Digital modeling has come a long ways since I started creating meshes with Blender in 2003. At that time everything I created existed almost exclusively in the computer. Sure, I could print renders out on paper, but creating beautiful imagery wasn’t what I really enjoyed. It was making things. I grew up working with my hands, doing everything from home construction to wood working (mostly to make bows and arrows, honestly), and so when I discovered modeling I became absolutely consumed. Like eight hours per day when I was age 13, type of consumed. But nothing I created was actually tangible. It just lay to waste in bits and bytes. That is, until now. Welcome to 3D printing In recent years the consumer level, and prosumer 3D printers market has simply exploded. The machines are more accessible, cheaper, and easier to use than ever before. One of the more prominent, and might I say, high-quality machines that has come available is the Form 1+ from Formlabs. The Form 1+ is a stereolithographic machine, meaning it uses a UV light-source to cure liquid resin into a solid. By curing a thin layer at a time, it’s able to slowly build up a physical form from slices. In this course I’m going to give you a run-through on how to take a high-resolution model from Blender, with lots of small details, and then 3D print it on a Form 1+. You will learn the complete process, from the initial export out of Blender to the printing procedure to the final cleanup and removal of the support material. Learn to 3D print – Learn how to export models in real-world scale from Blender – Find out what it takes to prepare a model in Preform – Discover how to generate and manipulate support structures for more reliable printing – Be shown how to work with the Form 1+ 3D printer – See what it takes to clean-up a print after it’s done.
