Working in Blender 3d

I have to say, that of all the tools in digital art, Blender 3d is my favorite. Of course it can be unwieldy and difficult for many to use, like Vector Graphics software there is this very steep learning curve. Once you really get to diving into the program, you realize that it can replace almost every other program that you might use for digital art. Everything from 3d modeling to image manipulation and film editing. You can even build video games and other interactive simulations. That may be it's greatest weakness, it's overwhelming strength.

In class we had to make a  3 dimensional model for 3d printing. I have quite a bit of experience with the software, so it was pretty fun to just spit out models.

I quickly realized that I couldn't make just any old 3d model, instead I had to make something that is 3d printable.

Here is a quick an dirty model that I made for a wine bottle rack. As you can see, there are lots of dynamic surfaces. Lots of overhang, and not to mention that this thing would have to be relatively large. Unfortunately I am limited to something that is 3in by 3in. So anything that can hold a bottle of wine is pretty much out of the question.

Here I decided to make a coaster. A really thick coaster. My idea is that the coaster is such an understated and strange concept. Like, if something needs protection from glasses of water maybe you shouldn't even have it as furniture. Since we do protect our furniture from glasses and the like, why don't we offer some real protection. one whole inch of serious coaster protection... Ok maybe you're not buying it.

Instead let's go for something with more function and less awkward swagger. Here we can see a paint brush holder and palette. My wife is a watercolorist (and a magnificent one at that) and this seems like something that she would actually use. Six brushes, and lots of little pockets to mix colors.

I could keep going, but really, half the magic of 3d printing is prototyping. Designing the thing and then actually holding it in your hand before you go back to re-design it again. Hopefully those pcokets are big enough!