Personal Research

The project I have come to present is a 3D design in reference to anime figurines as I have been a fan of Japanese television and how they market their toys by having the actors use those exact models in the films. I will create a 3D character in Rhino using the limited knowledge obtained from the various tutorials to display via images on the software.

Research Question: When it comes to printing a 3D design using many different types of 3D printers. Why did the PLA filament material become the standard use for printing?

Reference figurines of what I wanted to create.

While bringing my character to fruition I had come across some major problems when it came to do any of the details in not only the body parts but also getting a really good shape.

In Rhino 3D (specifically in Rhino 8) the biggest problem I faced was finding out that the Control Point command (lets the user manipulate points on the selected object to form their ideal shape) only works with the Sphere object. Here are the images showing off my character's parts individually and together.

The process of making this model for the Very first time was tough. I had made the head out of a sphere using the control point command I mentioned earlier to extend the bottom section to give it the sort of chin shape. The torso was created the same way.

The legs and arms were created by first using a image I had grabbed off of google to put in the software as a backgroundbitmap, which allows the imaged you saved on your device to be displayed on a grid format. Then I had taken the Curve tool and basically traced the images. After the images were traced I had used the command Extrude to give it some thickness and to have the body parts look solid.

When I was placing all the parts together, I clearly didn't understand how to use the blend command correctly which prompted me to place the parts as closely as possible. When I previewed the character in the rendered view I was trying to figure out what colors would work cohesively but as I got thinking about it more, I thought this would look the best as when it goes to be printed, depending on the PLA filament color you use the model will look.

Timeline: Oct. 31st - Figurine model Idea concept down, Nov. 21st - Figurine model complete on Rhino 3D, Dec. 5th - Finalized research project made (possibly printed)