If you can imagine it, you can print it. 3D printers are making their way into our studios, offices, classrooms, and even our homes.
If you can imagine it, you can print it. 3D printers are making their way into our studios, offices, classrooms, and even our homes.
There are many brands of 3D printers available at a range of prices. Newer desktop models are emerging at prices within your budget. These machines are capable of printing just about anything.
Matt Charboneau, Financial Manager for VCU Graphic Design and manager for the VCU Graphics Lab recently hopped on the 3D printing bandwagon with a MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer for the VCU Graphics Lab. Each year the Graphic Design department is allotted a certain amount of money from VCU, so the outgoing students in the department are polled to gauge how and where that money can be spent. “There was a consensus that it would be useful to have access to a 3D printer,” Charboneau said: enter MakerBot Replicator 2.
So how does it work? A person designs something on a computer in the software of their preference—or the Maker software, Charboneau says, which is free to the owner of the MakerBot, but even those of us without a printer can download the software from the website and import models and share those files. The file is then sent over to the 3D printer, and the extruder lays the groundwork of the object using a colored renewable bioplastic filament with a corn base. The layers eventually build until, voilà! Your project has come to life in three dimensions.
“Right now we are printing stuff to test the limits of the actual software, resolution settings, and things that test strength,” Charboneau says, “We’re getting an understanding of how this works and how it builds the shape over time. The more intricate, the more time it takes to build.”
Practical objects such as a tape dispenser, missing parts, and bolts decorate the Graphics Lab. But users of the 3D printer are not materially limited. Although the VCU Graphics Lab currently only offers the “True Red” colored filament, Charboneau adds, “There have been folks that have taken advantage of this material we use in place of a lost-cast process of melting out this PLA biodegradable plastic with metal.”
There have already been some crazy requests, including a human head. But visual effects artist and filmmaker Matt Wallin of the VCU Communication Arts department says one of his students has 3D printed a model of the HIV virus using the Communication Arts’ MakerBot.
Paralleling the Medical Illustration track within Communication Arts, Wallin is combining software design with illustration to create tangible results. The Medical Illustration track requires Communication Arts majors to minor in Biology, but with 3D printing, these students have an edge. They are bridging the gap between medical needs and artistic vision. Students learn the software, he says, and incorporate it into their own artistic practices.
Wallin has also added another use for 3D printing into his curriculum: students make 3D scans of their classmates and then employ the 3D printer to create tinier scale versions of themselves. It has been playfully deemed the “Mini Me” project.
“In ten years,” Wallin says, “Sci-fi could become reality.” 3D printers are evolving fast to meet the demand. Machines that extrude biodegradable plastic filament now could one day use cells as building material to produce organisms, or hot food from a build-up of molecular framework.
Graphic Design Associate Professor Jamie Mahoney has recently made a graphic designer’s dream into a reality with her “Gutenberg Remix” project. The project aims to revitalize letterpress printing, an old technique that traditionally uses wood or metal blocks for printing. With the use of 3D printing and a little help from her friends, Mahoney has produced custom three-dimensional type for printing on a letterpress. Her research spans from the MakerBot Replicator 2 model to the more advanced Dimension SST 1200es model in the VCU Sculpture + Extended Media department. The 3D printed material is structurally sound and can withstand the pressure of the press. Like wooden or metal blocks, each printer leaves its own unique print in the ink. “I’m not just resuscitating an outdated technology—I’m using it to explore new ways forward,” says Mahoney.
Eric Wolinsky, a graduate from the VCU Graphic Design program, digitally designed the typeface for the project. It is from the type family named Halfton. The type has a solid face and a skeleton face.
Tobias Wilbur, a graduate from the VCU Graphic Design program, collaborated with Connor Broaddus, who earned his Masters in Engineering from Cornell University. Together they created a mostly automated process in which the two-dimensional digital typeface files could easily be transformed into three-dimensional moveable type blocks for Mahoney’s project. “Tobias handled all of the typeface stuff—the geometry of the letters themselves,” said Broaddus, “Then I converted those into an actual 3D model of the letter block. So with just a couple button clicks, we can convert the geometry of the model.”
Thanks to Wilbur and Broaddus for streamlining the process, the “Gutenberg Remix” project is now running at full speed. Mahoney has been able to experiment a lot. She has even started working with a new font—Hera Big—designed by Lucas Sharp, of Pagan & Sharp, who also designed the Pinterest logo.
In addition to her project, Mahoney has also used 3D printing for practical experiments along the way. “If we have a broken part on these old presses, rather than combing the country to find a part, we now have the capability of printing that part with the 3D printer,” says Mahoney. So any missing or broken piece can be fabricated on the computer and printed out, even though it may actually no longer be manufactured anywhere.
Mahoney is looking to further explore the concept of virtual and analog using 3D printing. Her next project is about coding and computer illustration using a software program called Processing: “I would like to create some graphics that are purely generated by computer coding and put those on the letterpress. I want to begin to print things that are illustrated by the computer. So that’s the next stage. Moving beyond the type.”
As for the dynamic duo, Wilbur and Broaddus are eager for more. “Connor and I would love future collaborations if anyone is interested,” said Wilbur, “You could give us any 2D file, and then by running it trough our system, the final output could be 3D printed or it could be CNC routed—the materials are limitless in terms of final production.” Both recent graduates, they are ready to have more opportunities to work with software collaborations and 3D printing.
Though it is new to most of us, 3D printing is becoming the hottest new method for production. Artists, designers, and engineers are among the first to take advantage of all it has to offer, but even us plebs can join in the fun.
“Keep an eye on it. Watch it as it develops,” says Matt Charboneau, “A 3D Printer is a good tool to have in your arsenal.”
The MakerBot Replicator 2 in the VCU Graphics Lab is available for anyone to use. Pricing is currently by the hour. “We are using materials that already come with the machine,” Charboneau said, “But once we start to run out of that, hopefully the funds from this will help to replenish the material and actually help get us other options in addition to the ‘True Red’ that MakerBot released.”
