It's been around 4 years since I last touched Blender, but my notes from back then came in handy during this project. I remembered what I can do within Blender but forgot how, so it wasn't so bad.
This was a 2-day long project to supplement a longer university project for Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.
Every year organisations donate towards the hospital and their names are put onto snowflakes, which can be spotted around Sheffield on the hospital buildings. They wanted a complete redesign, and I took some time to make nice renders in Blender for the presentation I will be doing for the staff, showcasing our new design.
What I achieved
I'm most proud of the bricks, which are entirely procedural. So, any configuration and length of wall will be adapted to and it will always look great! It might come in handy on a future project.
There are lots I could spend more time on tweaking, mainly lighting and materials. However, I am happy with the outcome overall and it's re-ignited the desire to make some more renders and animations again.
The main two challenges with this project was 3D printing threads and designing a holder for a freeform shape.
By printing the threads large (ISO 22x2) the print quality was better. However, I learned the importance of using more common threads since I needed a specific nut to thread through to correct print imperfections - luckily someone in the workshop had a thread file and this was fixed. A bit of graphite powder from a sacrificial pencil and I was able to spin the whole part around the thread with one hand!
I did not have a model or schematics for the controller so this took a few iterations to get right, but I got there in the end!
Using SR 30 soluble support and ABS model material on the Uprint SE Plus
Using SCA 1200 cleaning station
Something that is print-in-place requires no supports and no assembly to 3D print in FDM printing.
This means all of the mechanisms are contained within the body, and the idea is that you can take it straight off the print bed and use it!
Here I am checking crucial areas such as the hinges – making sure they aren’t printed to fuse
Unfortunately the UPrint SE Plus is an older printer that requires a raft, otherwise this print would have printed completely without supports or assembly