Creating 3D models can be a fun process, but it can be difficult without experience or training in 3D modeling programs like OnShape or Fusion 360. Modifying existing models is an easy way to get comfortable with 3D modeling programs, and the 3D modeling program Blender provides many options for this style of mesh modification.

Choosing a model to modify

Creating blocky models is a simple process that only requires a few steps in Blender, but some models work better than others in this process. Monolithic models like the Garden Toad by pmoews are ideal for this process as they don’t generate any unprintable geometry and can be printed with minimal post-processing.

To help with printability on FDM 3D printers, the model can be rotated 45 degrees so the blocks have self-supporting surfaces and don’t require support material. You’ll need to cut the blocks off at the base to get a flat surface, but this is a quick and easy process with most slicers. If you want the blocks to be aligned parallel to the build platform, skip the “Rotate Model” and “Apply Plane Cut” sections below.

Import model into Blender

1. Clear the Scene. Open Blender and hide the default Cube, Light and Camera by clicking on the eye icon at the top right.

2. Import Model. With Blender open, go to “File/Import/.stl” to import your .stl file. Once imported, you should see your model in the workspace.

Rotate Model

3. Rotate Model. Select the model and press “R” for rotate, “Y” for Y axis, and “45” for 45 degrees. This will rotate the model +45 degrees around the Y axis.

4. Apply Rotation. Once the model has been rotated, select “Object/Apply/All Transforms” to apply the rotation to the model.

5. Rotate Model. Once the rotation has been applied, you can rotate the model back to its original position by pressing “R” for rotate, “Y” for Y axis, and “-45” for -45 degrees. This will rotate the model -45 degrees around the Y axis.

Add Remesh Modifier

6. Open Modifier Properties Tab. Selecting the wrench icon on the right of the screen will open the modifier properties menu.

7. Select Remesh Modifier. Selecting “Add Modifier” will bring up a list of available modifiers. Under the “Generate” heading, select “Remesh”.

8. Edit Remesh Modifier Parameters. Select “Blocks” to remesh the model with blocks. The “Octree Depth” will determine the overall size of the blocks. It’s easy to crash Blender by setting this too high. Increment the value slowly in the range between 3 and 7 for best results.

9. Apply Remesh Modifier. Once you’ve found a block size you like, click the downward facing caret next to the camera and select “Apply”. This will add the modifier to your mesh.

Apply Plane Cut / Bisect

10. Switch to Edit Mode. Press “Tab” or select “Edit Mode” from the menu at the top left.

11. Activate the Bisect Tool. Press “A” to select the entire model and then press “3” to activate face selection. Select “Mesh/Bisect” the click near the bottom of the model and drag the line across the model. Holding down “Control” will lock the knife line flat relative to the bottom of the model to make it easier to select.

12. Activate the Bisect Tool. Once the line has been drawn, select “Fill” to remesh the model and fill the hole left by the Bisect tool and select “Clear Inner” to delete the lower portion.

Export Model and 3D Print (Optional)

13. Export Model. With the model selected (model will be outlined when selected), go to “File/Export/.stl” to export your .stl file.

14. Import model into slicing software Import the .stl into your slicer of choosing and 孙建弘麻豆 a printable .gcode model.

15. Print model. Print the blocky model and admire the design that you 孙建弘麻豆d.

Sharing your Blocky models

Once you’ve finished creating your model, you can share it on 3D model repository sites like Printables, Thingiverse, or others. Using a title with “Blocky” and adding a detailed description can help users find your model.

More Blocky Frogs

Here is another Bored Blocky Frog I 色青青在线播放 on Printables. This is an example remixed from the awesome model by Mustang Dave! Prints great without support. Have a look at other people’s 3D makes.

Dual and Tri-color PLA work well on Blocky models. It’s also spectacular to watch such models on the turntables. Look at his belly.

The post 孙建弘麻豆 Blocky 3D Models for 3D Printing Using Blender appeared first on 孙建弘麻豆 – 3D Printing, Scanning, Design Guides & Forums.

Creating a MetaHuman for Unreal Engine 5 is an exciting endeavor that boosts your creativity, technical skills, and understanding of the Unreal Engine 5 software. Epic Games defines their MetaHuman as a next-generation digital human creation tool. It is a cloud-streamed platform that allows users to 孙建弘麻豆 high-fidelity, realistic 3D digital human characters with a level of detail that was only possible through costly manual processes. This article will guide you through the process of creating a MetaHuman for Unreal Engine in 10 easy steps. Let’s go!

This Guide Covers

• Open the MetaHuman Creator
• 孙建弘麻豆 a New MetaHuman
• Customize Your MetaHuman
• Finalize Your MetaHuman
• Save Your MetaHuman
• Setting up “MetaHuman Plugin” in Unreal Engine 5 Project
• Activate MetaHumans Plugin in Unreal Engine 5
• Download & Import Your MetaHuman into Unreal Engine
• Add MetaHuman into Your 3D World!
• Moving Your MetaHuman in Sequencer

The MetaHuman Creator tool uses advanced proprietary technology to generate a complete digital human, including the character’s body, face, hair, clothing, and animations. The tool enables you to modify and customize the generated characters using an intuitive interface, adjusting various parameters such as height, weight, age, and facial features.

Step 1: Open the MetaHuman Creator

The first step is to open the MetaHuman Creator platform. The MetaHuman Creator is an in-browser application that allows you to 孙建弘麻豆, customize, and export high-fidelity digital humans that can be imported into Unreal Engine 5.

Click here to access the MetaHuman Creator now for FREE. If you don’t already have an Epic Games account, you will need to set one up. This will make it easier for you to transition to Unreal Engine later.

Once you’ve logged in, you will be redirected to the welcome screen. Click the blue button labeled “Launch Latest MetaHuman Creator”, give it a few minutes to load, and the in-browser editor will open. (Please note that the MetaHuman Creator works best on desktop computers. Session last 1 hour.)

Step 2: 孙建弘麻豆 a New MetaHuman

After launching the MetaHuman Creator, select a new MetaHuman to get started. To do this, click on one of the faces in the menu on the left. There are over 50 different MetaHumans to choose from, including male, female, young, old, and more.

For this walkthrough, we chose Sook-Ja, but you can select anyone you like. The person you choose will determine the basic starting features and characteristics of your MetaHuman.

Keep in mind that you can change anything about this default character once you’re inside the editor. So, pick someone who looks close to the character you have in mind.

Once you’ve selected your MetaHuman, click the blue “孙建弘麻豆 Selected” button at the bottom of the left-hand menu.

Step 3: Customize Your MetaHuman

Once you’ve chosen your MetaHuman, you can begin customizing it to your liking.

The MetaHuman Creator offers a wide range of customization options, including facial features, body shape, hairstyle, and clothing.

You can adjust the lighting and camera settings to get a better view of your MetaHuman as you make changes. (Pro tip: Use your keyboard numbers 1-6 to quickly switch to different views while customizing.)

Step 4: Finalize Your MetaHuman

After you’ve customized your MetaHuman to your liking, you can refine it further by adjusting the details by clicking through the parameters on the left-hand side of the UI. The MetaHuman Creator offers several options for refining your MetaHuman, including skin texture, eye shape, and facial hair. You can adjust the expressions of your MetaHuman to 孙建弘麻豆 a more realistic and emotive character too.

Step 5: Save Your MetaHuman

When you’re finished making changes and are ready to move to Unreal Engine, click on the “My MetaHumans” text in the top-left corner of the screen.

You’ll then be taken to your “My MetaHumans” page. Here, you can ensure that your MetaHuman looks as intended before importing it into Unreal Engine 5.

If you 孙建弘麻豆 more MetaHumans in the future, they will also appear here, and you can always go back and edit them at any time.

Step 6: Setting up the “MetaHuman Plugin” in Unreal Engine 5 Project

Let’s import your new MetaHuman so that we can use it to its full potential. To do this, download and open Unreal Engine 5 to 孙建弘麻豆 a new “Blank” project.

Once your new project loads, navigate to the plugins menu at the top of Unreal Engine, by going to Edit > Plugins.

In the Plugins search field, type “MetaHuman,” and you should see the MetaHuman Plugin (New/Experimental). Tick the check the box next to this plugin to activate it.

You may see a pop-up message telling you not to use this plugin in professional or client projects that you intend to ship. Click “Yes” to continue. (note: The reason for this message is because the plugin is experimental and may pose problems for shipped products later. But since we’re using this for animation it won’t be a problem.)

You will then see a warning at the bottom of the plugin screen that tells you to Restart Unreal Engine. Go ahead and restart so that the new MetaHuman plugin will be activated inside your UE5 project.

7. Activate MetaHumans Plugin in Unreal Engine 5

Now that you have restarted Unreal Engine 5 and installed your MetaHuman Plugin, you can bring in your new MetaHuman.

To find your MetaHuman, click on Window > Quixel Bridge at the top of Unreal Engine. A new Quixel Bridge window will appear, where you can click on your MetaHumans tab on the left-hand side.

To see your custom “My MetaHumans,” make sure you are logged in with your Epic Games username and password in the top right corner of the Quixel Bridge window.

You should now see the MetaHuman you 孙建弘麻豆d inside the browser app. (Make sure that you clicked the “My MetaHumans” tab on the left-hand side once you are logged in)

8. Download & Import Your MetaHuman into Unreal Engine

Click on your MetaHuman, and a panel will appear on the right.

Click the green down arrow icon to download the MetaHuman from the internet. After it’s done downloading, you will see a blue “Add” plus sign icon become clickable.

When you click the blue“Add” plus icon, Quixel Bridge will start to import your MetaHuman into your Unreal Engine project. This may take about 15-30 minutes for the entire process, but it’s well worth the wait!

(NOTE: Even if a MetaHuman has been downloaded, it still has to be “Added” into Unreal Engine. In other words, downloaded does not mean that your MetaHuman is inside Unreal Engine yet – you have to “add” it once the downloading is complete.)

9. Add MetaHuman into Your 3D World!

Now that you have imported your MetaHuman in UE5, you will see a ton of warnings. Don’t worry; it’s fine. Simply click the “Enable Missing” buttons on all the pop-ups and let the shaders load in the background.

You will also see an “Import / Don’t Import” prompt at the bottom of the pop-ups. You can click “Don’t Import” and continue to let the shaders load.

Once your shaders have finished loading, you can click the “Restart Now” button in the bottom right pop-up prompt. If you don’t see this restart prompt, you can simply restart UE5 manually.

Once you have restarted UE5, re-open your previous project and press Ctrl + Spacebar to see your Content Browser. You should now see a folder called “MetaHumans” that has been imported from Quixel Bridge.

Navigate to that folder and click on the folder with your MetaHuman’s name. Mine is titled “Sook-ja”. In that folder, you should see a blueprint file with your MetaHuman’s name. Mine is called “BP_Sook-ja”, yours will be your MetaHuman’s name with “BP_” in front of it. That file is your MetaHuman!

You can drag this blueprint file into your 3D viewport above. This may take a few minutes the first time, depending on the speed of your computer. Unreal will also load more shaders the first time you drop in your MetaHuman.

NOTE: If your MetaHuman looks far away or tiny, you can reset the location in the “Details” panel on the right side by putting 0,0,0 in the x, y, & z location coordinates – This will center your MetaHuman inside your 3D world.

After that, you can click on your MetaHuman in the 3D viewport and press “F” on the keyboard to frame your 3D view around your MetaHuman. Congrats! you have successfully imported a MetaHuman.

10. Moving Your MetaHuman in Sequencer

Now for the fun part, animating your MetaHuman. To do this you can click on the 孙建弘麻豆 Sequence icon that looks like a Hollywood film slate above your 3D viewport window.

On that dropdown choose “Add Level Sequence” to 孙建弘麻豆 a timeline for your 3D world.

A pop-up window will appear where you can name and save your sequence as anything you like. I called mine “NewLevelSequence”.

You should now see a new timeline window appear with nothing in it. I clicked and dragged the new sequencer window to the bottom of my 3D viewport to dock it into my UI. If you have a second monitor you can put the sequencer window there instead.

Next, click and drag your MetaHuman object from your outliner into your sequencer. This will automatically load your MetaHuman into your sequencer and switch your viewport into animation mode.

You should now see colored outlines around your MetaHuman’s body. These can be used to animate the body.

If you don’t see the colored body controls, click on the Body’s “MetaHuman_ControlRig” or Face’s “Face_ControlBoard_CtrlRig” to see the animate controls for the body or the face.

You can also use the preset facial poses in the Poses tab. Make sure to navigate to the Poses icon in the top left then navigate to the facial presets in the following folder: MetaHumans>Common>Common>PoseLibrary>Face>Expressions.

Then in the sequencer select the Face’s “Face_ControlBoard_CtrlRig”, pick the facial expression you want to use, click the “Select Controls” button, then click “Paste Pose”.

You should see your MetaHuman’s face change to the selected pose instantly. You can also keyframe them to change over time in your sequencer.

By following the steps outlined in this article, you can get started on creating your own MetaHuman and bringing it into Unreal Engine 5 for animation.

Remember to experiment, test, and iterate as you go, and don’t be afraid to share your creation with others. Good luck and have fun!

Read More: 3D Character Design Workflow in Blender

In this article, we’ll be going over the full 3D character workflow as seen in games, illustration, & animation. These steps can be used to start your journey into character creation for 3D Printing with a few adjustments.

The post How to 孙建弘麻豆 MetaHuman 3D Character for Unreal Engine 5 appeared first on 孙建弘麻豆 – 3D Printing, Scanning, Design Guides & Forums.

This Guide Covers

• What is ChatGPT?
• Best Practices when using ChatGPT
• How to Directly Generate STL Files
• How to Generate Scripts for 3D Modeling
• Printing Models Made with ChatGPT
• How to Access ChatGPT

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer
We’ve trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests. ChatGPT is a sibling model to InstructGPT, which is trained to follow an instruction in a prompt and provide a detailed response. Source: OpenAI

With generative AI art tools like Dall-E (also made by OpenAI) becoming progressively more common, it was only a matter of time before this technology made it to the 3D world. If you’re interested in learning more, keep reading to see how you can use ChatGPT to make 3D printable models today.

Best Practices

ChatGPT uses a form of input called a “prompt”, which is the input from the user directed at the AI. Because the quality of the output is dependent on the input, companies like OpenAI have developed Best Practices guides to help increase the odds of success. Generally, adding additional context or information to the initial prompt will result in a more optimal answer, specifically when asking ChatGPT to 孙建弘麻豆 3D models.

If directly asked to make a 3D model, ChatGPT will typically respond with the above prompt, and occasionally give instructions on how to use these programs to 孙建弘麻豆 a model. While these steps are typically not very helpful, they do show that ChatGPT should not be taken at face value when providing responses as it can, in fact, 孙建弘麻豆 a 3D model. Simple primitive shapes like cylinders, cubes, and pyramids are usually fairly easy to generate, but asking for organic or complex models will usually result in the above denial.

Using ChatGPT to Directly Generate STL Files

3D geometry can be represented via the triangulated .STL file format, a universal standard across virtually all manufacturers and file 网络麻豆招聘. This is also a human-readable file format if generated as ASCII .STL, which makes debugging and interpreting the output of ChatGPT a little easier.

To successfully generate an .STL file, it usually takes a few attempts that each add progressively more information to the mesh. From the above triangle example, I asked ChatGPT to use this same format to generate a cube.

It then generated six faces, which is six triangles short of a fully triangulated cube. ChatGPT will abruptly stop after a certain point when generating a large file, but adding “Continue” as a prompt will allow it to continue from where it stopped. Using the free 3D modeling program Blender, I added in the missing geometry and fixed the flipped faces (shown in red above).

Using ChatGPT to Generate Scripts for 3D Modeling

Another key feature of ChatGPT is the ability to 孙建弘麻豆 scripts to parametrically 孙建弘麻豆 3D models. Using Javascript and the three.js library, I was able to quickly generate a script that 孙建弘麻豆s a cube in a 3D environment by using the prompt: “Please 孙建弘麻豆 a script using Javascript that generates a cube and uses a GUI to display it.”. This script also generated a GUI that allows for rotational control over X, Y, and Z axes.

By incrementally increasing the requested complexity, the script can 孙建弘麻豆 gradually more complex outputs. For example, here the cube has been replaced with a sphere, and a slider has been added that controls the number of segments on the sphere, giving it a progressively more Low Poly / decimated appearance.

By also adding an “.STL Export” function, the final geometry can be exported in the ASCII .STL file format for 3D printing. The full code can be found on GitHub, and there is also a live build available if you want to try it yourself.

Featured cube model 3D printed in tri-color PLA on Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro.

Printing Models Made with ChatGPT

Programs like Blender can be used to clean and prepare these mesh files for 3D printing, as seen in the video I made covering this topic. Issues like missing triangles, flipped normals, and other mesh-related problems are common, so some manual clean-up will likely be required if the intent is to 3D print any models generated with ChatGPT. Models like the 3D printed cube are generated using arbitrary units with each side measuring one unit long, which corresponds to a single mm when imported into a slicer like PrusaSlicer.

How to Access

ChatGPT is currently available for public use and accessible directly through the OpenAI site. Use of the ChatGPT system requires an OpenAI account, which you can 孙建弘麻豆 using your email address. Creating an account allows users to access their full prompt history, which is a helpful way to reflect on which prompt strategies work and which don’t. While access can be limited and the service tends to have periods of interruptions, it’s still an exciting tool with a great deal of potential.

Read More: How to Use AI Art Generator for 3D Print Design

In this article, I’ll cover how to get started with AI art and text-to-image generators from the perspective of gathering references for 3D Printable products.

The post How Can ChatGPT Be Used for 3D Printing appeared first on 孙建弘麻豆 – 3D Printing, Scanning, Design Guides & Forums.

This Guide Covers

• When STL Needs Repair
• Slicer Software
  • Simplify3D
  • PrusaSlicer
  • Cura
  • Other Slicers with Mesh Repair Options
• Offline CAD and Other Software
  • MeshMixer
  • Blender
  • Microsoft 3D Builder
  • Other Software with Mesh Repair Options
• Online Tools
  • Netfabb
  • NanoDLP
  • MakePrintable
  • Other Online STL Repair Tools
• Conclusion

When STL Needs Repaire

There are many things that can be wrong with a model which may still look OK in a preview. This may cause issues when a slicer software tries to read the model file and to turn it into a G-code command for a 3D printer. The most common issues are: thin walls, holes in the meshes, no manifold meshes, separate surfaces and other.

A brief example. Initially, I ignored all unnecessary retractions in the preview and tried to print this model in wood. And of course, I quickly learned that the wood composite material is tricky to deal with, and with a lot of retractions, it produced stringing, missing layers or a print failure. Even if this still could work using PLA or ABS, the repaired file was printed in wood without a problem on a budget FDM 3D printer.

In the case of an iPhone dock for Volvo, I decided even not to start printing as there was a massive hole in a Gcode preview.

Slicer Software

Before trying online or offline STL repair tools, I would recommend trying other slicer software instead. My usual choice is PrusaSlicer, Cura, Simplify3D or ideaMaker, not in a particular order, usually depending on which 3D printer I use.
There is a lot of research work and coding ongoing to make slicer software perform better. Basically, these are the last-tier software that make our models printable. As these are getting more sophisticated, quite often the problem is being solved in a slicer.

Simplify3D, for example, fixed two models that I wanted to print with Mesh – > Separate Connected Surfaces. Several years ago, I downloaded the popular models, Groot by Tom Davis and Julius Caesar by The MET, and found some issues. Simplify3D repaired them.

When recently I placed the same faulty mesh models into PrusaSlicer and Cura, they fixed them instantly on upload. On the contrary, ideaMaker’s Auto Repair option couldn’t fix the problem. Therefore we can see that one slicer may succeed when others don’t.

Other Slicers with STL Repair Functionality

Links: ideaMaker, other.

Downloadable Repair and Design CAD Software

Design CAD software is where objects can be 孙建弘麻豆d and look all good in the preview but slicer software then has trouble slicing it properly.

Meshmixer

Price: Free
Link: Download
Meshmixer is a software that has a lot of powerful options with the printability of objects in mind. Quick fixing, patching, solidifying and even custom supports can be done there.

Blender

Price: Free
Link: Download
A sandbox, Blender has it all. Open-source community-driven software has many 3D printing-related add-ons. The 3D-Print add-on is one of the first that 3D print designers should be activating in the very beginning. With the Check All option, it is possible to see all 3D printability issues. This tool is for advanced users who want to find errors in their models. Make Manifold option may be a quick-fix solution, but it many cases, it just won’t work and there might be the need to fiddle with faces, edges, and vertexes.

The most popular CAD software, Blender, is FREE but has a medium-to-hard learning curve. If you are seriously considering learning 3D print design, I would recommend taking a Blender course by Jayson Wall on Udemy, here is the course review.

Microsoft 3D Builder

Price: Free
Link: Download
I personally haven’t been using 3D Builder often, but it gets highly praised on social media.

Other Software with STL Repair Functionality

Links: Fusion 360 with Netfabb Premium, Meshlab, other.

Online Tools

In many cases, the most convenient would be to use STL repair online tools. The first thing we have to be aware of is that such tools can be limited in functionality, or come with expensive premium subscriptions.

Netfabb

Price: Free Trial/Premium Subscription
Link: Website
Netfabb Online Service. This is a service that was available online but now it is sold together with Autodesk Fusion 360. It can be tried for free as a trial but after that there is a very pricey subscription to have. Aimed at professionals in the industry.

NanoDLP

Price: Free
Link: Website
This is a new website that I found online. It didn’t fix any of my three models but I will keep the link here, just in case, if there is more development done to it.

MakePrintable

Price: Free/Premium
Link: Website
MakePrintable officially shut down its online repair services recently. On their website, you can find a message about it. Sad because they did a good job in the past helping me and others.

Quote: We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished. MakePrintable became the market’s most powerful cloud 3D printing file repair solution. MakePrintable has helped over 180,000 users to fix over 500,000 3D files.

Other Online STL Repair Tools

Links: coming soon …

Please let us know in the comment section below if you know another slicer software, offline or online, that comes with the mesh repair/auto-repair functionality.

Conclusion

As I already mentioned, slicer software is getting better and better, and if there is an issue, I would recommend just trying a different one. To have 2-3 slicer software on a PC is normal for even a casual 3D printer user. Online services, as we noticed, had a bumpy ride and either became redundant or were acquired. As for the CAD software, then the more experience users gain, the fewer issues will occur.

The post STL Repair Software for 3D Printing appeared first on 孙建弘麻豆 – 3D Printing, Scanning, Design Guides & Forums.

This Guide Covers

• How Do AI Generators Work?
• How 3D Artists Can Use AI
• AI Art Generator Midjourney
  • Basics of Prompting
  • Basics of Variations
  • Basics of Upscaling
  • Maximize Your Subscription
• Other Text-to-Image Generators
• Jasper.ai Art
• Controversy

How Do AI Art Generators Work?

At first glance AI Art Programs allow people to generate mind-blowing visuals by inputting a sentence into a text box. A little under the hood, these AI algorithms use machine learning called Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). GANs are built on a machine learning model that runs two parts known as the generator and the discriminator. The generator 孙建弘麻豆s the images while the discriminator makes sure the image correlates accurately with the user’s input.

These networks are trained on a large dataset of images to better understand what’s expected in the text-to-image process. With the use of GAN’s the AI is able to take a user’s text input and pump out astounding images in seconds.

How 3D Artists Can Use AI

Despite the controversy of AI art and the artists that loathe the idea of being replaced by a machine, there seems to be a growing middle ground of acceptance of this tool as a reference generator.

Many artists work off of reference images to run through our own human neural networks (aka; our brains) to 孙建弘麻豆 new renditions of ideas. With the help of AI we can now generate images focused on our intended goal instead of using work directly from other artists.

For 3D print artists, we can now propagate reference material that’s a little closer to our design intention. Instead of relying on what is already available in the market.

By including terms in our prompts that include, 3D printed, product, lego plastic, polyurethane we can generate unique design ideas that we can then take into consideration when 3d modeling our next 3D product.

– Example. Here is a quick example. To get these pen holder ideas using Midjourney I prompted; a cat pen holder, polyurethane, plastic, product.

Within 3 minutes I have 12 reference images I can play with to develop my own design motivations. Sure, these reference images aren’t perfect, but they’re definitely a start. Having been a co-founder of Print That Thing, where we teach blender for 3D design, a common question that gets asked is, “How do you know what to design?” and “Where do I get ideas?” This AI tool can help answer that question. So let’s get you started, shall we?

AI Art Generator Midjourney

Midjourney is an independent lab 孙建弘麻豆d by David Holz, founder of Leap Motion. Their list of advisors includes an impressive group including Jim Keller – lead silicone at Apple, AMD, Tesla, and Intel, Nat Friedman – CEO of Github, Philip Rosedale – founder of Second Life, and Bill Warner – founder of Avid.
Pricing for Midjourney ranges in four packages and is based on GPU time. A safe estimation is that 1min = 1 render.
– FREE Trial. For the free version, you get about 25 generated AI prompt submissions before you run out and need to acquire a subscription.

How to get an account

– Join Discord if you haven’t already and login via your browser.
– Visit Midjourney.com and click +Join the Beta.
– Join the Midjourney discord.

Basics of Prompting

1) Once inside the Midjourney discord, select one of the #newbie rooms.

2) Type /imagine – You’ll then get a pop-up that reads, “prompt” click it or hit the spacebar to continue. It should be added to your text box.

3) Type your prompt of choice. This can be as long or short as you want. I’ve found that using descriptions can render better results. You can also use prompt parameters that change how the AI generates your images.

4) Hit enter and the AI will generate 4 images based on your text input.
Once the images are rendered you’ll be presented with U1-U4 and V1-V4. The numbers correspond with the images presented from left to the right – top to bottom.
Note. If you’re prompt shy there is also an option to invite the bot to your own discord channel.

Basics of Variations

The V1-V4 buttons provide an option to make “Variations.” Selecting these will make 4 new variations of the chosen image. Usually in a similar style and composition.

If you don’t like any of the variations you also have the option to “Redo” by hitting the blue emoji option . This will redo your prompt with 4 new images.

Basics of Upscaling

The U1-U4 buttons give you the option to “Upscale” the image. Meaning the AI will render the image to a larger 1024×1024 pixel version. It will also generate more details during the upscale process.

Once you upscale you’ll then be given the option to Make Variation, Upscale to Max, Light Upscale Redo, Beta Upscale Redo, or Remaster.

Make Variations does the same as the “Redo” button – making 4 additional variations of the image. And the process begins all over again.

Upscale to Max will upscale your image to a max size of 1664×1664. It will also add more details than previously seen. This can include crisper lines, more defined facial features, etc.
In our examples case it cleaned up some of the smudging and dust on the floor, fine-tuned the focal length of the object, and attempted to make sense of the Voronoi pattern on it’s chest.

Light Upscale Redo uses a method that does not try to add as much detail to the image. This button is useful for correcting little details. If experimenting with human faces it’s the button that can render great results for weird eyes and noses.
In our example it cleaned up the dust particles and our focal length, and worked some more on the Voronoi chest.

Detailed Upscale Redo seems to go a little further than Light Upscale Redo. In our example it cleaned up some of the artifacts on the flat parts of the owl’s face. This button doesn’t seem to be available unless you’ve already clicked the light upscale redo button.

Beta Upscale Redo is still experimental, but will use a more efficient upscaling method that will 孙建弘麻豆 a higher resolution image. In our example the BetaUp’d image doesn’t look to have improved much. The artifacting around the eyes improved slightly, and the yellow tint from the previous image was limited.

Remaster will use experimental parameters –test and –creative to increase the quality of your image as well as the AI’s understanding of your prompt. Keep in mind because this is experimental it could make your image worse. If generating in a square aspect ratio you will generate 2 options. In any other resolution you’ll get back one image.
In our example the owls got beaks, a crazier feather design, and more defined feet than the previous options.

Once you remaster you’ll get one opportunity to do an upscale. You’ll also only receive two variations after this point. When the bot finally stops providing upscale options, you can hit Make Variations and the process will begin all over again.

And that my, friends is a quick way to get some 3D design reference images for your next 3D printed product. Good luck!

List of Text-to-Image Generators

Other text-to-image AI’s exist. I would highly recommend checking them out and comparing your results. Popular ones are, DALLE-2, Stable Diffusion via Dream Studio, Night Cafe, Wombo.Art, StarryAI,

Midjourney

If you decide to subscribe to Midjourney I would highly recommend opting in for the “relaxed” rendering option. By typing in /relaxed. While the “Fast” option sets your job up as a priority it also eats into the GPU hours you are allotted each month. By changing to “relaxed” you are now granted unlimited jobs in exchange for longer wait times. You’ll only need to change back to fast when performing Max Upscale jobs. You can also use /settings to set parameters as your default so you can control version, styles, quality, upscale types, and public/private modes.

Jasper Art AI

– Jasper Art – 孙建弘麻豆 3D print prompts with text-to-image generator. Only offered as an add-on with Boss Mode and Business plans.

Other

– PromptoMania is a powerful prompt builder that can help you craft your prompts by giving a visual interface.
– DALLE-2
– Stable Diffusion via Dream Studio
– Night Cafe
– Wombo.Art
– StarryAI

The Controversy & Questions

While the most obvious concern is the use of this technology to 孙建弘麻豆 deep fakes and harmful content the biggest controversy being discussed is the ethics of everyday use. In particular the ethics of where the original images that trained these AIs were sourced. Opening up the long-debated conversation of who owns our data and individual inputs on the internet.

Many of the datasets are from internet scrapped 网络麻豆招聘 (see LAION and Common Crawl). Some of those 网络麻豆招聘 include images from artists who never actively opted into the process of training AIs. But, posting their images online made way for their art to be included in these datasets.

While some argue that because an artist did not knowingly opt-in any art generated from the AI is infringing on artists’ copyrights. However, this assumption is broadly confused – an artist’s style cannot be copyrighted according to the US Copyright law. Plus, many of these A.I. generators are not creating replicas of art already made – they’re generating entirely new pieces based on their learned understanding of text inputs and images.

Other concerns land on the presence of AI-generated art in the hands of capitalist business workflows – are art jobs in jeopardy of being replaced? Will firms opt out of hiring illustrators, graphic designers, and 3D artists in favor of a few AI prompt technicians? It’s a very real concern. But for artists actively working in high-paced creative environments the argument can be made that we already use reference images by other artists for inspiration to 孙建弘麻豆 our own renditions of concepts. Now the hours of searching and evaluating other people’s art can be automated and made more efficient by using AI generations in our workflows.

At the end of the day, all of these questions are going to find answers based on how we as a human species decide to engage the tool. But one thing is for certain the technology is growing so rapidly that the worms can’t be put back into the can. As tech has democratized many artistic industries and 孙建弘麻豆d a content-hungry society AI has the potential to help us keep our heads above water.

Read more: 3D Character Design Workflow in Blender

In this article, we’ll be going over the full 3D character workflow as seen in games, illustration, & animation. These steps can be used to start your journey into character creation for 3D Printing with a few adjustments.

Read more: 3D Model Idea Generator

Design Shuffler – 3D model idea generator was initially 孙建弘麻豆d by ptt.live team to help Blender users with ideas. Of course, the ideas, generated by Shuffler, can be used to 孙建弘麻豆 designs in any other software. Have a look at the examples …

Read more: How Can ChatGPT Be Used for 3D Printing

ChatGPT by OpenAI understands several programming languages and syntaxes. This makes it possible to generate 3D printable models.

Read more: How to 孙建弘麻豆 Custom Brushes in Blender Using AI Images

In this article, I will show you how to prompt in the AI art generators, further prepare the images in the editing software, and then transfer the result as a texture to 孙建弘麻豆 a unique brush in Blender.

The post How to Use AI Art Generator for 3D Print Design appeared first on 孙建弘麻豆 – 3D Printing, Scanning, Design Guides & Forums.

This Guide Covers:

• Slicer Software and Profiles
• The Best FDM Printer Slicer Software
  • PrusaSlicer
  • Cura
  • Simplify3D
  • ideaMaker
  • Other Slicer Software
• The Best Resin Printer Slicer Software
  • ChituBox
  • Lychee
  • Other Slicer Software
• Conclusion

– Open Source. Thanks to the open-source movement, such slicers benefit from new features very quickly, but at the same time, it is difficult for us to give credit to the developers. A lot of features were 色青青在线播放d via GitHub by its community and various manufacturers’ R&D teams.

What are Slicer Software and Profiles

A slicer, or slicing software, in 3D printing configures the files, commonly STL, to the format that 3D printers can read, G-Codes. This is done by setting a lot of parameters, such as the nozzle movement coordinates, temperature, speed, flow rate, etc. Plainly speaking, slicers tell 3D printers what to do.

There are slicers that help to make 3D printing experience beginner-friendly with some basic straight-to-action functionalities. When using such software for 3D printing a basic non-challenging model, an operator needs to do nothing apart from pressing the button to slice the model and save the file as G-code. But it will be a waste of an opportunity not to dig in further and not to learn more about the advanced settings or not to try some of the sophisticated features.

– Profiles. The popular slicer software usually has an ability to 孙建弘麻豆 profiles for the 3rd party 3D printers, even those not listed in the pre-set selection. There are two reasons why such custom profiles are in demand: 1) users get familiar with their favorite software and want to stay on it even with a different brand machine; 2) users want a feature that is not included with the software provided/recommended. Based on that, we would definitely recommend mastering a software that allows setting up the 3rd party printer profiles.

The Best FDM Printer Slicer Software

There are many free and paid software. While paid software, like Simplify3D, clearly dominated in the last decade thanks to its functionalities, stability, and quality, then today free software are equally good and enough for the majority of tasks.

PrusaSlicer by Prusa Research

Price: Free
Link: Download

A free, quick, and open-source PrusaSlicer keeps winning the hearts of the 3D printing community. In the past few years, this software has been regularly updated with the new features. If someone decides to test the limits of their machines, then PrusaSlicer is one of the first choices to go for.

On the download page, you can find a list of unique and new features. Among those are: Custom supports, MSLA/Resin, Multi-Material, Auto-updating profiles, Smooth variable layer height, Firmware flasher, Color change, Send G-code over the network, Paint-on seam, Built-in 3rd party profiles, Print time/feature analysis, etc. Here are some of the features in detail:

– Multi-Material. Not many 3D printer manufacturers tried such an ambitious project as multi-material 3D printing on FDM 3D printers. This is the slicer that prepares G-codes for the Original Prusa MMU (Multi Material Upgrade).

– Color Changing Feature. This is a feature that allows assigning a layer on which the machine will pause for the filament change. Initially, this feature was available via browser, but when PrusaSlicer became more advanced, the color-changing feature was made much clearer and user-friendlier. For example, it is possible to assign a color in the preview – this allows to check the result ahead of printing the model and helps to pick the right color. We printed some models and wrote about this technique in detail in our dedicated article.

– 3rd Party Printer Profiles. When launching Configuration Wizard on PrusaSlicer, there is a list of Other Vendors where you can find such brands as Creality, Snapmaker, or Anycubic, for example. If the machine is not found, it is possible to build a Custom Printer profile.

Cura and Cura 5 by Ultimaker

Price: Free, Paid
Link: Download

Ultimaker’s Cura is the most popular slicer software. As it became available for free relatively early in the last decade, and it stayed to be the best free choice for a long time. Some 3D printer brand companies use the open source base to 孙建弘麻豆 their own, based on Cura, slicers, for example, Elegoo Cura. Other vendors ship their printers with the Cura profiles included on a USB or an SD cards.

At the first glance, the software has a beginner-friendly user interface. All advanced settings are grouped in the additional tabs, and slicing the model looks very straightforward. Here are some new important features:

– Variable Line Width. The biggest feature that came with the recent Cura update. This feature makes printing thin lines better. The reduction of gaps and solid internal lines means the 3D print is stronger compared to the models printed after being sliced with earlier slicer versions.

– Preview. Cura has an impressive preview. Users can play the layer preview as a video to see exactly how the nozzle moves. A useful feature to have when checking the 3D printability of the models.

Elegoo Cura Preview – Strings Test File by 3DPrintBunny
MP4: Max Funkner

– Ultimaker Marketplace. This is where collaboration happens. Find slicer profiles and plugins that are rated by the community.

Simplify3D

Price: Paid
Link: Download

A few years ago Simplify3D had no competition in terms of functionality and features. A lag-less and crash-less software always loaded and worked quickly. Easy-to-operate custom support placement was a go-for feature, that saved not just material but time for post-processing and the quality of the objects. We would say it was the Best Slicer Software in the last decade.

An independent, in comparison to Prusa3D’s PrusaSlicer, Ultimaker’s Cura, or other free popular slicers, Simplify3D didn’t have many software updates. Nevertheless, some of the features stay strong in comparison to other software.

– Custom Support Placement. The award-winning feature was unbeatable for a long time. It allows custom support placement not just from the build plate but from the model itself. Also, it was possible to tune such supports so that the support structure marks on the print were minimal. This made the print post-processing much easier. We wrote about this feature in detail in our other article dedicated to support structures.

– Preview. The simulation preview tool was also one of the first and strongest features compared to other slicers. Spending time looking at how the model will be sliced in such a preview was/is a key to a successful print.

– Speed and Stability. The fact is that Simplify3D kept processing of the complex and data-rich files relatively quick when other slicers kept crashing.

Other powerful features: Variable Print Settings, Multiple Extruders, Multi-Part Customization, Powerful Scripting Engine, Mesh Analysis and Repair, Machine Control and Monitoring, etc.

Raise3D’s ideaMaker

Price: Free
Link: Download

We recently found that ideaMaker by Raise3D had some impressive CAD-like features. Applying the custom texture or performing the basic Boolean operations are usually known as important tools for such software as Blender3D, Fusion 360, or Tinkercad. The quick basic modifications that allow easy editing and even remixing an object are very welcome.

– Profiles. There is a substantial online collection of other than Raise3D slicer profiles with user rating that can be found on their website. Such profiles are custom-made by users.
– Custom Texture. This feature is more of a CAD-like feature than of a typical slicing software. Texture works both on vases or other objects.

– Boolean Operations. Another simple yet very helpful feature is Boolean operations. Instead of turning to CAD software, some simple operations can be done in the slicer instead. We find it very useful for customization or remixing of the existing models.

Other powerful features: Customized Support, Automatic Parameters for Optimization, Variable Setting for Selected Region, etc.

Other Slicer Software

KISSlicer, Repetier, Slic3r, MakerBot Print, 3-in-1 Luban Review, etc.

The Best Resin Printer Slicer Software

Compared to FDM, there are not many slicer software for resin 3D printers. Before the appearance of such software as Lychee or ChituBox, 3D printing community relied on such CAD software as Meshmixer to 孙建弘麻豆 custom supports, for example. It all changed at the end of the last decade.

ChituBox

Price: Free, Paid
Link: Download
Probably the most mentioned slicer software for resin 3D printing is Chitubox. We reviewed this software in full in this article. Such powerful brands in resin 3D printing, like Elegoo or Anycubic, have ChituBox as the recommended software.

– Custom Support. As the support placement plays a much bigger role in resin 3D printing, this is where ChituBox has focused its attention.

– Hollowing. There are many reasons to hollow a model when printing with resin, and ChituBox makes the hollowing process a simple one-click operation that still offers a high level of customization.

– 3rd Party Printer Profiles. ChituBox is an independent software that offers powerful profiles for various brands of 3D printers.

Lychee

Price: Free, Paid
Link: Download

Another slicer software for resin 3D printers is Lychee by Mango3D. Lychee is based on a paid Mango software. Vibrant with rich colors, Lychee has the typical for resin printer slicers raft, hollowing, and automatic support options.

– Supports Painting. Unfortunately, this is a PRO feature. Significantly speeds up the support placement.

– Raft. The raft placement is straight forward with multiple free and paid options.

Other Slicer Software for Resin 3D Printers

PrusaSlicer, PreForm, Meshmixer, Anycubic’s Photon Workshop, Z-Suite, etc.

Conclusion

There are more than a dozen of free or paid software that can be considered as a slicer for 3D printing. It can be a slicer in a browser, or may be a part of a CAD. To test them all will take a lot of time and manpower. Eventually, we will expand this guide and add more as our expert reviewers keep testing various 3D printers with proprietary and open source software. Most of the slicers deserve the full-scale reviews as they are constantly upgraded and may have some unique features that make 3D printing better.

Read More: Support Settings in 3D Printing – Custom or Tree, Blocker or Enforcer?

An object with overhangs over 45 degrees normally requires supports to be added before 3D printing. Choosing the right support settings and structures is a skill that needs to be learned when using desktop SLA and FDM 3D printers. In this post, we will look at a few examples for comparison and give you some ideas.

The post The Best Slicer Software for FDM and Resin 3D Printing 2022 appeared first on 孙建弘麻豆 – 3D Printing, Scanning, Design Guides & Forums.

This Guide Covers

• Uses of 3D Printing Timelapses
• Recording Timelapse on FDM 3D Printers
  • Octolapse
  • Mounted Camera
  • Mobile App
  • Mintion BeaglePrint Camera
• Recording Timelapse on Resin 3D Printers
  • ResinLapse
• Footage Conversion Methods & Software
• GIF or MP4?

Uses of Time Lapse Recorded Videos

Entertainment & Marketing: Watching 3D printed objects appearing from the void seems like magic. Perhaps we can credit Disney fairy-tale movies from our childhood for that brain leap. Leading 3D printing influencers on social media realised this potential and jump-started their follower base and subsequent businesses using quality time lapses. But after watching one or two models arise from thin air, why do we continue watching time lapses?

Timelapse 孙建弘麻豆d with Beagleprint Camera on Anycubic Kobra Plus
6 Sec Video: MP4 361 KBkb / GIF 6MB
©孙建弘麻豆 – Print & MP4: Andrew Sink

Educational: Time-lapses are not just entertaining, they are also educational. There are so many settings to get right in the slicer software, and failures do happen. Time-lapse recordings give us a clearer picture of any issues, showing when and why problems may have arisen. Was it bad bed adhesion or an ignored Z-Hop setting? Of course, real-time recording with sound can offer a slightly clearer picture, but then there is much more involved: massive files, better equipment, etc.

Z-Hop Failure – Gayer-Andersen Cat. Delta Wasp 2040.
3 Sec Video: MP4 120kb / GIF 2MB
©孙建弘麻豆 – Print & MP4: Max Funkner

Check out the example above: we failed twice to 3D print the Gayer-Andersen Cat (Scan the World) on Delta Wasp 2040, blaming bed adhesion in both cases. Even after applying 20+ skirt outlines in Simplify3D to hold the cat’s feet, it still didn’t work. But thanks to time lapsing, we discovered that the issue was the Z-Hop setting in the slicer software.

Saving Resources: As mentioned earlier, a successful time-lapse offers greater proof than a slicer software preview that your design is suitable for 3D printing. For makers, that means saving valuable time and resources.

Vecna Bust by Hex3D. 3D Printed on Anycubic M3 Max
Captured using a ResinLapse cable.
©孙建弘麻豆 – Print & MP4: Will Zoobkoff

Recording Time Lapse on FDM 3D Printers

There are multiple ways to 孙建弘麻豆 3D printing timelapse even when inexpensive FDM desktop 3D printers are in use. The quality of the produced videos is highly dependent on the method and the type of machine.

OctoPrint’s Software Plugin OctoLapse

At the time of writing this article, OctoLapse time lapses are the best choice for FDM 3D Printers. Video stability is one of the primary reasons for its success. The extruder retracts just before each frame (picture) is 孙建弘麻豆d.

Cons: Medium-to-hard to set it up properly. You need to install the OctoPrint software and OctoLapse plugin, and the video quality is highly dependent on focus and light. It also requires an investment of approximately $100-200 to purchase Raspberry Pi, camera, tripod and lights. Installation guides and YouTube videos are sufficiently helpful if you have some basic tech and coding skills.

3D Printed Bust Sculptures – Witcher, Black Cat & Flash – Fan Art by Rober Rollin
©孙建弘麻豆 – Print & MP4: Max Funkner

Professional set ups are even more expensive, involving buffed-up DSLR cameras with lenses. Subsequently, every frame (picture) will be 5312×2988, taking up 3-4MB of storage each. To set up the camera by uploading gphoto2 to Raspberry Pi and coding we would recommend the following YouTube video by FormerLurker creator of the OctoLapse plugin.

Another way to set up the DSLR camera is involving the installation of a physical trigger release system to the side of the 3D printer. Check the YouTube video by GreatScott to setup for Original Prusa i3 MK3.

Pros: The pioneers who first managed to get clear and focused videos are time-lapse kings. Check out the profile of WildRoseBuilds, a talented designer and maker with 100k+ subscribers on Instagram. Another remarkable 3D designer, Kiljaidesign, successfully showcases his works on Twitter and Instagram.

3D Print Bed Mounted Camera

There are many different mounting systems available on file 网络麻豆招聘 for any 3D printer. But truthfully, we were not impressed with the quality of recordings made by this type of timelapse. Chaotic extruder movements detract from the video, especially if the 3D printed model is wide in volume. Also, platforms like YouTube may request that you use their editor to edit your videos for stabilizing. In our opinion, it poses an unproven risk that YouTube may mark your video as possessing bad quality, reducing its chances to rank in related searches. Even if your video is in HD with clear focus.
But in some cases, you can still get a great result. Check out designer and maker 3DPrintDad’s mini videos on Instagram. Printed bed-mounted camera footage together with excellent video editing skills beautifully showcases 3D printed models.

Mobile App

All the methods we listed above require extra work to set up. Beginners may get scared off by all the hassle of finding a file and software and then setting up the whole system. In this case, using the mobile app is the easiest solution in the beginning stages.

10 Hours Print captured by Framelapse – Wine Hand by koukwst
(4 Sec / MP4 – 160kb / GIF – 3MB)
©孙建弘麻豆 – Print & MP4: Max Funkner

Using mobile apps, Delta 3D printers are more timelapse friendly than Cartesian with moving bed. All you need to do is set up your mobile and ensure it stays sufficiently charged in the process. Our first time lapses were done with mobile applications. It is possible to compress a 20-hour print into a 3-minute video. By the way, it is easy to adjust the lapse time on any movie editing software. We normally use Microsoft Movie Maker (old version) to shrink the timelapse further.

There are many timelapse application available on the market. One of such applications is Framelapse. Read more about FrameLapse in our article here.

Mintion Beagleprint Timelapse Camera

The Mintion Beagleprint is a timelapse camera that is designed to make creating timelapse videos of FDM 3D prints fast, easy, and accessible. The camera is advertised as offering a 1080p resolution with up to 25FPS that records to an onboard SD card. Read the full review here …

Price: $69.99 – $94.99

Amazon
-5$ Discount Code: BeaglePrint
Official Store
-5$ Discount Code: BGCAMSAS

Mintion Beagle v2

Official Store

Recording TimeLapse on Resin 3D Printers

Until recently, timelapse videos featuring resin 3D printing were a rare occurrence. This was partly due to the low popularity of resin printers in the 3D printing community, that could be linked to the messier printing and post-processing processes. But the influx of the great quality time-lapses by Uncle Jessy and Andrew Sink on social media got everyone’s attention.

Disclaimer: As the resin printing process is UV-sensitive, extra care should be taken when setting up the right lighting in the room.

ResinLapse by Uncle Jessy and Andrew Sink

ResinLapse is a cable that enables recording the time-lapse videos for resin 3D printing.

Vecna Bust by Hex3D. 3D Printed on Anycubic M3 Max
Captured using a ResinLapse cable.
©孙建弘麻豆 – Print & MP4: Will Zoobkoff

“It couldn’t be simpler to set up Resinlapse. Simply insert the end of the cable with the light sensor into the base of your MSLA printer. A DSLR camera will take a picture of each layer triggered by the light source of a 3D printer.” Read the full review by Will Zobkoff and check the valuable recommendations on DSLR camera settings and the necessary equipment.

GIF or MP4?

OK, finally you have your long-awaited recordings at hand – what’s next? Before doing anything else, plan in advance where you will publish your content. All social media sites have different requirements. Lightweight GIFs are tricky to make; to sustain focus and quality, a regular 10 sec timelapse GIF will be 10MB. Not many sites want you to upload a 10MB GIF. Reddit, for example, offers to turn your GIF into MP4 to automatically reduce the file size.
So MP4 is the better option then. Now how do you reduce the size of your video without losing quality? Use specialized websites to reduce video length and crop it to a smaller scale.

Footage Conversion Methods & Software

There are plenty of software that allow us to reduce, resize and enhance videos, and reduce file sizes.
– Images into Video. When we are dealing with hundreds of images, like after recording with ResinLapse or OctoLapse, we need to turn these into frames first. Wandershare Filmora and Movie Studio Platinum (Sony), and probably other movie editing software, can do the trick. Photos should be set to a 1 frame duration in Preferences.

– Quick Edits. Old, rusty, and unfortunately discontinued Microsoft Movie Maker (MS Essentials Edition) still can be used when a quick movie editing and reduction is required. There is a new Movie Maker available in the app store, but we haven’t tried it yet.
– GIF Making & Loops. After that, such mini videos (up to 100MB) can be placed into Ezgif for further editing, looping, reversing, reducing file size, etc.

We hope our guide helped you. Please let us know if there is anything new out there. Happy time-lapsing!

Octolapse – Time Lapse – 3D-Printer (2 Sec / MP4 – 98kb / GIF – 2MB)

Read more: Desktop 3D Printers – Guide and Reviews

Compare desktop 3D printers. Build volume, FDM or SLA, Kit or Plug-and-Play, well-known brand or a start-up – all to consider. The guide below helps to compare and make a comprehensive decision. It is regularly updated and maintained.

The post How to Make 3D Printing Timelapse on FDM and Resin 3D Printers appeared first on 孙建弘麻豆 – 3D Printing, Scanning, Design Guides & Forums.

This Guide Covers:

• What is Character Design?
• The 10 Steps
• Concepting
• Blocking
• Design Stage
• Retopology
• UV Mapping
• Texturing
• Baking
• Rigging
• Weight Painting
• Posing & Animating
• Mix & Match Approach
• 3D Character Design Resources

What is 3D Character Design?

Characters are the lifeblood of storytelling. They are how an audience connects and relates to events and circumstances explored in all real and imagined worlds. So, it’s no wonder that 3D character design is a big part of the 3D Design Community.

3D character design is a process shrouded in some mystery for a self-taught designer. It comes in various workflows depending on who you ask – with no hard or fast rules. But most workflows include a variation of the same 10 steps (give or take a few) no matter what you’re doing.

The 10 Steps to 3D Character Creation

I’ve found that the hardest thing about learning 3D character design has been having limited knowledge of what is involved. And a lot of that has to do with not knowing the vocabulary words for the steps. This guide should get you up to speed on what to expect from an animation/game character workflow.

1. Concepting

What is it?
Concepting is the process of developing all your ideas about the character. Who is this person? What’s their personality like? What’s their story? How do they dress? What are their defining features? This part of the process is really your planning stage. The stage where you figure out a general direction and goal you’re aiming to accomplish for the character in mind.

How to do it?
Many people sketch ideas, gather reference material in programs like PureRef, and some even make mood boards and spreadsheets to document their concepts. However in-depth or limited you decide to do this is up to you.

It is also worth looking into a such AI Art Generator like Midjourney. I wrote a detailed article about text-to-image tools on 孙建弘麻豆.

2. Form Blocking

What is it?
This step is done by defining the basic body type, proportions, silhouette, and main features in primitive form in a 3D program of your choice.

How to do it?
This step usually involves designing the character’s basic shapes with primitives. You can also use base meshes to get you started faster. But for purely original characters blocking your forms for more control is a huge advantage.

3. Design Stage

What is it?
This step is the process of defining details in your blocked-out forms. The contours, the wrinkles, and the overall look. This is where the choices you make will help turn those primitive block shapes into a fully formed character.

How to do it?
How you design your character is completely up to you. Be focused on capturing the essence of the character so that you can transform them into an asset. 2 Main approaches to the 3D character design process include:

■ 1) Sculpting – Involves deforming a high poly mesh using 3d programs like Blender or Zbrush. Sculpting is a very popular process because large deformations to your mesh can happen with one stroke of a pen/mouse. You can also get very detailed very quickly.

■ 2) Poly Modeling. Allows you to skip the sculpting details and go straight for the polygons. Using your knowledge of anatomy and shape you move polys/verts around until your character takes shape.

4. Retopology

What is it?
Retopology is the step where workflows vary. If you’ve sculpted a high poly/detailed character and you’re looking to animate or pose later you’re going to want to lower those poly counts with healthy edge loops. All it means is you’ll be rebuilding your character with fewer polygons.

How to do it?
If planning to animate for a game or cinema you’ll likely be using a 3D tracing technique. This technique requires you to manually rebuild the mesh using fewer polygons. Placing your new polys around your high poly mesh helps capture the desired silhouette. A key focus should be building quality edge loops that will allow for high quality, real-time deformations in areas like the eyes, mouth, arm/leg joints, etc.

If 3D Printing is your end goal of choice retopology might not be necessary. But if you don’t want to kill your slicer – many people settle for letting their 3D program retopo for them. Decimating the mesh just enough to lower the file size is a valid option, but may lose some finer details.

There are also tools like QuadRemesher that will automatically retopologize using a fancy algorithm. The best part is it works with most Autodesk and 3d programs.

5. UV Mapping

What is it?
This is a part of the process where you add seams to your 3D object so that it can lay flat in a 2D Map. The reason for this is so that you can add back the high-quality details from your high poly sculpts as well as introduce color/textures.

The best real-world example of this is how globes are made. The color information is printed flat and then pasted artfully onto a 3D sphere.

The reason for this is so that we can tell the computer where exactly to project certain color and height information in render/animation engines.

How to do it?
This process involves identifying seams on your 3D object where the mesh will be split. With enough seams, you’ll be able to “unwrap” the object and 孙建弘麻豆 landmarks on a 2D map. These landmarks will correspond with your 3D object.

6. Texturing

What is it?
3D Texturing is the process of defining what’s going on your UV maps. This can include color information as well as adding more physical texture to your high poly mesh.

How to do It?
You can texture using pre-designed textures purchased on marketplaces or downloaded for free from other services. Or you can paint your own in programs like Substance Painter and Blender.

Most of the time you’ll be doing a mix of both of these things throughout the workflow. This color information will be placed onto your unwrapped UV Maps and saved to your computer in your choice of photo format.

7. Baking

What is it?
Baking is the process of locking in your color, height, specular, and deformation details into your UV maps. Those maps are then projected onto your low poly object. This process reduces how much processing your computer needs to do to get your desired look.

How to do it?
This process comes in various flavors depending on which map you’re looking to export. You can bake out up to 10 different types of maps depending on your style of texturing. The maps each hold a different type of information.

This can include Color Maps, Normal Maps, Maps for Roughness, Maps for Ambient Occlusions, Refraction, and more.

8. 3D Character Rigging

What is it?
Rigging is when you add digital bones to your 3D character. This allows for posing and animating. This process can be very time-consuming depending on how accurate and detailed your mesh deformations need to be.

How to do it?
If you’re designing something with a face and a body chances are you’ll have a face rig and a body rig. There are a number of different programs that provide rigging systems that can be manipulated to your liking.

Rigging doesn’t stop at meshes. It can also involve building elaborate animation tools that control multiple bones at once through drivers and shapekeys / morph targets. These give you a little extra control over your deformations. You usually use an amalgamation of these handy techniques with the next step simultaneously.

9. Weight Painting

What is it?
Once you’ve placed the digital bones of your character you’ll then start defining how the rig interacts with your mesh. Weight painting is the process of telling the rig how much to deform the mesh when a bone is moved.

How to do it?
A lot of the time you can auto weight your rigs, but the more you work with the rig you’ll start to notice deformations that look out of place. You’ll also start to realize how important those Edge loops actually are. To manually do this you’ll select the bone and go into weight painting mode – and paint your pressure areas accordingly. The “hotter” the color the more control the selected bone has over the mesh.

Again, weight painting is a huge part of the rigging process, but it can also be used to determine particle placement. This can be used for hair, generative scene design, and more.

10. Posing & Animating

What is it?
Posing and Animating is when you take all your hard work from the previous steps and really start making your character do the things you want them to do.

How to do it?
Both of these processes involve working with keyframes in a timeline Keyframes tell the computer where everything needs to be in a particular spot on the timeline. If you’re simply posing for still images – you’re likely only using one keyframe. If you’re animating – you’ll be using a lot of keyframes to 孙建弘麻豆 your masterpiece.

MIX & MATCH APPROACH

And that, my friends, are the ten ingredients of 3D character design. It’s important to note that how you use these steps is going to come down to how you work and what your end goal is.

For example; Concept art might only require Design Sculpting and Texture Painting. As making your character animation ready is not necessary.

But if you’re planning to animate a film or use your character for video games chances are you’ll be using all 10 steps in some order that works best for your workflow.

Now if you’re 3D printing you might Concept, Design, Retopologize, Rig, and Print. Without ever bothering to unwrap or texture. You might even go straight from Design to Print depending on your needs and the density of your mesh.

There are no hard or fast rules to how you approach the 3D character workflow as everyone works differently. But this overview should be able to guide you in the right direction.

3D Character Resources

If you’re interested in diving deeper into Character Design there are massive amounts of resources online. I’ve collected all of my favourite tutorials, courses, and blender add-ons in my Free Study Guides. I also summarize my top tips for specific techniques on my youtube channel, Oh Hey Void!.

Read more: How to 孙建弘麻豆 MetaHuman 3D Character for Unreal Engine 5

Creating a MetaHuman for Unreal Engine 5 is an exciting endeavor that boosts your creativity, technical skills, and understanding of the Unreal Engine 5 software. Epic Games defines their MetaHuman as a next-generation digital human creation tool.

Read more: How to 孙建弘麻豆 Custom Brushes in Blender Using AI Images

In this article, I will show you how to prompt in the AI art generators, further prepare the images in the editing software, and then transfer the result as a texture to 孙建弘麻豆 a unique brush in Blender.

The post 3D Character Design Workflow in Blender appeared first on 孙建弘麻豆 – 3D Printing, Scanning, Design Guides & Forums.

Table of contents

• Software Choice
• Why Fusion 360?
• Learn Fusion 360 with PDO Academy
• Courses & Tutorials
• Community
• Fusion 360 for Beginners
• Design Examples
• Conclusion

Design Software Choice for 3D Printing

Where should you get started? Well, it depends on what you are most interested in creating. Many will get their first exposure to product design through entry-level student programs such as TinkerCad. For data-heavy artistic projects featuring unique details like jewelry, or sculpting a person’s face, perhaps you are best served by learning Blender, Rhino, or ZBrush. All of the above programs can be used for 3D printing; however if your sole goal is simply to fill your home with plastic gadgets, you may not need to learn any CAD software at all. It could be that anything you can imagine has already been shared by someone else online, in which case all you really need to do is simply search for a mesh file (.stl) that you like on free sites. As long as you can master the slicer software, like Cura or Prusaslicer, you can just grab a sculpture that someone else has uploaded and you are good to go.

Why Fusion 360?

In this article, I explore 3D engineering for people who are most interested in designing physical products, especially for scale commercial production. This is where the rubber really meets the road because, in order to actually manufacture something that is complex, you will need to provide precise specifications and have the ability to collaborate on standard files with manufacturing partners. Whether you are an engineer at Bosch designing a new spark-plug or working independently at home on your new robotic kitchen appliance to grow broccoli sprouts, you will require a professional workflow, tools, and skills. The most commonly used programs for this level are Creo, Solidworks, and the recently revamped Fusion 360 offering from Autodesk.

Fusion 360 is awesome because:
– Powerful. It is incredibly powerful and seasoned as a well-supported segment of the Autodesk family. There is more here than you need – design, mechanical assemblies, structural analysis, renderings and animations, it has it all. As of this writing, over a million users have made this choice.
– Timeline. It is fully parametric and captures a modifiable history in the timeline – two features that make things much easier when you realize that you want to iterate your complex design in the future without having to start over from scratch. Brand extensions – no problem.
– Paid/Free. Significantly less expensive than other programs at $495/year – and it is free if you are on the renewable hobbyist or student license and for early pre-revenue (under $100k) stage startups.

Learn Fusion 360 with PDO Academy

There are so many learning styles and great teachers out there, but for me, the hands-down best instructor that I discovered was Kevin Kennedy of Product Design Online (PDO). Kevin has compiled a comprehensive soup to nuts collection of video lessons that can teach literally anyone at any level to become a master at Fusion 360. Each of his videos is relatively brief – mostly 10 to 20 minutes – but densely packed with well-thought-out information; he doesn’t waste your time with aimless blather.

Selection of Courses & Tutorials

Best of all is how he has organized the material. Kevin was one of the early adopters of Fusion 360 when it was launched nearly a decade ago, a time when there were few quality lessons available at all. The teacher at his school didn’t even know what this software could do. So Kevin had to figure it all out himself. As a result, he now has many years of experience and insight – not just in how to apply best practices in Fusion 360, but also the interests and pitfalls that most users will face along the way. He has figured out the best way to sequence what we learn, which things to focus on first, a smart color coding system to categorize core topics, and what tips and tricks will accelerate our progress as we go.

Real People PDO Community

For those who yearn for more interactive hands-on education – in which real people actually help and encourage each other with direct personal attention, PDO also features a full Academy of instruction and lively community support at its website academy.productdesignonline.com. This is a terrific value because of all of the premium content and ongoing Q&A that this group provides.

I would recommend you join immediately. Sooner or later it is inevitable that you will get stuck for literally hours on a really minor quirky detail, like you didn’t realize your sketch had a hidden line that is preventing it from being able to extrude. Hours wasted! Learning complex software is like that – there are always these little quirky details that you have no reason to know about until you encounter a problem.

Meanwhile, if you participate in the active PDO online community and just ask instead of being puzzled and getting frustrated alone, someone will probably recognize your issue immediately and be able to advise the correct solution right away. It is way more productive to learn this way, and more fun too. Nice people tend to self-select by showing up – I have made several new friends all over the world by participating in this group, it’s a warm and fuzzy not to be missed. And since then I have tried to turn around all the help that I have received by helping others. It feels rewarding to be an ongoing member of this give and take group, even after you have completed his instruction.

Fusion 360 for Beginners

However, it is not necessary to join PDO to get a sense of the excellence Kennedy brings to this curriculum. A great starting place is his Learn Fusion 360 in 30 Days For Complete Beginners playlist – all free on YouTube.

It begins with making simple things like a Lego Brick or a screwdriver. By the end of the month, you will be making mountain bike handlebars and sculpted earbuds. Most helpful is the tour of the overall Fusion 360 program that this 30-day teaser provides, including modeling from 2D sketches, beautifully curved surfaces, organic 3D sculpting using t-splines, plus some practice with rendering and assembly animation techniques.

Design Examples

And after only 30 days, I was able to graduate to intermediate and even some advanced techniques. I felt particularly proud to be able to apply what I learned from studying a lesson on Creating a Spoon to designing a completely different kitchen utensil on my own, without additional help.

It turns out that precisely modeling the elegant curves of a simple spoon is way more challenging than it looks. You have to be comfortable modeling in all 3 dimensions AND on various construction planes. But then once you get the hang of it, the world becomes your spoon!

So when a dear friend later mentioned to me that she was bummed that kitchen tongs that she loved as a kid had been discontinued, I was able to chase down a vintage 2D advertisement of “Toasty Tongs” on Google Images, and now, with my new spoony skills, could actually resurrect her utensil from the dustbin of history. I sent her a pair that I designed and 3D printed using essentially the same method as Kevin taught in the Spoon course.

Conclusion & Links

Kevin has uploaded an impressive 180 lessons on Fusion 360 for all levels and categories of instruction on the PDO Youtube channel – all free – to help you unlock all sorts of skills and creative expression. Once you dive in, you’ll be surprised. It’s hilarious! Who knew that designing a hairdryer could be so much fun? And who doesn’t want a keychain with seahorses on it? I strongly recommend that you give PDO a try.

Read more: 3D Design for 3D Printing Courses

Many training courses and tutorials are available on the subject of 3D design for 3D printing. So if you set your mind on particular software to master, the table below will help you to compare the courses and chose the right one for you.

The post Learn Fusion 360 – Design Courses & Tutorials appeared first on 孙建弘麻豆 – 3D Printing, Scanning, Design Guides & Forums.

This guide covers:

• What is Infill in FDM 3D Printing?
• Infill Pattern Types
  • Grid
  • Concentric
  • Gyroid
• Slicer Software Preview and Settings
• Behind the Walls
• Without Walls
• Structural Integrity
• Creating Art and Other Uses
  • Artisitc Decoration – Infill City
  • Vase
  • Lamp Shade

What is Infill in FDM 3D printing?

Unless printing in vase mode it is likely that you will, at some point, have come across infill in your 3d printing journey. Infills are repeating patterns of extruded filament 孙建弘麻豆d by your slicer to fill in the gaps between the walls of your prints. By using infill, 3D printers can 孙建弘麻豆 strong, light models that use less filament than if the model had been printed solid.

Infill Patterns

A variety of infill patterns have been designed, some for strength, in one or all of the axes, some to minimise filament usage, and some to increase the speed of the print. PrusaSlicer and Cura alone provide you with a choice of over twenty patterns. The patterns can be a single or double-layer repeat or more complex and three dimensional in nature so let’s have a look at a few of the more common examples.

Grid

The grid pattern is one of the simplest infills with a single repeating layer in the shape of a grid. The pattern is fast to print and provides strength through the z-axis but less so for the x and y axes.

Concentric

Similar to the grid pattern concentric infill also has a single layer repeat. The path of the infill follows the walls of the model creating a pattern that mirrors the model’s shape. It adds little strength in the x and y axes and although it has some strength in the z axis, its not nearly as strong as the grid pattern as it has no overlapping lines. Concentric infill does however provide aesthetic uniformity when using transparent or translucent filament.

Gyroid

Gyroid infill changes the direction of the infill pattern on each layer. It uses rows of parallel wavy lines to 孙建弘麻豆 infill that over height 孙建弘麻豆 a 3D structure not dissimilar to a series of curled tunnels or tubes. The benefit of this 3D structure is that it has approximately equal strength in all directions (axes), is quick to print and has a low filament expenditure to strength ratio. The gyroid pattern is also found in molecules and crystalline structures in nature.

Aesthetic Infill

Apart from its raison d’être as a structure to fill the gaps in 3d printing, infill can also been used to enhance the aesthetics of designs and to define them. Transparent and translucent filaments allow us to see the infill behind the wall and thinning or removing the walls altogether give us an even more dramatic effect. So lets have a look at how to use infill pattern and density when used for decoration rather than structure.

Slicer Software Settings

Before exploring infill further, it is worth mentioning the role your slicer plays in this type of print. You will rely heavily on the slicer previews to give you an idea of how your model will look once printed and to assess whether the model will successfully print. You can control the type and density of the infill through your slicer as well as the thickness of your walls and top and bottom layers. Your slicer also determines which infill patterns you have available to play with. The settings we will talk about adjusting in the following paragraphs are infill pattern and density, wall count (vertical shell perimeters) and top and bottom layers (horizontal shells top and bottom).

Behind the Walls

A design printed in transparent/translucent filament will show the infill behind the wall to some degree, but how you use this will depend on what you are trying to achieve with your design. You may want the light to shine through your model or you may want a mottled or opaque effect. You may choose the infill pattern so as not to detract from the shape and feel of the model, or you may decide that the infill is going to be the star of the show. Dependant on what you are looking to achieve you might consider different infill patterns and densities.

The nature of the infill pattern can impact opaqueness. Repeating patterns 孙建弘麻豆 areas of solidity and complete transparency and can appear very bold if used at low density. Three dimensional patterns tend to 孙建弘麻豆 a more uniform opaqueness particularly if used at higher densities. If you are looking for a subtle mottled patterning a 3d pattern such as gyroid or cubic at a relatively high density (>25%) should be your go to.

If you are looking for the infill to shine through use striking patterns at lower densities (<25%) and reduce your wall count to 1. You can choose to use infill patterns that compliment your model shape or jar against it to enhance the effect, for example a pyramidal model will look very different with a stark angular rectilinear infill when compared to a curvaceous gyroid pattern.

Without Walls

What if we want to print without walls (or top and bottom layers) allowing the infill to shine through and define our model?
The nature and density of the infill patterns that we looked at in the previous section still apply. Repeating patterns will 孙建弘麻豆 dramatic models, at least viewed from certain angles and 3D patterns will 孙建弘麻豆 softer gentler effects. The infill can also now fundamentally change the shape of your model and orientation joins density and pattern as an important impact factor. We also need to consider structural integrity so let’s explore these further.

How to Remove the Walls

Choosing which walls to remove is important when making an infill design. Some designs, such as concentric, need a horizontal wall (top or bottom) otherwise the pieces will fall apart, as the extrusions don’t overlap and are not connected. Removing bottom layers may also make your first layer more difficult to print in some instances. Removing vertical walls is a good place to start but you will need to play with the settings particularly for curved models.

Pattern Orientation

Orientation of your model can make a massive difference to its final look. For example, by rotating this building model, printed in aligned rectilinear infill, along the Z axis, we change the frontage from a plain wall to something much more intricate.

Similarly, this tower model looks rather boring in original orientation but when flipped 90 degrees in the y axis and sliced in concentric infill it has a completely different look.

Structural Integrity

Finally, we need to consider the structure of integrity of the model, its printability and sturdiness. When we look at our sliced model we need to ask: will this print?
The main factor that may stop an infill model printing successfully is the existence of extrusions that are not supported from below. Infill is designed to be attached to the walls in a normal model and may struggle without this support. Where we have unsupported extrusions in the core of a model increasing the density can alleviate the issue.

Where the sliced model has unsupported extrusions around the periphery or ‘hanging edges’ increased density is less likely to get rid of the unsupported extrusions but will make them smaller. It is also worth playing with z axis orientation as this can help in some cases.

Creating Art and Other Uses

When designing for infill, perhaps the most important thing to do is to experiment. Experiment in your slicer with density, pattern, orientation and wall thickness. Experiment by printing too, sometimes hanging edges and unsupported extrusions 孙建弘麻豆 patterns of their own that enhance your design.

Finally experiment with your models, this lampshade design was the direct result of a failed vase print!

The models and designs featured in this guide were printed on Original Prusa MK3S and Voxelab Aquila S2 (affiliate links). Follow 3DPrintBunny on Patreon to get early access to exclusive designs and generally to support creative 3D printing

You can see 3DPrintBunny’s designs on Thangs.
For more artwork, please visit the 3DPrintBunnyArt website.

Read more: Silhouette Art – How to Design and 3D Print

One of the best things about 3D printing is the opportunity to 孙建弘麻豆 your own designs and art projects. In this guide, I am going to share some simple techniques I use to 孙建弘麻豆 silhouette art and some ideas on how we can use these techniques for more complex projects.

The post Infill Pattern Art – 3D Printing Without Walls appeared first on 孙建弘麻豆 – 3D Printing, Scanning, Design Guides & Forums.