3D Modeling 101

Welcome to the Multimedia Lab's online 3D Modeling 101 workshop resource page! Using the project based tutorials and guides on this page, anyone can start making their own 3D models in no time, which can than later be printed at the MMLs or other service provider like your local library maker space! No prior modeling experience required, and this will take less than an hour of your time! 🤩

Overview!

We will look at Thingiverse an online community and resource for finding 3D printable models. You will learn how to search Thingiverse for models, evaluate the printability of a model, and lastly how to export and download the model to later be 3D printed. We will download a Robot Keychain that we will later use.
We will introduce you to Tinkercad, a free, easy to use, yet powerful online 3D modeling software. We will orient you with navigating a 3D plane, and teach you to combine basic shapes called primitives, to create more complex shapes.
We will go step by step together and use Tinkercad to create a Ray Gun for our Robot Keychain. Once completed, we will show you how Tinkercad can be used to combine or modify 3D objects found from places like Thingiverse by combining our new Ray Gun to the downloaded Robot Keychain model.

3d printed robot keychain laying on a wooden surface

Download Robot Keychain Here

Ray gun we will be making from scratch!

Part 1: Thingiverse (5 min)

Thingiverse is an online community and repository of 3D models. You can download models for free as well as explore collections of models, much like a Pinterest board. This brief video will show you how to search for, evaluate, and download models from Thingiverse!

Some Useful Terms

Open Source

A movement in technology that produces often free software, hardware, and other resources based on the idea that community-based development produces a better product and experience than proprietary (corporate-based) development.

.STL

This is a file type used for 3D models. This is one of the two types of files we recommend downloading from Thingiverse and other online sources for 3D models

.OBJ

This is also a type of file used for 3D models. Unlike .STL files however, .OBJ files can also have a second component that consists of a surface material map that wraps around the the 3D object to produce texture. Think of a 3D object in a video game that has photorealistic detail.

Part 2: Tinkercad

Tinkercad is an online, browser-based, 3D modeling software that is free and easy to use, yet quite powerful. The best thing is that it will only take about 35 mins to get started and be able to make a complete project! You will learn how to master most of what tinkercad has to offer by following this tutorial video that builds upon the previous video on Thingiverse.

Tinkercad 1A: Basics (8 min)

Tinkercad 1B: Build a Ray Gun! (10 min)

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