I just wanna know who made a 3D print of his Poser character or maybe the whole scene?

Can you post some images of the Poser work and the print?

Have you printed it by yourself or at a shop?

Thanks so far.

I haven't done it myself, but it's something I plan to do in the future now that the prices have dropped. For me personally I hope to have my own 3d printer.  But until then i probably need to learn how to paint resin models first.  Until then I'll probably use a service. 

The only 3D printed model I've seen (using Poser/Daz content) is Akiko by Joe Bushido http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/akiko-by-joe-bushido/64939

Shows the finished printed (not painted) version

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:23365

There are one or two videos on youtube that shows the model being printed. one of the Freak and the other of Akiko.

It will be intersting to see what other people have created.

That is awesome - I have Akido.  I seem to remeber that some content creators specifically forbid 3D prints from their stuff though?  Might be wrong, and I hope I am!

I think there's an issue with the EULA in most stores where you can distribute the renders of content, but not the obj needed to create the 3D prints. So right now 3D printing of most content is against the eula as transmitting of the object is a violation.

There have been separate licenses for using content as videogame assests, but not for 3D printing.

I found a online shop for 3d prints and just for fun i put my lord zedd throne on the table just to look how much it costs.

it shows wrong modeled parts too. The price was shocking for that small sizewith different print-materials.

Btw. is it right t0at the prints have just 1 material color? I thought it would be colorful like a paper-print

The modifications that a Poser figure needs in order to make it 3D print friendly remove all of its functionality as a poser model. Eyes and mouths have to be sealed and lashes, nails, anything that isn't attached and the wall thickness defined or the model will fall apart or just not print at all. Most models are decimated to the point that there is no recognition of the original geometry left anyway. 

I ran across a blog a while back of an artist using V4 and zbrush along with shapeways to create her own ball jointed doll. I don't remember how close to the completed project she got but I think she had some body parts printed by the point I was reading it, iirc, sometime in 2012. 

The makerbot is only about $2800, which isn't all that expensive, so a lot of people have their own makerbots these days and don't need to upload their models to a printing site unless they're wanting to print in metals and other finer materials. I'm hoping to get one sometime next year as finances allow, but I'm still researching them as I've heard there are even better printers for around the same price.  

ETA: The makerbot can print in 2 colors but you don't see that very often yet. There's another printer that does (or is developing) 4 color, I just can't remember the name of that printer. Something with an A i think. 

The model on Thingiverse needs the V4 OBJ for decoding, I have the Aikiko character by JoeBushido as well, so this print should be legal, since I don't plan to give it to someone else. 

I usually don't print statues, this was a test for small layers (0.05 mm layer height with a 0.4 mm nozzle), and it uses a very translucent ABS material, so the photo isn't really good. But that's what's possible with an FLD printer. Since the layers are pretty thin, this small print took 6 hours. 

You need a watertight model for printing. So, no flurry hair made from polygon strips or (worse) splines, no seperate eyes, clothing needs to have thickness, no intersections, normals in the right direction. Poser models aren't build that way. You can use ZBrush or Blender to make a mesh printable, mainly you have to make a big blob out of it, without any internal stuctures and without any breaks or openings. Dynameshing the figure in ZBrush works, there are modifiers in Blender which can do similar things. 

Basically, you can do it. But making the figures printable needs work, and I don't know if I would be allowed to give a print of a Poser figure away, without infringing a copyright. Not a problem with Antonia, I guess, but giving out printed DAZ figures could be problematic. 

**
@Bantha**
Thanks for pointing that out, just wached the video for it!
Click for RepRap

I notice they said the table drops down by a small fraction of a millimetre to build-up the 3D object.  Assuming they have a DPI, do you know how fine the drop is so that would be it's DPI?

FDM printers don't print in Dots, they print with a thread. The theoretical resolution on my printer is 160 steps per millimeter, so that would pe a pretty high DPI number. But since the thread is 0.4 mm thick, details finer than that aren't really possible. 

The Z axis (up/down) cannot be ultimatively thin, since the thread has to be squeezed to the layer height. My usual print size is 0.2 mm per layer, but I can go down to 0.05 mm layer, wich takes 4 times more time to print.

If you're planning to do smaller prints and you look for a good surface quality, I would suggest you look for an resin printer like the B9Creator or the Form1 from Formlabs. The print material is more expensive, but the priciple (UV hardening resins) are better for smaller prints.

In short, I cannot give an DPI value. It depends on the material, too.

Quote - I found a online shop for 3d prints and just for fun i put my lord zedd throne on the table just to look how much it costs.

it shows wrong modeled parts too. The price was shocking for that small sizewith different print-materials.

Btw. is it right t0at the prints have just 1 material color? I thought it would be colorful like a paper-print

There are printers, who can do multicolor prints. They use a white powder, which is colored and glued while printing, the models look and feel a bit like sand stone. 

The rest of the bunch cannot print multicolor, but of course you could paint the model afterwards.

I think that most of the big shops for 3d printing do offer muticolor prints. But it's a bit pricey. To my knowledge, Shapeways and Ponoko both have color prints, other shops should have them as well. In big cities we have shops where you can get a full color "selfie" for about 200 Euros, in full color. They will scan you and send you a statue of the scan in a couple of days. But these printers are expensive, there is no Open Source version yet.

Cheers Bantha, I get what you're saying regards the thread method, never thought about the thickness of the nozzle though, good point.

I saw another RepRap video just after I posted that, one called RepRap Pro which has microlayering.  Sounded pretty nice and they say you can get perfect vertical edges with it.  Would be cooler still if it could print in rubber, would be fantastic for making molds with!

You can print with flexible materials. There are some rubbery materials out there, some people tried to print with silicone as well (with a syringe, not with an heated extruder of course). But if you want to make a mold, the usual way would be to create the mold from a print, not printing the modl itself.

Yeah but think of the time it would save.  I've often wished there was an easy way to get a mold with nice detail and sharp edges without having to manually create the form first.  CNC and aluminium gives the edges but it seems a fair learning curve.

But yup, that's certainly a cool priniting machine, and like bubblejet printers, I can imagine the progress in output quality will be pretty fast.

I bet China ain't too happy about 'em though :-P

Wow i think this is a science of its own. They told me about the thin lines of a model and all that stuff you have to be aware of.

I see there has to past more time until it becomes more easy to print it on your own.Maybe in future there will be a 3D hologram i can put into my room ;)

Thanks for the replies.

There are various methods of cleaning up a print. Acetone works to smooth out the striations created by the layering in ABS, but you have to be extremely sparing and careful with it as it will quickly eat holes right through the work. Easier on larger prints of course. Can also be sanded or drilled and have a fine layer of sealant or matte finish applied, if your intention is to use it as a master for mold making, which would be my approach considering how pricy the materials can become. Once I get my printer (next year after I pay off these recent PC upgrades) I will also be investing in mold making and resin casting supplies and exploring that a good bit.  

You can use Acetone to smooth the model, but this often smoothes out the details as well.

I prefer sanding. Or printing fine enough, but that's not easy. 

The model I posted above wasn't cleaned up because I'm trying to find the right parameters for printing that fine, and it's easier to see if it improved if the comparison model isn's cleaned up. At the moment I either get fine threads or the swords break while printing. Well, you live to learn, right?

That being said, 3d printing is something which needs to be learned. The slicer software which computes the tool path has enough parameters to play with, different kinds of plastic need different parameters. It took me about a year to get good prints out of my machine, reliable and not just lucky prints. You can probably shorten that time if you buy a preassembled printer like the Ultimaker or the Makerbot - but then, you cannot improve your machine and you pay much more money. There are very good kits for about 800 Euros out there, which are much better than what I started with.

That's about $2K U.S., right? 

I've yet to see any home prints that I'm actually happy with the detail on. You almost always see a lot of layering, so I figure I'll have to be doing a lot of cleanup work on my own. Sanding, polishing etc. But I'm still looking at the different types of printers available. I have seen add-on components for the makerbot. I've also seen some reviews that claim it's not very well assembled and some pieces break or wear out easily. 

Are you familiar with CX5? It's a modeling compound developed by an indie artist. At room temp it's solid and can be carved and sanded. Adding heat makes it pliable like clay. Enough heat will turn it into a liquid that can be used to paint with, then just let it return to room temp to harden back up. So I'm thinking I might try experimenting with that as a finish, since it can be applied in thin layers and then polished smooth - depending on how fine of a print I can acheive of course. Idealy I wouldn't need to apply any finish at all for a master cast. I intend on building figures in parts tho, so they will be about 6 to 8 inches tall when assembled, which will allow for finer detail in each piece. All of this is just theory of course, since I don't yet have a printer to experiment with, but I still spend a lot of time looking for videos and info on other people's work. 

More like US$1k for a kit (unassembled), 2k for an assembled printer. You can even get a kit cheaper, but most probably will see the differences in quality then.

Look for Nopeheads Mendel90 kit, to get an idea what a good kit looks like. It's very well documented, so you can even go cheaper by looking for the parts elsewhere.  

The Makerbot Replicator 2x has a dual extruder so it can print with two materials in one go, apart from that I don't think it's better - and you can add a second extruder on the Mendel90 as well. 

About the quality, well, I don't have a good camera here. But one of the things on the image is a professional print, from a >20k$ Statasys Printer. Can you guess which one?

@Shane
Might be even cheaper still in the USA considering us Europeans have 20% extra to pay.

@Bantha
Still, pretty damn good though, that pot doesn't look bad at all.  If I were in the market for one of those machines I think I'd model two basic objects that are designed to slot together, sort of like a joint.  Then I'd get a test print done on each machine I was interested in, and whichever prints the objects that fit nicest together, thumbs up to it.

A basic joint would be a good test for accuracy and smoothness at the same time.  It could turn out too tight to fit, too lose, or a nice push fit that holds itself together without any 'play'.  Hopefully if it does it's job very well, it would make a good job of the joint fittings.

     Shane and Bantha, I'll want to keep in touch with you on this, as I have similar plans, when budget permits.  My goal would be to print out a pixie in a fairly clear high-fresnel material (something like Lucite), and insert an amber LED from the bottom of her feet to make the pixie glow.  :biggrin:  Why have glass ball nightlights in the yard, when I could have glowing pixies?

     I can do the mesh work, but I need to learn what is available in the way of 3D printers, and their relative advantages/disadvantages.

@Uwe: I didn't mean your print of the girl specifically, sorry - I should have clarified. I can't see striations in her from that picture. It just looks like she might could use a bit of sanding in spots from excess bits of plastic. Hard to tell tho. Thanks for the Mendel90 link, I will check it out.

I'm going to guess the buddha would be the pro? Mainly due to the different grade of plastic and higher level of detail, but I still see some layering artifacts on the top of his head. Were all of these printed in extruders? Do you know much about, or have you had any experience with, the other types of 3D printers? I'm not sure of their exact name, but there's a printer that lifts the printed object out of liquid resin which is cured by UV light layer by layer. Of course that would be a much more costly printer, but that's really the kind I'd like to have as I've seen much higher quality prints from it than extruders. But I'm thinkin they would run about the cost of a house. 

@Seachnasaigh: I'd like to create something similar for my mom. She loves pixies and fairies and such. I would think a 3D printed master, cleaned and polished and then make clear resin casts from that, would be your best bet. You can blend resins to get translucent to fade into solid too. Putting the LED in her back would make the wings glow brighter. Lots of ways you could experiment with that to get some interesting outcomes. 

@Ambientshade, the small pot is the Pro part. It's the standard giveaway on fairs from Statasys. The Buddah is a slightly different material, but printed on my printer. And - all good with the girl, I just wanted to mention why there's no cleaned up image of her. 

If you are more interested in a resin printer, I already mentioned the B9Creator and the Form1, both are cheap for resin printers.  (2500$-5000$) The print material is more pricey too. They do have better details and don't show the typical layer lines of FDM printers. But with a layer height of 50 microns (0.05 mm), you don't see the layers with an FDM printer either. 

@Seachnasaigh, Bendlay is probably a good material for what you plan. It prints very similar to ABS, but it's clear like acrylic, In addition, it's food save (is that the right way to say that in english? You can use it for food containers). so even in heavy rain you won't have some chemicals in your garden.

 @pumeco, The Idea of Reprap is that the printers are build from printed parts whereever possible. Parts like the Wade Extrudér don't allow for much gaps. A printer who isnt't able to print fitting parts into small tolerances is nearly useless.

Here is a (very short) clip with an gear bearing I printed. The whole bearing is done in one piece, the gears are herringbone gears so the whole thing cannot be disassembled. It rotates very well, so my tolerances should be okay.

@Bantha
Hey, thanks for posting that, looks a smooth fit then, and wow, how many of these machines have you got?

I just checked out your channel!

Only machine I have is one of those CNC's from China.  Surprisingly heavy and solid (and crazy accurate) but, and it's a major but, it's too small.  I wanted a 6040T but ended up with a 3020T instead.  Got it, attached the motors, spent a whole day figuring out how to make the thing even move, and after all that, I've not cut a single thing with it (crazy but true).  All I've done is feed it a pattern and watch it work without a tool inserted, thinking damn, I wish I'd waited and got the bigger one.

It's been sat on the floor in the corner of my bedroom ever since.  I plan to make it bigger (a lot bigger).  All I have to do is find out which ballscrews it uses and order some longer ones.  Trouble is I'm hesitant to dismantle it and remove the ballscrews to find out what type they are, because I want to use the machine to make a few custom parts for the new one and don't want to screw-up the accuracy.

I plan to turn it into a machine that will be wall-mounted and be able to accept 8x4 foot sheets.  Apart from bits I want to  add, every part I need is on the machine already, really, so all I need to do is replace these useless short ballscrews with longer ones.  Looked everywhere though, and can't find any positive information about which size ballscrews my machine uses.  Can't speak Chinese either :-D

Wouldn't mind chancing it and just buying some, but the prices of long ballscrews are insane!

I actuallly have two machines. Both have extruders which I've printed myself, and both were improved a lot. The Orca was my first printer, but nearly nothing except the basic frame and the Z-Axis is from the basic kit anymore. New extruder, new linear bearings, different electronics, new stepper controll, new heated bed, new toothed belts and new software. I cannot really recommend the Orca to anyone, there are some mechanical flaws in the design which make really good prints difficult. I tend to print fast with it, with a 0.6 mm nozzle. At least it's no longer as loud as in the first videos. 

My second machine in an Ordbot Hadron, which is made from Makerslides. Much better design, this is the one I use for best quality. The nozzle is 0.4 mm, so the prints are finer by default. This is the machine I use most of the time, the Orca will most probably rebuild as soon as I find the time.

But I've seen many different designs - we have an user group here, and the people here use very different printers. One Ultimaker, a Makerbot, a China Makerbot Clone, some Prusa Mendels, a T-Rex (Mendel 90 from aluminium extrusions), some other designs as well. So I do have a little experience about what works and what doesn't. 

And I hear ya about ball screws. Kind of expensive stuff, but I think the quality of the Z axis will be much better with it. They are on my list for the next printer's Z axis.

Don't know much about these things but I agree about the ballscrews, I think it's guaranteed to give a better result than not having them.  Everything is effectively geared for finer movement and I suppose with it being on a thread, the chances of overshoot are just about non-existant.

Good luck with the rebuild.  I keep eyeballing mine ever since this thread, I should be able to get the ballscrew out without touching anything else.  If I can find a local engineers that can examine the ballscrew, I'll remove it.

Attached Link: 3D Printing with Shade 3D Printing Assistant

There is a downloadable demo too if you want to just check it out.

I've had some success with 3d printing poser characters among other things. I mainly bought my Prusa printer to print items for my wife's dollhouse, refrig, stove, furniture etc but just got done making a scale 1:12 pool table and needed characters (dolls) to be playing pool. There was a bit of trial and error and I'm cleaning the 'spoil' off the dolls with some fine diamond burrs. Anyway, here's some pics. If you want to learn more let me know.

Prolly not too apropos, but to answer the OP's question, it is possible... err, with DAZ Studio. They have a free plugin that makes your model (DAZ-based, for legal purposes) ready for printing. Look for the "Gameprint 3D Print Plugin" in their store. With the plugin, you can send the model to be given an estimate (I believe coloring is included?)

skipper_52 posted at 5:06PM Mon, 26 October 2020 - #4402171

I've had some success with 3d printing poser characters among other things. I mainly bought my Prusa printer to print items for my wife's dollhouse, refrig, stove, furniture etc but just got done making a scale 1:12 pool table and needed characters (dolls) to be playing pool. There was a bit of trial and error and I'm cleaning the 'spoil' off the dolls with some fine diamond burrs. Anyway, here's some pics. If you want to learn more let me know .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

That pool table came out real nice, which Prusa are you using ?

A guy on Project Dalek made a printable version of one of his models, to be assembled like a Revell/Airfix kit. Looked pretty good, too.

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That pool table came out real nice, which Prusa are you using ?

The bumpers and pockets and table were 3d printed. The wood is walnut cut on my homemade cnc. The Prusa is a MK3S and I can't say enough good things about it. Sure it had some minor issues like user error but overall I would buy it again in a sec.

Here's Rachel Royale, one of my main characters, Poser made, Blender tweeked, 3D printed and hand painted. I screwed up big time the eyes, due to me not properly editing the model before the 3d print. I plan to add some more background details and lights to it, but Im having very little free time lately. How does it look?

How did you get the hair to print?

You need to make a solid, watertight mesh of the figure anyway. I would do this with ZBrush's dynamesh, Blender has some similar working tools too. I think the voxel remesh feature would work. Another way create a solid hair block would be to surround the hair with a closed mesh (a ball for example), use a shrinkwrap modifier in Blender to roughly bring it into shape and then use the sculpting tools to refine the surface.

Things which I find harder to do is to transfer the data of normal maps back to the model. Low Poly looks crap when 3d-Printed, and the usual cheats for rendering do not work very well.

I've been using Netfabb. The model looks fine but when I bring into Slicer (Prusa) there are always pieces of the hair missing.

I did my little model the way bantha said (Zbrush-dynameshed @ a high setting-decimate) didnt do anything with it though after just left it as it came out (as in no painting).

He's tiny around the size of small bic lighter

Apologies for the crappy phone image ;p

Nice work. Did you have supports that you removed from the print?

Probably. he had. They aren<'t that problematic, if you know what you're doing.

Oh no sorry, I did not print this out myself , I want to get a printer this December, that's why I asked on the one you used, still shopping around for one. But I have no idea how they did this one or the sterling silver one.

I use a Da Vinci Mini Maker, cost around 100 quid few years back. It's a basic PLA 3d printer, annoyingly with a "lock" so you can only use their brand of filament. So what have I learnt ?

Licences: are you "really" going to pay extra to print because that's what a company says? Some folks might, maybe if you're printing 100's of cute figures or want print ready. Equally some will happily pay $24.99 for a unauthorised hi-res print-ready model of Groot.

So I guess the real answer here is conscience versus cost.

Fixing the mesh: Most of the time the printers software auto-fix option works fine.
Failing that use some modelling software or the (free) meshlab to fix it.

Smoothing: Remember any application of filler, paint or sanding will remove detail. With ABS printers you can try acetone, but that doesn't work on PLA. So...

Model filler and loads of sandpaper. Cheap & easyish but takes ages to do. A dremel like tool helps here.

Smoothing products like Smooth On or XTC3d. Stupidly expensive so not tried. Some folks suggest using polyurethane varnish instead, but you can't easily paint over varnish.

3d smoothing pens, these are like USB soldering irons, but come with special tips. Especially the bowl shaped one. Personally struggled with mine, good for cleaning up supports, not so good for overall smoothing.

But I'd say with practice and time they do work. Some folks suggest using those $10-15 kids 3d pens, but not tried those.

Acrylic car primers (not cellulose) either the yellow filler primer or the grey primer. Not used an airbrush, just rattle cans, but like all spraying loads of light coats are the key.

Best results so far have been using several layers of nail varnish base coat (the pink stuff from pound/dollar stores) then a spray of grey car primer. Paint the model with standard modellers acrylics, then apply a clear gloss or matt of protective nail varnish.

Size: Yep it matters. I've tried printing at 1/76 and 1/35 scale and it just doesn't work with this printer. So if you want an army of neeked Victoria's for your next game of Warhammer, buy a resin printer.

Though anything over 10-15cm is usually good enough.

Duplicating Prints: Forget it, 3d printing is slow and expensive. Instead get some RTV Silicone Moulding Rubber, make some moulds from your prints and cast using 2 part fast-cast resin. This way also allows you to cast using Metal Powders mixed with the resin, to get that silver look.

Mindset: Just because you can 3d print something, ask the question should I ? For example, if you want a wooden plinth for your figure, why not use real wood. It's not just cheaper, but solving these small modelling challenges will make you a better creative.

I read this thread with some interest a while back and although its taken me time to get the model done I thought it worth adding to it. I've printed Bob and Lucy here using a cheap PLA printer (Creality Ender 3 Pro) which I bought my son a while ago because he was continually asking for one. I got this one as it came in kit form and now he understands how it works and the 3 dimensions it works in. Anyway, here's Bob (P4 man) and Lucy (P4 woman) finishing off their Citroen van. It's 1/24th scale so Bob is approximately 75mm tall. They were both printed using Cura on its default setting and from a distance they look OK. My son says "Good from afar but far from good!" I only did them to see if Poser figures would actually print. I exported them using the Poser default .obj settings then opened them in Cura and set the scale. Think what could be done with a decent resin printer!

Just to add though, it's nice to be able to print things using a 3D printer but you may end up like we have with a box in the garage full of 3D printed models that you have no idea what to do with. Have a really good think about what you want to do with a printer before spending your hard earned cash!

PS. Bob's got the van done now so they're off for a trip around the building site that is my home!

Bookmark - I just ordered an extruder printer from Amazon and downloaded Blender, SelfCAD, and Meshmixer which are all three free and supposed to get your .OBJ file ready for 3D printing.  Good thing I'm retired so I have time to learn the software parts I need.  If any of you can tell me which functions of any of the software mentioned (or another free software you have used) that help with converting from a Poser .OBJ to a printable model I would definitely appreciate your assistance.

The important thing with 3d printing, especially for resin prints, is that your model is "solid". I could go for ages about what that means, but in simple terms it means there's no holes in it.  So in answer to your question... here's how to fix that... 

A long way... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sZMkATmG1w

A short way...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DBvjuuIvQc

I don't know why this thread was ressurrected twice, I just wanna leave a reminder here: to 3d print models using assets from Renderosity store to sell or redistribute (as in, not just for personal projects/use), you'll need an Extended License, and most Poser products don't offer one. Regular License only allows the use of assets for final renders and videos.

My guess is because 3d printing is becoming an increasingly popular hobby. Especially with folks who enjoy role playing games and for sci-fi fans.Indeed if you look at kickstarter, some mesh creators have raised megabucks. 

Which is why your point here is rather interesting. I can see how an extended term would be fair enough for games, because someone might be able to extract the mesh from the game, thus depriving the creator. But I wonder why should buyers have to pay more to print their purchase when compared to rendering?

OK sure that term is common to many stores, not just the marketplace here. But it feels kinda counter creative to getting sales. It's a bit like Daler Rowney telling paint brushes buyers they can't use oils, only water-colours.

It's the same when you see extended licences limiting the number of times something can be printed. Most licences don't define the number of times we are allowed to render a purchase.I could also make a render and sell numerous copies as an art print, yet I don't have to cut the creator into that profit. So it's not like a creator is losing out on anything.

Yes we might get a short term gain by selling an extended licence. But I wonder long term are we doing ourselves a disservice with extendeds? Higher prices are less likely to make people buy. Plus overly restrictive terms are more likely to be ignored. So shouldn't we be embracing this new form of output and encouraging printing?