LulzBot
Andy Goralczyk Bender Institute
Andy Goralczyk, art director at the Blender Institute, works on the Agent 327 animation project.
The Blender Institute, a full 3D creation software suite compatible with the entire 3D pipeline, has opened the door for players in the Free and Open Source Software community to collaborate.
Its developer, Blender is one of the leading voices in its field, supporting all 3D techniques from modelling to game creation and animating films. Blender has selected LulzBot 3D printers to create engaging art that is accessible to everyone.
Andy Goralczyk, Art Director at the Blender Institute, believes the software suite will encourage collaborative innovation between a variety of developers.
LulzBot
Big Buck Bunny Bender
Bender's Big Buck Bunny character in 3D form
“The reason why the Blender Institute is here is because we wanted to have artists and developers working on Open Source Software,” said Goralczyk. “They should work together on projects so that we can improve the software and at the same time make sure that it works for everyone, that we don’t keep breaking it, and that there is defined goals to drive the software forward. Everything that we do is going to be Creative Commons. It’s going to be online and we have a platform called the Blender Cloud and there we publish everything that we do.”
Supporting the experimentation and sharing of printable files for the Blender Cloud are just two of the ways the Blender Institute sees LulzBot 3D printers playing a role. Moving forward, they are interested in using 3D modelling and printing for more tangible character development.
Two particular characters available on the Blender Cloud, designed to highlight the capabilities of the creation software suite, are Big Buck Bunny and Agent 327. The former is one of their most recognisable characters, while the latter is a comic book character originally created by Martin Lodewijk. This pair, along with other characters available on the Cloud, are printed using the LulzBot Mini 3D printer.
“It’s a very refreshing style because we haven’t really done anything on that level yet,” Goralczyk added referring to using a character from the community. “All the productions we did so far were Blender Institute exclusive. We developed the characters and we came up with everything, and now we have to make something that’s based on an existing source material.”
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LulzBot Mini 3D printer
Big Buck Bunny and Agent 327, along with other characters available on the Cloud, are printed using the LulzBot Mini 3D printer.
Because Agent 327 as such a large print, it had to be separated into seven different parts that were then assembled, sanded and smoothed. Post-processing techniques were used for their statues after being printed with ABS, PLA and colorFabb nGen filaments.
“We’re working hard to make our prints not that solid, so we don’t use a lot of material at all,” Goralczyk said. “It’s really affordable because it’s a really high-quality machine. (LulzBot) printers are just really well-built in general, so I think it’s definitely worth it and the price is great.
“I’ve used various printers before, so I think right now the LulzBot (printer) beat them all in terms of ease of use because I’m a big fan of the auto-levelling, the prints are really easy to remove and there’s virtually no maintenance right now. It’s been really smooth. I’m totally impressed.
“The 3D printing community is really big right now, and there’s lots of people making tutorials with 3D printing and specifically with LulzBot (3D printers). The community is so strong and powerful right now. That’s one of the big driving factors. People should go into 3D printing because it’s a community effort and we can all just collaborate.”
