05-17-2016, 03:47 PM
(05-17-2016, 03:41 PM)Night Owl Wrote: Pretty cool. I like the idea of giving back the power to the people. I've read an article about people who print new prothesis for broken beaks of toucans. It seems really promising. Do you think that 3D modeling is something in the reach of most people to deal with like it has been with computers for the last 30 years or is it way too complex for most people to come up with decent results? I might get interested in trying that if I get a chance someday.
Well, it has the same challenges to it as other art forms except with the added flexibility of being able to "undo" if you mess up, which makes it much more accessible, imo. So naturally there is still an artistic aspect of being able to understand how to design something, but it could be used just for pure art I'm sure.
While 3D modeling programs as it is are probably a little more complex than necessary due to the fact that they are often meant for animation, graphics and all sorts of things I think there are some simpler options coming out. For example one is Google Sketchup which is a quite simple modeler without all the fancy bells and whistles (and the Micro 3D can actually print models created on it). The free software Blender is also nearly as powerful as commercial software like 3D Studio Max or Maya but is open source.
I think it's at the point where it is getting pretty accessible. Anyone with a half decent computer can download Blender or use SketchUp and do some tutorials and have a sense of how to build things in 3D. A lot of it is even already in the program like cubes, spheres and other shapes so there is usually a lot to work with already.