Modeling for printing is all I do with blender. Couple things that stood out to me: You CAN have fingers, but they work best if it's a chunky glove, or do like you did where you just kinda do a mitten that has finger impressions. How you did the boots was perfect. Probably the best way to do clothes and such really. You can always merge or send the whole thing over to 3D Builder to merge it when you're done. Your details are looking good in 3d land but for print, everything has to be a little extra. The printer will always shave of just a hair of what detail you see in blender. It'll also smooth bits over so where you have places like the back of the glove it helps to use the crease brush and push the spot where the glove meets the arm into the glove just a bit. It also depends a lot on what size you're modeling. If you're doing desk top sized models like 6" or taller like this one you can get away with some pretty fine details, but you also have to be more careful because you can't fudge as much. If you're doing 28mm like for DnD you gotta decide which details matter most and make them larger than you think they should be. Over all though this was a great video. I hope you do more!
Now get into cutting and keying an STL file. The boots, head, base, and cape could be separated and printed individually. I wonder if the creases and folds would show up better with a resin printer.
Oh and I'd like to thank Grant for his amazing videos of the past years. Around 3 years ago his introduction to blender got me into 3d modelling, the journey has been amazing and his content really got me started. I reccomend it to anyone who's interested. His paid courses that I've tried have all been worth going through too. I feel like a shill now, but I'm just genuinely thankful. Cheers Grant, hope you are enjoying your work.
Thank you Grant for making a video like this :) I do have a few 3d printers, both fdm and resin. Just now getting properly into blender 3 after a long break and I plan on making miniatures and statues like this. I was hoping maybe you could make a video sometime where you show how to split up the model and add keyholes for assembly? Also I will suggest for you to get into resin printing if you want to print models like this and if you have the space for it since it will most likely get messy. With a resin printer you’re able to get all those details due to resin printers being able to print at 0.05 mm layer height. If you want to get into it, just make sure that you get a printer with a monochrome screen and not lcd. Elegoo and Anycubic are two brands that will get you far :)
The multires modif trick with the shrinkwrap modifier to get back the details is golden. I never thought of that! Thank you so much for sharing it, that's a life saver.
hi need a new video friend! how to print from daz3d to a printer) is there a model with hair how can you outwit?I'm waiting for your subscriber's video.thanks..I know it won't be difficult for you to make such a video, but it's good for many!.
Love the videos. I am just learning Blender, But I am heavily involved in the Resin 3D Printing space/Community and that is what I want to do. For Resin 3D printing, even for small 32mm scale models ( like for use with Dungeons and Dragons or other Tabletop RPG's like Warhammer or whatever) you need MUCH higher detail on Resin vs. FDM Printing. I run an Etsy store selling these prints. The resolution these printers can render are getting quite impressive. Most newer printers in the last 2 years can print between 50 - 25 Microns (lower the better). Details like Belt buckles, hair, and skin texturing (like dragons or lizard men for example) look amazing, and painting them brings out even the subtle details. I hope this was helpful. Thanks again for all the Videos and your hard work. :)
Hey, Grant, I know this is an older vid, but I wanted to point out that you can in fact sculpt on a posed mesh while retaining symmetry. You just gotta go to the properties panel with the rig selected and go to the rig settings and click the big "Rest Position" button in the settings. It will return the rig to that initial symmetrical pose while keeping the pose stored. You can sculpt this out and when you are ready to see your results posed you just go back into the properties panel with the rig selected, go to rig settings and then click the big button that says "Pose Position". You can do this throughout the process to see how your sculpt is looking in pose and when you are ready to break symmetry you just keep the model in the pose position and sculpt on it as it is. You could even use shape keys to sculpt out asymmetric details and keep the base model symmetric for re-use in different poses. I hope that helps your or anyone else out in the future! Of course, all that goes away if you remesh or dyntopo, so bear that in mind, but this base looked solid enough to pose and immediately go into multires.
Hi, Grant! I'd like to ask you to suggest a workflow or even a tutorial for the following: there is an MMD model (obviously not meant for 3D printing) in T-pose with the armature, and I need to turn it into a 3d printable stl. I understand that I need 1) pose the model; 2) turn thin geometry to something printable; 3) emboss patterns on clothing based on the textures for easy painting. ... and now unclear steps: 4) remesh to truly merge geometry; 5) split the model into better printable and paintable parts. More things to think about: let's say I want to prepare as much as possible (deal with thin geometry, embossing patterns) before posing so I reuse several steps for the model in different poses. how do you think the steps above can be rearranged? Also, I have some issues with clothes, there is no physics so things look broken after posing. btw, cool videos and your full-scale courses are even better. I like how you explain things. Thanks!
thank you, wish to see more 3D printing videos of human figures maybe also with more detailed quality printers, this video was really helpful, even if i understend we are discovering much of the process on the go and after the actual printing. thank again for your effort in this topic, it was illuminating
How does one 3D model characters that bend and like rotate and move , for 3D printing , I keep seeing cute keychains that fold being printed if it’s ever within your time please consider a tutorial 🙏🏼
The trick to removing supports from fragile parts like fingers, sticking out tongues etc, is simply to make sure the resin is WARM. 25c minimum, you'll notice insane improvements every degree higher you go. At 30c they should really be falling off by themselves. Also, smaller details can have lighter than typical "light" supports. 0.2 instead of 0.3mm for example. I recently printed a batch of 20 models all with tongues around 3mm long and less than 1mm thick and removed supports fine. The other most important tip for 3d print specific sculpting. Avoid downward facing detail, favour upward facing detail. Don't let this rule override your artstyle, but if you can get the visual results you want, whilst avoiding downward detail, you'll need less supports. Less post processing any accidental support marks and so on. Hope this helps someone.
Thank you, Grant! I've been curious about this subject for a while. It's nice to hear insight from a trusted source. Extremely helpful content as always! Cheers!
Hello Grant. I have a question. So I am trying to make a character of mine for 3d print. I am use to blender and shade smooth, but as you know shade smooth does not work when you send it to print. I was told to work in shade flat. Which as a Blender artist is difficult for me. How do I keep my face count low but make my model not blocky. =(
You actually have to have a reasonable level of polygons in offer for it to print smooth but it does not have to be super high. Just as a sub division surface modifier
I think you really should get more info about 3d printing. There are communities that design and print war hammer figurines of a few centimeters high with a lots of detail and they turn out just fine. And even i printed small pieces on a relative cheap printer with all details preserved. A few tips i can give you on that from own experience. Keep layer height as small as possible like 0.02 mm. And the smaller your figure, the lower the speed (between 30 to 40 mm/sec gives me the best results most of the time). You can also go too slow witch then may result for the smaller parts to melt and disappear or fuse because of the heat of the nozzle. Adjust lower your temperature accordingly , PLA can have a melting temperature around 170 degrees, depending the brand and quality. I print figures as high as 4 cm with all details preserved. I usual print with a nozzle of 0.4 mm but if the detail getting too tiny, i switch to a 0.2 nozzle. Also, turn off your bed temperature witch only cost warping problems on small pieces. If you are afraid for the piece to come loose during the printing, you can use a contact spray (even a cheap hairspray can do the trick). Now i am not an expert, but this settings have given me great results. In the end, 3d printing is always about trial and error.
kudos Grant, its a bit of a chew getting a printer diallied in. but once you have it setup in your slicer of choice its great to see my Blender models coming out as physical objects. i can see a cheeky boolean and print two parts for gluing ;) nice one fab vid as always ;)
Fantastic video! I've been designing printable hard surface models for years but needed to start doing some character sculpts as well, so this was perfect! You mentioned that 3d printers don't like overlaps, and while that's true of single mesh objects, Blender really isn't fussy about exporting multiple meshes overlapping at all. You can easily export multiple overlapping meshes so long as their normals are all facing the same way, and the slicer software will treat it as one solid object. In fact, you can use a mesh with flipped normals inside of another mesh to create a cavity in your model when you slice it. Thanks again for posting these, and keep up the great work!
Thank you Grant, your tuts are constantly of such high quality, it's so much fun to follow along. About detail level for printing, there already is a big difference between FDM and SLA prints. The first 8K SLAs are popping up and development speed in the space is blazing so for many it may be better to go full detail. I guess, if you're as versatile and lightning fast as you it may be more efficient to exactly model for the actual printer you use.
Fascinating video mate. Really liked this, it's great to show the process from base mesh all the way to completion. I think choosing when to box model something VS sculpting is one of the trickier ones (especially later on when you do texture painting and want really nice sharp edges between colours)
Why do you have to bake the detail from HP to LP if it is a 3D-printed piece? Doesn't more geometry help? Also, why bake to begin with? baked details as far as I am aware only apply to video games and CGI, as it is achieved through normal maps which isn't something that works in real-life like that.
Can't thank you enough, that's exactly the type of workflow I was looking for, for this exactly reason. I feel there's alot of contet out there focusing on animation but blender is also a free alternative for sculpting for 3d printing, so this kind of processes is much apreciated!
Also, 3d printing side note - a Resin 3d printer can achieve incredible detail, with layers as small as 0.01mm. Most people who print miniatures and display models like this use resin.
so, I've heard of people getting better results using SLA printers, which build up layers of uv-cured resin, as opposed to what you're using, which is an fdm printer that builds up layers of extruded plastic. because SLA printers cure resin using a LCD screen with high resolution that can go up to 4K, you can achieve a lot better detail. is this something that you're interested in learning more about?
Roughly about 12:20 is what I have the most problem with, even explaining my issues to others. Glad to have a new work path to try now. So many people have told me to boolean the items together and delete out the loose vertices/errors. It takes so long I have to quit or melt the computer. I hope this will allow me to make 20+ items, join them, and print manifold.
make low poly parts you see that need to be sculpted individually, apply enough subdiv, make copies of said parts, join into one object, apply scale(if its not 1, modifier options may work differently, including remesh with either using modifier, or at sculpt mode), remesh. Ever since Blender defaults Boolean operation into 'exact' instead of 'fast', boolean ops is incredibly slow to begin with, and the 'exact' function does not do good/efficient job of doing overlapped meshes anyway, let alone 100k+ poly of sculpted models. everything has to be made single manifold object for things to work smoothly, if voxel remesh modifier results in sucky geometry, there is something terribly wrong, but otherwise, it generates and works as intended, sometimes its a magic quick fix for hidden bad topology
Hey Grant, I'm an absolute beginner and I was wondering if you can you do a tutorial on how to create a materials/assets library, how to set it, how to take an asset/material from different files and save them into one library... its absolutely confusing and not clear, and there is no tutorial out there that explains it in a simple and organized. thanks and keep on the great stuff!
Hi! I'm having a problem with my blender project and hoping a kind soul wants to help me. I accidentally caused the right arm and hand to become kind of transparent, while working on it, I think. not alt+z. Could it have anything to do with it being the mirror of another object ? It's the mirrored arm and hand of the left hand/arm. I watched a youtube video about alpha channels, and checked the opaque blend mode, which was not the problem. its only the right arm and hand that are kind of transparent. They only are when turning certain directions. When looking straight from the side, they seem fine I hope someone could help fix it so it's not transparent.
Hey Mr. Grant, I love your videos and am learning so much about blender, but I keep running into issues with camera placement when rendering. Any tips?
@@grabbitt not exactly, more so when I press 0 for the camera view, I won’t see the scene directly, I’ll see just the corner of it or just a small piece of it
You should try adding modeled supports to the help avoid using cura’s automatic support settings. I’d also recommend trying prusa slicer. As someone who has experimented with cura for years I am very pleased with the switch to prusa
Thank you very much, Grant. I have recently discovered your channel and found everything I needed: from what graphic tablet to choose to how to print a 3d model. There are a lot of useful videos on the channel and this one is sure not an exception. Cheers from Ukraine!
nice computer model but i think ur confused in what the meaning of an artist really is , and is not clicking a mouse and having a machine print it , an individual who uses clay and mediums are artists
