I'm new and I'm trying to find out how to go from my logo to a pendant

Hello Shapeway'ers,

I'm new here and I'm really eager to try something new. I would like to take my logo and make a pendant out of it and I would love some feedback. What's the best way to proceed?

My logo is available in 300 DPI (not sure if DPI affects 3D printers)

But how do I get from .ai (illustrator) to 3D printer makers? What would be the cost of making a stainless steel pendant of 1" diameter (circle pendant)? (estimate)

And how would make the details come out like in the example? (mustache /3D/hair details)

Please point me to the right direction.

Take you!

At a rough estimate, you're talking about $10-15 for the amulet cost itself, being roughly 1in across and around as thin as you could reasonably go for the bulk, 1.5mm. More material would give it more heft, of course, but your costs go up pretty sharply because the cost of stainless steel is $5/cm3. The volume is really what gets you.

I'm not sure the resolution of the Shapeways metal deposition printer is really up to the task of reproducing something as complex as the amulet you picture. Minimum feature detail is suggested at about 1mm, which is pretty broad compared to that, which appears to be cast. In particular, the underside of the amulet here should give you some idea of the level of detail that you can probably aspire to: https://www.shapeways.com/product/DUTXX4LHS/scarab-pendant?l i=featured&optionId=43785362

To do even that much, you'll need to take your illustration from 2d vector artwork to a 3d model, and the means of doing that are myriad and somewhat artistically arcane. Depending on your illo, you might could make some kind of first pass by taking it into Blender and using the illo as a deformer on a circular face from an extruded cylinder. If none of what I said made any sense at all to you, this is where you either decide to go obsessive study things for a month or think about popping a few bucks to someone who's already a 3d designer for help.

If you're good enough at grey scale, you could use our pendant app. https://www.shapeways.com/creator/pendant?li=nav

In terms of how you actually do it, you have several options.

1) Pay someone to do it. Not recommended since you can do:
2) Shapeways pendant creator
Export (or create) your logo from illustrator (or whatever) as a high resolution bitmap. You need it to describe a heightmap, with black being tall, light-grey being short and white being empty space. You also need to take into account the minimum height, because you can't let the print be too thin - effectively your lightest colour (other than white) should be calculated to be at least the minimum material thickess.
Then you can just use the creator. This lets you add a fastening loop, and is quick and easy provided you're happy with a flat or mirrored back. If you want to conserve material (to reduce the printing cost) then use:
3) shapejs This needs a bit of programming, but if all you need is to make a concave image that's easy enough that I could give you code to do it.

Resolution matters in three ways.
1) Input resolution : you'll only get the detail out if you supply it in the image. You'll see if you have enough when you use the shapeways pendant creator. I would go for much more than 300dpi - at least 600 dpi would be better if you can get it. Assuming you have a vector graphic, this should be straightforward.
2) Printing resolution. You might just be able to get away with printing in steel, but the lost wax process (bronze, brass, silver and gold etc) are rather higher. The cost is, however, rather higher. In particular with steel, the across-face resolution is much better than the depth resolution;
3) Material strength. You need the material to be thick enough to survive the printing process. Also, if you get it polished, small details can be rubbed away.

Best way of determining cost : generate a quick version of the piece in the right dimensions, upload the model to shapeways (make sure the dimensions are correct), read out the prices. They let you do this for free, and you're not obligated to print every version, so don't fret - the only cost is your time waiting for the calculations to complete.

You could also just purchase it on Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/224857035/odin-with-ravens-viki ng-pendant-sterling

Thanks for all the options and feedback. This looks way to much out of my scope. I can provide 600 DPI (it's all vector).

So how much would it cost to hire someone here to convert this to a 3D printable pendant? I'd prefer to hire someone as my workload is incredibly busy right now.

We have a modeler for hire section and a modeler needed section here on the forum, as well as a page of designers for hire here https://www.shapeways.com/hire/designer?li=nav

thank you!! I must of missed that.

Also, there are the 3D modeler needed and 3D modelers for hire forums, which might be a better option, since it seems like it's a fairly small and inexpensive project.
If you can post your logo (even a low-res version) you might get more offers. It would also help if you could give a preference for the material (particularly, steel or lost wax). But showing the logo would help with the advice on that.

I just noticed that forum. I'll definitely post my project for hire there with my logo. But question; is it possible to print in .925 sterling silver?

Hi,

I sent you a PM for this model you might be interested in.

Sincerely,

Gary

Shapeways do silver, which - according to the materials page and the datasheet it links to - is Sterling Silver, an alloy made of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper.
However, note that Shapeways don't hallmark it.
The printing cost is $30 +$20 per cubic cm. So for example a 3mm deep, 25.4mm diameter cylinder would cost about $60. (This is a very basic model of your design. If you want it deeper it'll cost more.)
If you want it 'standard' polished (which I think is probably what I'd want) then add $5.

I think that's more than a bit cheeky, since you've just ripped off 'example' design.

And it looks monstrous.

Wasn't this the attached image he provided?

He could at least get an idea of how it might come out.

(Sorry, I apologize if I offended anyone and I don't mean to be impudent or irreverent.)

The issue is that you just ran off with somebody's design a.k.a intellectual property (though not necessarily the original poster's if the exact same item appears to be on etsy) and put it for general sale without permission.

I've taken it off For Sale

Thanks

It would be interesting to see if the Viking pendant or something like it can be printed in steel materials as opposed to being cast. That's a high level of detail that may be a challenge for non-cast metals.

From my experience printing 'coins' etc. in steel, I would say the viking pendant would have mixed results. The X-Y resolution is high, but the Z resolution is limited - I assume by layer height, which I think is 0.1mm. (The steel subcontractors seem to do a good job on orienting in the optimal direction.)
So the runes around the outside edge would be great, but the beard (feathers etc.) would lose vertical detail and be blocky, and there would be serious stepping in the helmet, since it's vertically rounded.
The trick to it is therefore to design in flat layers, spaced at least 0.1mm apart (and in increments of 0.1mm).
At least, that's my impression. Does anyone else think the same or different?