Iphone 6 Case Design

I Thought I would tackle a phone case after many months resisting the urge, I caved and knocked this up quickly.  Ok maybe I've got that out of my system now? :)

One Off Jewellery

So while I am waiting for my print to arrive from Shapeways I decided to practice some a few things in Zbrush.  Some crisper hard surface modeling using the hPolish and StrongSmooth brushes, The Shadow box feature to take a basic pattern I designed and quickly create some blanks and finally some Gothic style designs.
Overall I think I am starting to understand the workflow a little better now.
I will take this into Meshmixer and try and get an exact measurement for the internal of the ring (something that has proved harder than expected to get right) and then get it printed via Shapeways.  I was very impressed with their feedback and customer service.  They might be my printer of choice going forward.

Trance Mask 3D Scan and Print

This is a quick one. There will be more to come on the process and reason for this in the coming days but just need to get something up on the blog to keep the flow going.

(Edit)
The more to come.  This was an exercise in recreating an existing object for mass production potential via 3D printing.  My brother creates and uses these Trance Masks in his Improvisation theater in Paris.  These Masks represent one off hand made pieces that certain actors are then able to develop into characters over time.  The issue being each one is hand made and if one was to break then it would be very hard to replicate the exact mask again and as such that character might be lost.  Below is a very basic and rough process I used to try and capture this mask digitally and the reproduce it via 3D printing.  With the hope that My brother now as a carbon copy of that hand made mask as a backup.

There will probably be one final update to this post when I receive the print back from Shapeways.  This was also a very good test of their printing services and Mesh Mixer from Autodesk.  When I get that back I will post more on the details of the Mesh mixer and finally phase.

(Edit)

I received my print from Shapeways!  I have to say I was very impressed with their pipelines and feedback. Here is the finished coloured sandstone print. Very impressive quality. The colours are muted and blurry compared to the source images but it's very impressive to have this perfect scale model from a digitised file. See for yourself. 

Blood Type Pandora Charm 3D Print

A lot seems to have gone on recently but I have managed to find some time to continue my 3D prints and Pandora charms.  This time with a commission for a ICE (In Case of Emergency) Blood type Pandora charm.

I expect to be getting orders from many more Vampire clients in the days to come.  :)  Was a fun distraction anyhow.

Iphone 4s

So I've been crazy busy on a job recently, then I got myself a new computer so that took some time to setup.  I did a little modeling exercise and rendering on this Iphone 4S.  Hopefully it's all spot on to dimensions and CAD so that I can use it to make some 3D printed cases for it.  Hopefully that'll be my next post.  There are still things to finish on this.  The wire mesh and the base etc.  Just at a good point to update the blog so figured I would.

UPDATE

I spent a few more hours on this and resolved a few issues.  

• Fixed heights of buttons and depth of the + / - signs. 
• Added the base details in and the sim card slot. 
• Refined the edges and added all the cameras and flash.  
• Fixed the mesh for the speakers and created the base screws.
• Then tweaked the materials to make it more like the coating on the metal parts of the iphone and not just stock aluminum.

It was quite fun to get back to just Maya modeling.  Next step, make and exterior shell from the dimensions and sculpt some case designs.

Custom Pandora Charm

After much polishing and a blackened cavity pass this is starting to look a bit more like a proper charm. The weight is completely different however. Not something I'm going to do anything about.

A before and after of the high detail stainless steel 3d print from imaterialise. I don't think they polished it at all.
As you can see it is possible to buff it up, seen on the right on the calibration sprue.

Octopus Desk Tidy

Thought it would be funny to make a fake advert for this render.  Went old school apple with the design, not graphic design top quality but I thought the flip of black printed models with vivid blue background was funky and fresh.  :P

Anyway, I used the wire deformer tool in the end to get the right shapes for the tentacles and then topped it off with  modeling a apple iPhone Charger cable.  Last thing to do to this is the shell the object and put a hole in the base to attach a weight or magnet after the print.  Watch this space to see the printed results.

Maya Rigging Bones and IK solvers

So I wasn't too happy with the work flow for rigging this tentacle and I'm certainly not happy about posing them using Zbrush.  I just don't seem to get on with the bones and tools to get a nice result.  I resorted to learning more new things in Maya.  I did rigging years ago at Uni so remembered the concept and thankfully most of the terminology.  The following is a a set of bone bound to a predefined curve with an IK solver then skinned to the low res geometry exported from Zbrush.  I can then GoZ that back onto various different tools in Zbrush to create my different models to print.

Cant help but think now that this is possible I could have made it all as one object.  watch this space I might Dynamesh the sculpts and put it all together... scratch that I'll finish what I started first and then try something new! :)

Octopus Desk Tidy

So I've been working up that silly little doodle I did a while back in Zbrush.  I thought it would make a nice desk toy when printed in 3D and maybe even useful for holding Iphone charger or USB wires.

This is my WIP so far.

Still go to refine some of the shapes and make the main head, then any additions to snap cables into the hands etc.

3D Charm design

I've attempted to go back to basics and make a Pandora charm for my wife's 30th birthday.  It's been and gone in the time it's taken me to design test print and make this.  Sorry wifey!  :)  Love you!

But I have learnt a huge amount about z brush and rendering with poly paint textures and material setups.  Also had to swat up on sorting out UV's for the tools in another 3D package and then the work flow from that back into Zbrush.
Small steps and perhaps not obvious from this rendering but I'm still progressing.  Been awhile since the last post because I've been so hectic at work and lost alot of drive with my last print but this time I did a test print to fix scales and I'm hoping I'll get it right when it comes to the final output.

These are the updated calibration prints O got back to get the measurements correct first before printing in silver.  I've been reading that I should expect some shrinkage during the process due to the mold and the metal casting,  Probably explains my last piece being a little too small.

3Dprinted ring from i.materialise

So I got my ring back from the printers. I have to say at first I was disappointed. It's much thinner and no where near as pronounced in detail as I was hoping for. I don't think it's i.materialises fault. In fact they have been great once again informing me when and how the process was going but I think I'm just not great at judging the measurements. Stupid really it's completely attainable to get the sizes right but I must be making a mistake somewhere with my process. I'm going to do some calibration prints as I see from some of the other forum members and then give it another go.
All a learning curve and I fully expected it to be like this so get back up and carry on. ;)

Pendant update 2

Been working to improve this.  It's getting there, taking much longer than I had thought it would but then it is testing my knowledge of zbrush further.  Still struggling to get it crisp.  I think it's my workflow with dynamesh, I don't feel confident that I'm using it correctly as yet.  I have got to the point that I feel it's right to condense it all down and divide the mesh a few times and doing that I hope to go back into the details and now really punch them out.  Lunch time today was building a stand and the chain.  I just got to the point of staring at it for so long I needed something else to work on.  On the plus side I got notice that my 3D print of the ring I made turned up today.  I will get that up here as soon as I can for you to see the progress.

Pendant update

Didn't like the relief work I did on the previous version and after some much appreciated feedback I have begun the rework.  This is an update:

Shadow Box zbrush

This time starting with the shadow box feature in zbrush.
To be honest I'm not liking where this is right now but thought I would post so I can see it's progress and gather feedback.

The whole things seems noisy and the under lying bloby way in which I created it is showing through in the final mass.  Also don't like this frilly bits at the edges.  makes me think of a cheap ash tray.  I wanted it to look warn and aged which is why it has those damages bits on it but I don't think they are reading.  Overall I feeling I rushed it too much and there are layers of poor execution.  Will have to go back to it and see if I can fix it.

Photoshop doodle

I guess sticking with the nautical theme but perhaps a little more self reflective!  A doodle to pass the time and get me using a pen again. :)

3D Print Toy Making...

Well not quite but I have been trying out new rendering techniques and found this to be fun and exciting.

Ring Renders for 3D Prints

I've just sent one of these to i.materialise.  Hoping it comes back looking like my renders.  If you or anyone you know wants a personalized ring then watch this space and get in contact.  More to come.

Roll Stroke Zbrush

Further to the 3D Printing I learnt some new things when it comes to working on a curved surface.  Thanks go out to Chris Brown for his mighty knowledge of Zbrush.
I used the roll feature in the stroke menu to get a long thin alpha to project correctly on the surface of the ring and then just the normal symmetry settings to do the floral pattern   Final polish was done with the morph target of the original ring, and a quick dirty light cap mimicking studio diffuse lighting.  Super quick and dirty but fun for a Sunday night.

i.materialise 3D print

I received in the post my 3D print today. Overall it's quite impressive. You can definitely see the layers up close and this gives the object a very odd sheen that messes with your eyes a bit. I had a few rough bits but nothing in the important areas and after a very light sanding with a nail file its smooth. I might try and get some really fine sand paper on it and see how it responds.

Puffer Fish Final Zbrush

Ok, I promise this is the last update on this now.  Calling it officially done.  Right what next.

UPDATE: The rights to the puffer fish asset in this model are now owned by Tal Cohen.