Order Your Own Mini-Me. Customized figurines, avatars, mini-you | 3D printing. Final Fantasy IV Character Lives! - Fabbaloo Blog - Fabbaloo. Careful what 3D Printers U use. Plastic Pals recommends not using the current generation of 3D printers (such as Fab@Home, RepRap, RapMan, MakerBot, etc.) for printing quality models: There’s a significant cost:quality/size trade off when dealing with home 3D printers. Even the cheapest commercial-grade printers cost around $15,000 USD. Alternatives such as the aforementioned MakerBot CupCake CNC ($750 + materials), are cheaper but the quality (resolution) of the 3D print may be unsuitable for practical purposes and limited to a relatively small build envelope. The surface of a part may need to be finished with resin or putty to smooth out the lines that form as the part is printed layer by layer; larger parts need to be broken up into smaller pieces for printing; and smaller, fine detail parts may be too thin or flimsy to print properly at all… For these reasons, artists will probably skip the at-home printers for now, but roboticists may want to look into them.
Via Plastic Pals. 3D robots. This past August we learned of a new specialized 3D print service under development, My Robot Nation. It specializes (obviously) in printed robots. The service works much like 2D web-based composition tools and games, where you select parts from a library to build up your robot. My Robot Nation provides a variety of stickers, colors and other bits (rivets, plugs, eyes, hearts, switches, hats, etc.) you may attach to your personalized robot.
One terrific feature is the ability to pose your robot by dragging sliders to twist the torso or raise/lower the arms. They don't explicitly say, but it appears they're using a ZCorp color 3D printer behind the scenes to produce these cute robots. Once you've finished designing your robot you select a size (ranging from 2 inches high for USD$17.99 to a big but not huge six inches at USD$169.00) and hit print. 3D Robot Examples. 3D Models. As readers will know, any new 3D print service these days must specialize in a niche to succeed, and Moddler has chosen digital entertainment. From their site: Moddler is the premier 3d printing company for today's digital entertainment creators, including digital film studios, visual effects companies, video game companies, and individual artists. We specialize in turning your digital models into incredibly detailed physical models to be used as maquettes for design validation, high-end swag for clients or team members, or physical props.
These models are printed through a digital process, just like inkjet printing, that results in the creation of very fine detail with a high degree of accuracy. Moddeler offers a 20 x 15 x 8 inch build envelope, which is fairly large. Of course, you can break your character into components and assemble afterwards to make an even larger model. Via Moddler. WOW, SL & Rock Stars. Previously we've seen services that print World of Warcraft avatars (Figureprints) and others that print Second Life avatars (Fabjectory), but now comes a new service that can print your Rock Band 2 avatars: Z Corp will produce the avatar figurines on their own equipment in an apparent arrangement with the game producers, who say that they are "the only 3D company that can handle color". The WIRED blog post suggests that this could be a new industry, and indeed it is already taking off. We've been seeing it evolve over the past year and it's not slowing down. Via WIRED.
Two Hours to Stargate! Madox has done the impossible - building a real Stargate in less than two hours! Heh, it's not a *real* Stargate, but it is a true 3D object you can hold in your hand. And the iris does open and close, mostly. What's this all about? Engineer Madox observed the recent 66% off materials cost at Shapeways, and thought he'd give 3D printing a test. But his objective was design-to-reality speed, which is the grand concept of 3D printing and personal manufacturing. By using a free 3D Parametric Modeling program (Alibre), he was able to whip up the model in no time. Result? Delivery time, well, that's another matter. Thought: this might be a popular item if offered for sale on 3D marketing services like Ponoko. Via Madox.NET.