3D printed figure

Whew, not only a day has passed since my last post but damn: I received today my first ever 3D printed figure!!

The design is all made by me from scratch. The harness boots, tall and skinny proportions, wavy hair, black clothing and blue eyes are all based on my own characteristics. I also applied some general principles about facial caricature to capture some vague likeness.

95 mm height in total with a 48 mm bottom radius

It was such a long process to transform the initial idea I had into an actual figure. All the modeling, texturing, assigning weights and rigging the character had to be done in order to be able to make this poseable character. I created the model using open source Blender 3D some time ago, but there was still a whole lot to do to get it prepared for printing. The model had to be watertight and the textures all in one map which was not an easy task.

Screenshot of the 3D model and the final product render

After everything was done I sent it to Shapeways for printing. It's a company that manufactures properly created 3D models into physical items. I chose a material called Full Color Sandstone that is currently the only option that supports fully textured print. It took less than two weeks to arrive and now it's finally here! I have to say that it's such a cool tiny little fellow and I like it a lot.

3D printed figure photographed

I've always collected action figures and appreciated cool character designs. What could be more exciting than making one actually yourself without any limitations. And hey, this is what we Industrial Design students do in our spare time: make products that could be mass marketed to wide audiences. In all seriousness to be able to control every aspect of the final piece with such fine details is amazing. This is truly the beginning of something cool and awesome.