Summer movie season is upon us and it’s time for aliens, bad guys and car chases to invade our local theaters.  3D printing has become a staple in movie special effects and costumes.  From RoboCop’s helmet and suit to a yacht on Wolf of Wall Street, it’s now a common tool for special effects engineers.  Back in the 70’s digital special effects, miniatures were the norm and used for some classic scenes like the space battles in Star Wars (great video above). Continue reading →

PrintToPeer.com has created a great piece of 3D printed sculpture called “Linked” and you can be part!  Of course art is only part of PrintToPeer’s efforts, they are also the creators of a web platform to make 3D printing easier.  Using a Raspberry Pi computer connected to your printer, the web service allows you to do things like virtually slice objects and repair STL files without needing a beefy computer as the work is done in the cloud. Continue reading →

Summer is just around the corner and that means swimsuit season.  Here’s a great little video about 3D printed fabric swimsuits having a huge presence at this years Shanghai Fashion Week. Continue reading →

Comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham now uses 3D printing to simplify his process of making new characters.  Rather than using silicone molds, Jeff can simply make a clay model, scan it and hit print to make the final product out of the material of his choice.   Continue reading →

I’m a recent convert to surfing sports due to my niece Zoey competing nationally and internationally in wakesurfing.  The sport requires tremendous amounts of skill, but is also reliant on great equipment to maximize performance.  We’ve recently run across a great application of 3D printing by Roy Stuart  of Roy Stuart Wooden Surfboards where he 3D prints surfboard fins Continue reading →

I’m a huge fan of the “Stuff You Should Know” podcast put on by the Discovery Channel.  Josh and Chuck have kept me company on many a road trip and morning commute with diverse topics from zombies to nuclear bombs to sex changes to discussing if you could live without a refrigerator.  The other day I was thrilled to see 3D Printing pop into my iTunes podcasts!  Well check out the link below, but be warned, I’m sure you’ll be hooked by Josh and Chuck’s mix of humor, knowledge and curiosity the same as I was!

Stuff You Should Know (3D printinf Episode)

3D Printed Minecraft Representation of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary on NorthWestern University Campus Created by Ben Rothman

Minecraft can now come out of your screen and become real.  There is now a technique that lets you export your Minecraft worlds directly out of the game and have them printed on a color printer like we discussed earlier.  One of the coolest applications of this is the NorthWestern University Campus created by student Ben Rothman. Continue reading →

There’s a new documentary about 3D printing called “Print the Legend” that tells the story of cutthroat 3D printing start-ups.   The movie centers on the question, “The 3D printing revolution has begun. Who will make it?”  The story isn’t about 3D printing technology explicitly, but rather groups of entrepreneurs in an exploding industry.  The movie was screened and won an award at this year’s SXSW and it was also announced it would soon be available exclusively on Netflix.  You can watch the trailer here.

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We’ve talked about the XBox Kinect before, but when I saw this headline about XBox Kinects being used to guard the Korean border (known as the DMZ) I thought it was an early April Fool’s joke. Continue reading →