Hey everyone! I'm new to the forum, and I'm also new to the whole 3D printing world. I'm currently working on an art piece that incorporates a sculptural piece which I want to have 3D printed. I've designed and trademarked a cartoon character that I'd love to render in 3D, and the easiest software that seems to do this is EasyToy (only for Windows). If anyone has ever made any toy-like renders (pokemon, hello kitty, etc) which software would you recommend for beginners? Below I've attached the jpg file of the character, so you guys can see what I'm working with. I'm currently using sketch-up and it's really difficult dealing with curved edges, and Blender was just too complicated to learn quickly. Any tips thanks so much!
Yes there is something like that for Mac, see here. I purchased their version 3 years ago and used it a few times to make quick rudimentary organic shapes. I never use their version 2, which is compatible with the Mac OS, but I think it's pretty much the same. What you do is draw on an image and it puffs out into 3D whatever you trace out on the image and then it also transfers the image to the surface of the 3D puffed out part. Pretty cool! The one thing that I did use it for was to make the base for this giraffe I made. I didn't use it to make the bas relief, I used it to make the initial base for the 3D model that I then used to make the bas relief. Then again, Sculptris will let you make actual sculpts with a little more effort and it's free for both Mac and PC.
WHOA! We replied within ten minutes of each other after this thread sat for more than a day with no replies. ANDDDDD WE BOTH MENTIONED SCULPTRIS!
You all are awesome! Thanks for replying! Is the tracing feature possible in other programs like Sculptris or Blender? I guess what I'm looking for is a program that can quickly work with easy shapes (spheres, triangles, boxes, and not too difficult for beginners). I've been using Google Sketch-up but when it comes to curved surfaces it's really really difficult. I'm going to give sculptris a try, but realistic detail isn't super important to me because I'm trying to create a simple cartoon character (think Hello Kitty). Here's the image I'm working with, maybe after you see it, you might be able to guide me to one that would be the best for what I'm working on.
Yeah you'd most definitely want to make that in Sculptris. There is software for doing mostly organic shapes and software for doing mostly non-organic shapes. Sketchup is for mostly non-organic stuff.
Here, this guy goes into the basics of using Sculptris while on the Mac OS. http://vimeo.com/61128359