Are you looking to learn how to create 3D printable models but don't know where to start?

Posted by MakerTech Store on

If you bought a 3d printer or have access to one at work, school, or a friend's house and have been wanting to learn how to create your own 3D-printable models, you should check out the new 3D design course created by our Nashville neighbor and friend, Jayson Wall (Jwall) of PrintThatThing.

Jwall is the designer of the popular 3D printable "Cat Armor" and numerous other designs featured on Thingiverse, Pinshape, and other popular 3D file sharing sites. Jwall has put together several courses on how he configures and uses Blender to create his 3D creations.

What is Blender? 

Blender is a completely free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline, from modeling to rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and even 2D animation. Blender is used world-wide for creating video game assets, CGI graphics, photo-realistic renderings, 2D/3D animation, and more. Like any extremely powerful and capable software, the amount of options and controls can make Blender appear confusing and overwhelming when someone first tries it. JWall's course does a great job of explaining step by step how to set up Blender for modeling 3D printable designs and how to use Blender's tools to bring your ideas to life.

Jwall's 4-week beginner's workshop covers:

  • Introduction to Blender 2.8 & 3D Printing Design Workflows

  • Beginner Prototyping for 3D Printed Products

  • 3D Printing Tool Box & Bool Tool (Free Blender Add Ons)

  • How to build "Flexible" Design Projects

  • How to Create Wearable Designs with Custom Text

  • Basics to Box Modeling & Subsurf Modeling

  • How to take Awesome Photos of your 3D Designs (EEVEE Renders)

  • Basics of Sculpting for 3D Printing

  • Cutting Up Large Designs into Multiple Pieces

  • Create Designs for Real World Objects

  • and more! 

Why learn to 3d model with Blender?

While other options exist out there for designing accurate mechanical parts like Fusion360, SketchUp, OpenSCAD and others, Blender is arguably one of the most powerful and free programs out there. Blender is especially great for creating more organic shapes with highly curved surfaces and sculpting (That's not to say that accurate flat and hard-edged mechanical parts can't also be designed in Blender because they can!). Blender is completely free to use for any purpose, well funded and supported, and not cloud based. By learning to model in Blender as opposed to more traditional CAD software, you will also be learning skills you can use to work towards a potential career in computer animation, game design, special effects, etc. So if those fields interest you give Blender a try, after all, its completely free!

If you are interested in checking out PrintThatThing's workshop you can check it out at the link below and try the first week for FREE:

https://learn.ptt.live/courses/4-week-3dp-workshop?ref=87b40d

And if you like what you see and want to take the full course, use the code "MakerTechStore50" (not case sensitive) when signing up to save 50% off the normal lesson price!


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