3D Printed Animals

[JoWatts]

Building off of the Prototyping with Lego thread, the next step in the design sequence is creating a 3d-printable model. All models in this thread were designed using TinkerCad and printed on a Bambu printer using PLA as the material.

Prototyping with Lego allows students to better understand the geometry they want to design before they get bogged down in learning the design software. It allows them to dive into the project and start being creative immediately.

Then, once the initial 3D-printed model has printed successfully, students can further explore adding hinges, joints, and other methods of articulated movement to their models.

The crane below was printed first as a static bird, with no hinged wings. Later, the hinges were added, allowing the bird to be posed. By photographing the model in a sequence of poses, students can use the images as frames in a short movie that demonstrates the model’s motion.

[ClaireMills]

Claire and Julia

Through the 3D printing process, we were focused on making our hippo have an adjustable jaw that opens and closes. We first prototyped our hippo with legos with a movable jaw to see how we would design it on Tinkercad. Once we were able to visualize how it should look and move, we used Tinkercad to prototype a 3D model. Tinkercad was initially challenging to use due to its limitations with small adjustments. We decided to design a door-hinge like jaw to connect the top jaw to the bottom jaw. This included 5 barrels (3 on the top and 2 on the bottom) and a pin to connect them. We wanted the hippo’s jaw to be able to shut and open, giving it a “hungry hippo” look. We found difficulty in the barrels fitting within each other, and the pin fitting in them. After numerous prints, about 6 prototypes, and some DIY work afterwards, we found the exact dimensions that worked. After each failed attempt, we noticed a few little details we could fix, but more would come after, creating some frustration. We are now hoping to have our final prototype soon, as the previous one had a printing malfunction that prevented the pin from entering one of the barrels, hindering us from creating the hinge motion.

[BillyGanbold]

Billy’s 3D Print

Building on the Lego prototyping phase, I moved to TinkerCad to design a 3D-printable elephant and printed it on a Bambu printer using PLA. I started with basic shapes to build the legs, body, tail, head, and eyes. For the more complex parts, I layered multiple circles to give the trunk a textured look and used one circle to cut a curved shape out of another to create the tusks.

To make the trunk removable and poseable, I designed a connection that allowed it to click into the head. I cut a hole in the elephant’s head and added hollow lines to the base of the trunk so it could fit into the opening. It took a few tries to get the fit right, so I printed several different trunk sizes and made the hole in the head deeper until everything matched and clicked together perfectly. One thing I learned is to be very careful when removing the 3D print supports. I accidentally broke the tail on one of my models because I pulled too hard on the support material.

[ClaireMills]

Here is our finished product with the hinged jaw!

[RocioPineda]

Rocio’s 3d Printed Bunny

After working on our lego prototypes, I decided to make the 3d model of my bunny more realistic with spheres since I was unable to add much dimension with square legos. On my first design I tried to measure my legos and recreate it in Tinkercad with specific cm measurements, but looking back now it took much longer to try to recreate my lego than simplifying it and taking advantage of new shapes. My initial design was lost so I had to restart. I think this was a blessing in disguise since I was able to restart and make the bunny spherical.

For the movement of the bunny, I decided that ears would be the easiest. I detached the ears from the original animal, then added rods to each, and created holes in the animal so the ears could be inserted into them. I learned to make copies as I iterate my design to make sure it saves and I also learned to try to not remake the previous designs, but to make it even more realistic with new shapes and ideas. It is okay to pivot and not use the same shapes or dimensions!

[AnnalisePadilla]

For our 3D product, Kennedy and I decided to focus on creating a design of the Great Blue Turaco bird. We started our design in Tinkercad, by starting with basic shapes and creating the body pieces like the head, body, wings, and tail. Then, we added details like the eyes, beak, head feathers, feet, and added the branch as stability for the bird to stand up by itself.

After printing out our first design, we noticed that there were some issues. The legs were too skinny and the filament we used melted together. For our next design, we made sure to make the legs different, use different filament, and making some changes to the bird itself to make it look more like the bird itself. Some of the changes we made in addition to making the legs thicker were making the beak bigger, adding more head feathers, and adding more feathers on the body of the bird.

In addition to these changes, we added an element of movement. We decided that we wanted to have the wings move similar to the lego bird design we made. To do this we created a joint in Tinkercad. With trial and error we finalized a joint that worked, which were three pieces/shapes that were placed together to rotate. Then, we added our joint to the birds body and wings.

There were many challenges such as learning our way around Tinkercad. I have learned that it is best to start with using simple shapes, such as spheres, cylinders, and cubes. Another challenge we faced was with our actual 3D printing; we have learned that you have to be patient because there is a lot of trial and error with 3D printing. Even the slightest bump to the machine or incorrect layering of your object on Tinkercad can make your object not print correctly. Extend yourself some grace and you all will do great!

[AnnalisePadilla]

Here is our GIF that we made, so that you can see how the hinge makes the wings of the bird move!

[GennyHwang]

reflection for noreen and genny

[GennyHwang]

Step One: 2D Design
The first stage of creating our 3D zebra was making a 2D LEGO model of what we wanted the zebra to look like. Using LEGOs was helpful because it gave us a pixelated version of a complex image, allowing us to identify the basic features that make a zebra recognizable. This helped inspire our first 3D model, which was also built out of LEGOs.

Step Two: The First 3D Model
Using our pixelated 2D LEGO model as inspiration, we were able to decide which zebra features we wanted to include in our 3D model, such as the neck, mane, ears, center of the face, and mouth area. Unfortunately, there was a limited supply of black and white LEGOs, as well as limited LEGO shapes, which made it difficult to create a more accurate and aesthetically pleasing zebra. As a result, our 3D zebra ended up looking more like the character Lamb Chop. That said, this stage showed us that even when an initial 3D model does not match the original vision, it is still worth making because it serves as a useful stepping stone from 2D to 3D.

Step Three: Our First 3D-Printed Model
Working with CAD allowed us to better shape and model our zebra while including the distinct features we wanted. At first, we struggled because we wanted the bust to stand steadily while also having curved features that imitated the natural curves of a zebra’s head. Since curved shapes made it harder for the model to stand, we took inspiration from other bust statues and decided to make the base square. We also struggled with the mane because zebra manes have a lot of texture. At first, we considered adding notches to create texture, but we decided it would be easier to keep the mane smooth and add texture later by drawing on zebra stripes. The ears were also difficult because of their unique shape, but we found a free horse model in CAD, copied the ears, and reshaped them to look more zebra-like. Our biggest takeaway from this stage was the value of taking inspiration from similar structures and designs.

Step Four: Our First Moving 3D Model
At first, we were unsure which part of the zebra we wanted to make mobile because we had only created a bust, and our zebra combined both curved and rigid shapes. After a lot of discussion, we decided that separating the pieces and stacking them on a peg would allow us to keep the integrity of the zebra bust while also giving the head enough freedom to turn. Our biggest takeaway from this stage was learning to break down problems into smaller pieces so we could solve them more effectively.

Step Five: Refining Our Mobile 3D Model
After making the first moving 3D model, we realized that the head movement mechanism was not very stable. Specifically, the body parts would separate and fall off the peg system if the bust was knocked over. To refine the design, we created a ball-and-socket joint in the head so the head would be permanently connected to the peg, helping keep the other parts of the zebra in place as well. However, our refinement took an unexpected turn when we realized that printing all the pieces together caused the zebra components to melt together, making the model immobile. While trying to troubleshoot this issue, we accidentally decapitated the zebra. Our biggest takeaway from this stage was that not all good ideas work out, but continued refinement is still key.

Step Six: Our Final 3D Zebra
To make sure the zebra pieces did not stick together like they did last time, we decided to print all the body parts separately, except for the ball-and-socket joint in the zebra’s head. To prevent the joint from sticking and becoming immobile, we narrowed the ball to create more space between it and the head once printed. After everything was printed, our zebra looked good overall, except for the head. Despite making the ball smaller, the joint still stuck to the head, making it immobile. To troubleshoot this, we created two holes on the sides of the head and manually broke the ball away from the socket so the joint could move. This worked successfully, and we were able to assemble our zebra, make it move without falling apart, and complete the design by drawing on the stripes.