Through The Lens points to a news item about a new company, Shapeways, which aims to make three-dimensional printing accessible for the people. Even in metal one day. It sounds very promising for artists and so much more.
Do I have to learn to use 3D software though? I don't think that's gonna happen.
Update: resource for 3D printing, fab@home.
Bert points to RepRap.
26 comments:
A challenge in computer-assisted art that would be too much for YOU?
Get outta here! :-)
[Eolake Stobblehouse has logged out]
[Please refrain from using literal expressions on Blogger, it disturbs the threads. Thank you.]
Is that meant to be the cow from Dogma?
I'm good with intuition, but not with complexity. Photoshop pushes my limits, I could never get the hang of channels and such shit.
"I could never get the hang of channels and such shit."
Is that why you don't watch live TV, only DVD?
Yep, I got stuck on the cooking channel and got bored after a couple of weeks.
Makes sense.
Don't worry, Eo. It seems other people also have challenges in computer-assisted art.
Here's a clip of Rush attempting to play their song “Tom Sawyer” on the PC game Rock Band. They ended up scoring 31% on “expert mode”. It's a difficult piece. :-)
I agree about the cooking channel: bakes sense.
I mean, look at the lingering side-effects: now the man's blogging about bread! Guess he'd like to make more dough, have a piece of the pie, get his cut of the cake...
But enough cheesy puns already.
P.S.: Also, our poor televictim seems to be fixating of pretty women in cereal fields. I'm starting to suspect why those crop circles appear without anybody noticing, even if lots of people were nearby!
But enough cheesy puns already.
You said it, cut the cheese.
As for EO, I was expecting chocolate hazlenut spread when he sent the mailer about Nutela.
Cheez, and I thought *I* was obsessed with snacking!
Say, is this Inviting Joy Domai sculpture available in dark chocolate?
Another resource for those interested in open-source personal 3D printing: RepRap.
There are many service bureaus offering 3D printing, just search the web. A note of caution though: don't get your expectations too high. Try a small object before you commit to an expensive order, because most 3D printing processes are truly not worth crap for real-world applications. Aside from generally lousy surface finishes, the materials are often fragile, and/or unstable in time (will shrink or otherwise distort), and/or melt at low temperatures, and can even be water-soluble (I recently ruined a 100$ prototype part by spilling a few drops of coffee on it!). Metal powder sintering is promising, if done properly, but probably will be extremely expensive from a service bureau.
Really not quite the expected revolution yet, although useful in some very specific contexts such as early prototyping, or jewelery design and fabrication, for example. The field is rapidly evolving though, and it won't be long before you can purchase a printer for home use.
As for 3D object creation, I use SolidWorks, which can be incredibly powerful in design / engineering contexts, but definitely not for artistic purposes. I hear that The Art of Illusion is popular as an entry-level general-purpose software package, among others.
You seem to know about everything mechanical, what the heck do you do?
"You seem to know about everything mechanical, what the heck do you do?"
I'm an engineer, one of the few who made a career exclusively in design (and thus fabrication issues). Thirty years of exploring manufacturing processes does give you some insight on things.
Couple genuine talent for "everything mechanical" with an insatiable curiosity about the way things are made and work, and you might have a rough picture of who I am. A friend once said that my "hamster never stops", talking about my mind... questions never stop coming, and one idea doesn't await the next.
Anyway, 3D printing is a very actual topic for me, as I have been designing plastics for the past few years. Having the ability to economically prototype designs before committing to hard tooling (i.e. steel molds) is truly a blessing.
If it wasn't for this capability, I would have a hard time as a freelancer to design for mass production, as the risk would be too great. Just imagine making a serious mistake on a job requiring 100K$+ of tooling (not uncommon)... Such risk would just "clips my wings" as a designer, for I could not afford to be bold in any way. But with the ability to build one or more prototypes at various stages of the design cycle, the client and I can validate everything along the way (and thus sleep at night :).
Yes, I see. It's one of those inventions which, like the web, seem indispensable in hindsight.
"I hear that The Art of Illusion is popular as an entry-level general-purpose software package, among others."
Thanks for the pointer, but it seems to be written in Java, which doesn't sound too exciting.
For Mac types like Eolake, I recommend Cheetah 3D. It's cheap, good, and easy to use.
That's certainly cheap. I was just looking at a Photoshop plugin yesterday, one function, $200!
Cheetah 3D is cheap because the competition between 3D software is fierce these days. But don't be fooled by the price, this is a very good product.
I can believe it, there's nothing wrong with the images samples and the reviews.
Bert sighed...
"Really not quite the expected revolution yet"
I guess the Domai statuette won't get cheaper any time soon then...
In spite of massive popular demand, holodecks availability remains drastically limited today. Same goes for teleporters and food replicators.
BTW, I hope at least that $100 coffe was good! (Erm... sorry, I just suck at expressing caring compassion. But I swear the intention was sincere!)
"and it won't be long before you can purchase a printer for home use."
Shouldn't it be called a sculpter? I mean, there's no paper, no ink...
I recently read a fascinating article about medical applications of 3-D "printing". The idea, showing great promise, is to use computers to cross the gap between stem cells and synthetic organs. By using a 3-D "printer" to recreate a computerized model of an organ, using droplets of stem cell in suspension, sent on a collagen matrix, literally summoning an organ out of the blue (sometimes a literally bluish gel solution), complete with fine structure, blood vessels, etc. which will start functioning very soon after being transplanted to a fully compatible donor (whose own cells were initially used and grown). Custom-made human spare parts. Maybe one day replacing a lost limb will even become envisionable, it's all about handling the complex anatomy of simple tissues.
Massively multiplying cells in a lab is practically commonplace today. But organs are a bigger challenge (ever seen a church organ? it's HUGE). Just like it's easier to breed thousands of fleas than to train them into re-enacting the battle of Waterloo.
Bert is an engineer
Oh? Somehow, I'm not surprised. :-)
You didn't exactly sound like an expert on sub-equatorial African dialects up there. Some people's competence fields just shine through when they start sharing...
(F'rinstance, I wouldn't be surprised if R.A.F. turned out to ba a military demolitions expert, or an intelligence gatherer at Guantanamo Bay Camp Alpha.)
"Couple genuine talent for "everything mechanical" with an insatiable curiosity about the way things are made and work"
So, what age were YOU when you discovered that little people DIDN'T hide inside the radio? ;-)
Been there, done that.
A friend once said that my "hamster never stops"
The little wheel is always spinning, eh?
"The same thing we do EVERY night, Pinky: try to take over the world!" (Oops! Wrong wheeling rodent.)
Ever played Super Monkey Ball?
I find the 3D printing field fascinating, mostly because of its empowering nature. Remember we discussed open phone designs a while back? This will be the technology allowing you to not only modify the device's behavior, but to alter its physical form as well.
Some even predict a complete transformation, in time, of the way we consume things. Need a spare part for your favorite gizmo? Download and print it! You like that lamp, but would prefer it in this color? Not a problem! A lot of wishful thinking maybe, but still a step towards Star Trek's replicators...
As far as the use of the word "printer" goes, the machines are still closer to printers than anything else. Take for instance the toys from ZCorp. They work by laying down a fine layer of plaster, and then ink-jet printing the shape of the part, in full color. Then a new layer of plaster is laid down, and the process is repeated. Eventually, you end up with a full 3D rendering of the desired object(s), just need to vacuum out the excess plaster. Simple, but the output models are unfortunately extremely fragile and must be dipped in a plastic resin to make them usable.
There are dozens of different processes out there, with new materials appearing constantly, so the revolution is underway. May take some 20 years before key patents start expiring and the field really explodes, but it's coming fast.
I really like Pascal's depiction of an "organ replicator". While still out of reach, it is not that far-fetched. This line of thinking may very well yield tangible results in a very near future.
Hey, who's to say Star Trek replicators work otherwise? After all, they're programmable.
So much in fact, that "in the future", a good cook is a good programmer.
"Out of reach", the organ replicator? I'm really not sure. We may hear of the system being functional before we know it.
But to explain, I need to give you a crash course of organ and tissue structure. [Cracks knuckles, and starts clicketyclicking.]
There are two basic types of tissues in the body:
1- Epithelial, which have joining cells forming continuous layers. These usually are underlined by a "basal membrane", which is composed of rather simple chemicals.
2- Conjunctival, made of loosely or non-joining cells, encased in a matrix called "stroma". Collagen in the stroma is by far the body's most abundant protein.
3- Brain tissue is rather special, let's skip it since we're not going to try and replicate brains.
Blodd is equivalent to a conjunctival tissue with a liquid stroma. Coagulation via the soluble protein fibrinogen (becoming fibrin) may turn it rapidly into a wound-closing solid.
Bone has a stroma containing high proportions of minerals, making it hard as stone and solid as steel. Collagen + minerals create a composite material, a bit like carbon fiber objects. Muscle is also conjunctival, a mass of long contractile cells in bundles. Ligaments? Likewise. Variations of one same very cool recipe.
Roughly, epitheluims create surfaces, like your flat skin, or more "bubbly" structures like the glands, or the lungs, or the blood vessel inner walls. They are always built on conjunctival foundations. F'rinstance, arteries have an "endothelium", or "inner epithelium" surface, surrounded by a muscle (i.e. conjunctival tissue) wall, and an outer connective tissue layer. The stunning thing is, if you make a culture of epithelial cells in presence of a basal membrane chemical surface, they'll set on it automatically, because of their surface receptors, and likewise they'll come together in a continuous sheet.
End of crash course. Now for the consequence in organ replication:
you can "layer-print" cells on a guiding structure of conjunctival matrix and basal membrane sheets, all dipped in supporting culture liquids, and end up with a practically functional organ, given some time for the cells to settle in place, and the "plugging" of a blood flow for the metabolism to keep rolling. [That is because an organ is massive in volume, and will need much more than a suspension of cells would.] It can be as basically simple as properly combining the right elements, which here are cells. They can manage the rest.
In fact, 90% of human genes are inactive at adult age, their only serving function being to coordinate the differenciation and organizing of cells into organs and a whole organism during embryonic life. MAKING a complete organism is the delicate part, maintenance pretty much runs on automatic -and hormonal signals- at cellular levels.
But remember: before playing Lego Frankenstein and fabricating whole animals through computerized anatomy, we'll need to solve the small issue of making a brain. It's like the difference between chain-assembling a car, and making a computer capable of driving it on its own, built-in software included. Not any time soon.
But... replacement hearts, livers, even kidneys (which have a quite complicated microscopic layout of tubes)? I'm positive it'll be common less than 30 years from now. I'm thinking, perhaps about 12 years, tops. If the economy of health systems doesn't collapse fist, goes without saying.
I've heard about an urban artist who built a "wall fresco machine". Basically, a giant computer printer loaded with spray paint cans, and it can automatically paint on a wall any picture you asked it.
I know I'd like the food printer. Or at least a little teleporter connected to a few good restaurants around the world. I don't like cooking (or anything practical) and I'd like to get beyond the local takeout.
Well, a few originals around the world have indeed build 3D printers that use chocolate or candy to build the output... ;-)
You know, you guys are bonkers. Sometimes I wonder why I keep hanging out with you.
(I don't wonder TOO much, because thinking interferes with my medikation.)
Is it legal if I make my own chokolate printouts? I'm getting a sudden kraving.
Hi its John from Shapeways. Thanks for the write-up for Shapeways. Definitely check out www.shapeways.com. 3D printing is technology worth pursuing and those that have an eye for design should check it out. the possibilities are endless.
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