Need help hollowing a mesh for 3D printing.

Discussion in '3D Design Requests' started by 124918_deleted, Jan 26, 2012.

  1. [​IMG]

    I paid an artist to model this as a gift for my grandparents...they are very old, and not exactly in the best of health, but I had hinted at this for a while and really want to get it to them while I still have time.

    At 6" tall, I was getting a price of over $150 in the WSF material. That is just way beyond my price range, even more so since I intend on printing two...one for them, one for me. We're going to paint them by hand and send the best looking one as the gift.

    The artist I work with was able to make it look pretty much exactly how I envisioned it, but he's a low-poly modeler by nature and this really wasn't a good job for him, but I was desperate. He's also not familiar with 3D printing and the specific quirks of the technology...I only recently introduced him to it by printing a starship model I commissioned from him, which came out much better than I expected.

    Aside from hollowing the mesh to use a minimal amount of material, the runes also seem to go in far too deep. The depth shouldn't be much greater than the thickest lines that make up the font, which will greatly help in hollowing the mesh (as-is they would require the front half of the runestone to be pretty much completely solid). We're going to antique the finished product, so the runes will show up very well without needing to be insanely deep.

    The wall thickness should be as little as will still provide a relatively stable, free standing object. The bottom of the base can be completely open, though the walls of the base should probably be thicker than the rest of the mesh to provide more stability.

    Considering the amount of solid material that the mesh can do without, I'm expecting some good fixes should be able to reduce the print cost dramatically. The mesh is in .obj format, and quite hefty (compressed size of almost 44 megs). Now, I can't afford much, which is obviously why I can't print it as-is. However, if someone here would be willing to fix the mesh up so that it can be printed for a reasonable amount of money, I can provide reasonable compensation.

    Also, if anyone has any opinions on which material would be best to print the finished product with (as far as the processes go, I'm not sure which would be best for this sort of object), I would be glad to hear your opinions.

    -Jonathan
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Jon, you need any help, you could try #Blender on Freenode irc channel. Blender has a thickness modifier that will come in handy.
    The bunch there are always looking for something to model. especially for a nice cause. Just let them know that the wall thickness should be 3 blender units, to play it safe.
     
  3. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    So very very close..

    Your artist actually did make the thing hollow. The problem is that when they exported the file, it ended up as two shells instead of one single one. On top of that.. the bottom (flat part) of each shell is overlapping with the other shell. This should be curable without a lot of work.

    If you could move the inner (negative) shell downward ever so slightly, it might be that MeshMedic would fix this for you.

    One note: the inner shell does NOT need all the extra details that it currently has.. the inside shell could afford to have MUCH less detail to it, making the whole file size drop down.

    Unfortunately, for the programs I have available, the file size is causing me difficulties. It is likely that one of the other members here may be able to handle it in some other program easier.
     
  4. I figured it was somewhat hollow from looking at it in MeshLab, but it sure did look like a mess in there. I wish I could fix it myself, but the best I can do is rotate an object, resize it, and save it to whatever format I need. Beyond that there's pretty much nothing I can do in 3D.

    If someone could reduce the depth of the runes (that's one of the key issues), I'm guessing it would be easy enough to just solidify the mesh and then create a low-poly 'core' that could be subtracted from the stone, without all the excess detail where it isn't needed.

    I don't think my artist was familiar enough with ZBrush to pull off everything the way I needed it, but at least the exterior is nicely done.

    Really hoping someone on here can pull it off.

    -Jonathan
     
  5. rich33584
    rich33584 Member
    It appears to have a double wall inside and I am working on punching a hole in the bottom as we speak. Its such a dense and messy mesh though and I have to leave in a few minutes. I dont have much doubt Ill get it done, but it may be a couple hrs before I can get it to you.
     
  6. rich33584
    rich33584 Member
    try this and see how it works. There isnt much I can do about the runes and also the interior wall. All I managed to get done was punch a hole in teh bottom and make it manifold again.
    If this doesnt work, I think youll be much better off starting from scratch again.
    http://www.richardsphoto.com/images/rune3.zip
     
  7. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    Do you have the font that was used to create these letters?
     
  8. My artist actually had to use an image file I created...I didn't have a good looking font that had all the symbols I needed, so I had to modify/create from scratch a few of the symbols. But, I do still have the image.
     
  9. rich33584
    rich33584 Member
    Send me the image and Ill try to put something together for you.
     
  10. This is the same image I provided my artist originally.

    -Jonathan
     

    Attached Files:

  11. rich33584
    rich33584 Member
    Ok, ill work on it. Shouldnt be a problem. I have my son this weekend, so it will probably be late tonight.
    Meanwhile, if someone else chimes in dont be shy about taking their offer. I wont be offended. This was going to be a freebie since it seems to be for a good cause.
     
  12. Thank you very much...it is very important to me, which is why I sunk money into having the mesh made in the first place. At least I learned I shouldn't take a fish out of water here...best to leave them with what they are familiar with...or bad things happen.

    -Jonathan
     
  13. rich33584
    rich33584 Member
    Well, my computer keeps crashing because the mesh is just too dense to get the text to look good. Maybe someone with a much better rig can do this.
    Mine will handle alot, but this is just too much for it.
    Did you try the other one?
     
  14. I did...wouldn't even upload. Apparently I was already right at the edge of overloading their system, since the original mesh did upload (albeit barely).

    I'm sorry everyone...seems the mesh was beyond saving from the start.

    -Jonathan
     
  15. Jackablade
    Jackablade Member
    It's rare that a mesh is irreparable. Let me have a lookit.

    EDIT: I can fix that. Zbrush isn't liking it much, but it shouldn't be to difficult.
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2012
  16. rich33584
    rich33584 Member
    I was able to "fix" it, but the file size was much too large to upload.
    The mesh has to be too dense to get the text to have any detail at all.
     
  17. Jackablade
    Jackablade Member
    Yeah, the mesh was a pretty big mess. I wound up using Dynamesh to rebuild it. I think the result is pretty decent - letters are nice and sharp.

    What does the text say, out of interest?


    EDIT: Oops, hold on, don't DL that yet. Need to fix something.
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2012
  18. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    Hint: one line says "You shall not steal"
     
  19. Jackablade
    Jackablade Member
    Hm, I may have committed a faux pas here. I didn't notice that there was was compensation on offer for this job and just assumed that Jonothan was looking for a quick fix for his model. Given that everyone looked like they were giving up, I thought I'd do a charitable thing and touch up the model so he could get it sent off to his grandparents.

    If there's money changing hands here that's obviously going to upset people and well it should. It was not my intention to sweep in and try to steal anyone's job away and I do apologise to Rich.

    I'll move along now and find something else to work on.

    S
     
  20. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    No hard feelings on my part.. I just wanted to see if I could fix it, but my tools were failing me.

    >>> Not everything has to be done for a profit.

    JohnathanT: It'd be really nice if you could offer this model for sale at some point. If they end up < $20, I'd like to buy at least three.