve out of paper, and some lovely snow crystal photos, which I may've linked to at some point in the past.

3 Responses to “Online snowflake makers”

  1. Cj

    Nifty stuff. Though, I’m probably flaky enough

    reply
  2. Josh @ Caller ID Spoofing

    I have a vinyl cutter, and I love using it, however I’m not very artsy. I was really impressed with the creativity of those snow flakes. Nice link.

    Nice site.. maybe work on the format a little bit. Im a minimalist, but its even a little scant for me. =P

    Nice work,

    Josh

    reply
  3. Jed

    CJ: Hee!

    Josh: I removed your URL, ’cause in my experience most comments from new commenters who say “Nice site” and/or comment on the site rather than the entry are spam, and your URL was for a commercial website. Didn’t help that the first item in your front-page blog was showcasing a crank call designed to bring out homophobic comments.

    But I allowed your comment itself because you did seem to have actually read the entry, unlike most spammers.

    As for the blog format, I’m sorry to hear you don’t like it, but this is how I like it; I went out of my way to design it this way. (Well, mostly; there are various aspects that I would do better if I had time.) If you like the content but not the format, feel free to read the feed, or the LJ syndicated version, which you can format any way you like.

    reply

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