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    Default Lincoln's 3D Printing adventures

    Hello everyone. This is my first post. I only recently got into using Zbrush, and I am using it exclusively for the purpose of creating models to be 3D printed. I've been having my work 3D printed for about 2 years, mostly using Shapeways to print, and Blender and Sculptris for modeling. I am finding Zbrush to be so much better for my purposes in most cases, and am glad that I such a powerful creative tool to make my art!

    I just got a MakerBot Replicator this week, and after getting over the initial learning curve of the machine, I am loving the pipeline of idea to zbrush to physical model!

    You can see some of my past 3D prints at my shapeways storefront, and my blog, but I don't know what the rules are on this forum in regards to posting links to a store, so I won't post the link until someone tells me that it is OK to do that.

    Here is one of the first things I've used both Zbrush and the Makerbot for:



    This is from a scan of my own head that I had done at Maker Faire. It was a fairly low rez scan and had a lot of cleaning up of stray polygons, so even though I didn't sculpt it completely from scratch, I have added a lot of detail in the ears, eyes, hair, and mouth. It's about 1.6 inches tall. I am very happy with the detail in a print that small from a home 3D printer!

    Here is a model I sculpted from scratch and had Shapeways print it for me in silver as well as larger (4.5 inch) in plastic as a jewelry holder. It's based on a character I drew and is more along the lines of what I plan to keep making. I mostly make jewelry, toys, housewares and a few small inventions.



    If any of you are interested in me posting more 3D prints here as I make them, just let me know. I hope to be making a lot more now that I can go from idea to print in as little as a few hours to a few days depending on the complexity of sculpting and how large the print is.

    Lincoln

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    Here's my newest sculpture using Zbrush and the MakerBot to print it.


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    are these printers getting more affordable ? sure post more and i dont think posting links to stores - service is a problem?
    " crits n comments always welcome ! "

    " im not half as dumb as i think you look !! "



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    Hey Lincoln!

    Good to see you got a Makerbot! I still haven't pulled the trigger on one yet, but did get that ZBrush test piece printed out at Siggraph.



    I'm looking forward to seeing more of your designs printed up.

    -Steve
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    Steve Talkowski | Sketchbot Studios
    design. create. animate.
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    @stevetalkowski

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    Thanks guys!

    Hi Steve! Great meeting you at SIGGRAPH. Let's get together some time, I'd love to share more info about life with a MakerBot so you can be more prepared than I was, and hear more about your world of toys and art.

    Gary, the 3D printer I am using sells for less than $2,000 and comes assembled. There are less expensive options out there, but are either a kit and take weeks to months before you can get one, or are assembled and are also going to take weeks to months from when you order it to get it.

    I did a "kickstarter-like" project by sending out a pre-order special deal to past customers on my mailing list to raise the money for my MakerBot, so I couldn't wait months for another machine to arrive.

    I have to say, being able to play in Zbrush and print out the model makes me smile from ear to ear! There is a steep learning curve with both Zbrush and the MakerBot, but it's been worth it.



    For instance, here is my latest model. I decided to just start with a cube in Zbrush, and play with it until it looked like something worth refining. This is the result. A few hours after not having any idea what I was going to do, I had a solid version of this in my hand. That was the 1 inch print. The one shown in the pictures is about 4 inches tall, and because I ran it at the highest resolution, took about 11 hours to print. Still, to have something that size in less than the time I could get it back from any 3D printing service is great! The finish on these prints isn't perfect, but it can be pretty darn great!

    It still blows my mind that just a few days ago this character wasn't even an idea, and here it is as a physical object. Without Zbrush being so robust, and without having a 3D printer in my house, I just couldn't possibly make things this fast that could then be made physical in virtually any size I want without having to re-sculpt it. Obviously the size is limited in the machine I own, but there are 3D printers and CNC machines (even foam cutters) that can make anything from the size of a few molecules to the size of a house.



    Lincoln

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    really cool !!
    would you mind sharing with us the name and model of your printer ?

    thank you
    Lead Technical artist @ naughtydog
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    my zbrush central sketchbook

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    Thanks!

    I am using the MakerBot Replicator.

    It's definitely not a perfect or always easy to use machine, but man it sure is fun to hold your work in your own hands!

    Lincoln

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    Default evolution of a cat sculpture



    I decided that I liked how the little print of the cat looked on the big one, so I merged 2 little kittens to the top of the cat model and printed them all as one model.

    I also printed it in glow-in-the-dark plastic. It's not easy to get a photograph of it just from it's own glowing light, but it glows really well. It's about 5.5 inches tall, and took about 15 hours to print. I wish it printed faster, but that is still faster than I could have gotten it back from any 3D printing service I know of, so not that bad.

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    Default any luck printing something bigger than the Makerbot's build volume?

    Wow, cool sculpts, thanks for sharing.

    I just brought home a Makerbot for pretty much the same thing.

    The hurdle I've been struggling with is how to print something bigger than the build platform of the bot. I have been cutting up my models with the slice tool in Zbrush, and separating the new polygroups into different subtools that will each be rendered out as its own STL file to be brought into Makerbot desktop for printing.

    Makerbot allows you to scale multiple parts at the same time which should ensure consistent proportion. But my challenge is that not all my STL's come in at the same scale to begin with. So things are out of whack!

    I found Ryan Kittleson's Lynda tutorial on 3d printing with Zbrush to be decent but it doesn't address this issue as it doesn't get into the specifics of printing with certain technologies. Wondering if updating the size ratios through the 3dprint exporter is what is causing this issue...

    Not sure if you are doing this yourself but if you have any tips they would be appreciated!

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    Hi Jay,

    I talk about a free program in my book, "The Neo-Artist" http://www.theneoartist.com/ that can solve your problem.

    The program is called Meshmixer. I think you would have a much easier time if you just export the object at full size as an stl and then import int into Meshmixer and chop it up in there instead of in Zbrush. http://www.meshmixer.com/

    It is a great program and includes a great way to build supports that in most cases are better than using the built in system in the software that comes with 3D printers.

    I also recommend the free software, "Blender" www.blender.org for some other uses that can be quicker and easier than Zbrush. I still make the original object in Zbrush and export as an stl, but there just some things that Blender does better that revolve around 3D printing adjustments and checking. Though for chopping it up, Meshmixer is WAY better than Blender.

    Let me know how it all works out for you.

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    Pretty good work mate! I like how your models appeared to be glossy and shiny. Is that because of the material you utilized or did you apply inexpensive surface finishing technique? Please advise….
    3D2PRINT- Creating the 3rd Dimension

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    Amazing job man, i am also into printing my and creating my stuff. I'm having lots of funs and it is a real challenge to use the printer, its layered procces, and its pattern on your favor.

    I'm using a Felix 3.0 printer, and i am close to build my site with printed stuff

    Nelson

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