As part of My PhD I made a model of a human skeleton, or part of a human skeleton. I needed it for some muscle simulations that I was developing and since I was trying to get it published at a computer-graphics conference, I needed some nice looking images. I tried finding models on the web but they where either not very detailed or cost a small fortune.
Thus I set about making my own.
Luckily it is comparatively easy to find free anatomical images so I found a few of these, set them as background in my blender modellign window and got a decent looking skull and shoulder complex in a few days of work.
I further refined this and got it textured in a simple way which looked sufficiently convincing for me to use it.
Fast forward a couple of years and I was the proud owner of an "Ultimaker 2" 3d printer.
I decided to make a print of my 3dskull and set about trying to make it printfriendly.
This turned out to be harder than I thought but after a few hours of frustrating work I got a usable hollowed out skull.
Then I cut the skull in two (still in Blender) and patched the ends, got them laid out for print and even made a small rim so that the top couldnt slide off the skull.
The printer did the rest with very little resistance. at this time at had made a few prints and was getting to know the quirks of my printer, so I managed to get a very nice and detailed print with no hickups.
Emboldened by this success I even went ahead and did my so far biggest print. A dice holder skull. I had to make a small piece of Vertebra to act as a base for this since it would otherwise fall over all the time.
It turned out very nice, and was subsequently painted gold to make it even more corny.
Im EvilHippie, a compulsive creative and jack o' trades. if you want to know more about me check out my introduction post here All the images and 3dmodels in this post is made by me.