Monday 5 May 2014

Loopback

Another new pose inspired by this photo I found on Pinterest. The original photograph was taken by Mikhail Nekrasov.
(UPDATE - see Mikhail's comment below)



Character posing software really seems to struggle with extreme shoulder positions and this one was no exception.

I wanted to use Simplify3D again to make use of the excellent support material it generates. However, importing the finished model processed in Blender seemed to show artefacts generated by the eyes and mouth. Cura's Fix Horrible option still does a better job than Simplify 3D in this regard but unfortunately there is no function to export a 'fixed' file.

My standard solution in the past would have been to use Project Miller, the great experimental tool from Autodesk Labs, but it expired and ceased to work on 1st April 2014. Not funny!

Just on the off-chance, I reset my PC's clock to Feb 2014 and started the program up again. Bingo! It works perfectly. I fixed the model, exported a new STL file and loaded it up into Simplify3D. The new gcode looks clean as a whistle. Ready to start printing.

After a 12 hour printing run the print quality is already looking great.








This black ABS plastic always looks nice after smoothing with acetone vapour. Some of the horizontal banding caused by the print layers can become a bit more prominent though, so after breaking away all the support material I decided to try something new and gave the whole model a light sanding with a fine grit sandpaper first.






For models like this, I recommend doing the acetone vapour treatment in two halves. Holding the upper half of the model, I gently lowered the legs into the vapour for about 20 seconds and then set it aside to harden on a ceramic tile. Once the surface was hard to the touch several minutes later, I held the model upside down in the vapour and treated the head and body the same way.
This method gives a nice even smoothing without risking melting the lowest parts into a puddle of sludge.







  

And here's the original again.  How did I do?



8 comments:

  1. Большое спасибо за то что выбрали мою работу!
    Это прекрасно!
    С уважением! hemail

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    1. Translation - "Thank you very much for choosing my work! It's perfect!
      Yours! hemail"

      You're very welcome!
      entiresia

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  2. Hi, I saw that some one is using your photographs commercially -> http://3dpik.com.pl/ did you give them your permission?

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    1. Thanks for the information. I have written to the website owners and asked for an acknowledgement of the source of the pictures.

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  3. Hi, really love your work. I got a noob question.. I tried using Slicer to create a supporting base but it didnt seems to come out like what you have. Is it possible if you can share how did yo create the supporting base?

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    1. Hi Patrick
      I couldn't get support material to work well in Slic3r. It is getting better but it still isn't quite there yet. That's why I decided to buy Simplify3D. The quality of the support material and the degree of control available over its placement just isn't available in any of the free slicers yet, in my opinion. Having said that, it is still worth experimenting with Cura and Kisslicer, both of which do a very good job, just not in same league.

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  4. By any chance could I snag the STL file for this? Would really like to test it out on my printer. Or is there somewhere I can download it?

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    Replies

    1. I’m sorry. At the moment, all sharing of STL files derived from Daz Studio is strictly prohibited under the terms of the End User Licence. The good news is that the software is free to download and easy to use. This blog contains description of my experience of learning how to create 3D printable models so that others can try it for themselves.

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