3D Printer

It was only a matter of time before I had a 3D Printer and I am happy to say that I am a proud owner of a Lulzbolt Taz. I have a found a few differences in modeling for Animation and Printing. The first difference is the
small details are not needed in printing. For example I printed a character holding a bottle with a straw that I am working on for an animation. I read the basics online – make sure there are no overlapping in the model so I went through the model and Boolean/intersect the head and his backpack. Then I made sure everything was touching and close enough together to print as one object such as the shoes and the bottle. I waited patiently for an hour watching in amazement as my character came to life He printed fine up to the point of the bottle and straw. The bottle of course was extruded in so it could hold liquid and the straw had a too thin of a wall so I ended up with his hand holding the lid of the bottle and the bottom part but nothing in the middle. The printer just did not know what to do with the thin wall and just skipped over. I remodeled the bottle as a solid object (it only had to look like a bottle and did not need to hold water) and then the straw as a solid cylinder. I then waited patiently again and this time he was perfect.