3D Printed Jack O’Lantern

by SebastianKerner in Workshop > 3D Printing

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3D Printed Jack O’Lantern

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Hello diy'er

in this instructable i´m gonna show you how to build this 3d printable pumpkin scene from scratch.

In order to follow along you´ll need cinema4D basic fundamentals a copy of cinema4D, any Version starting from R10 will do.
And a few 3D Printing guidelines, which i´ll address as we progress through the instruct-able.

The scene is composed of a cute tiny scared pumpkin, and a big mean one who tries to
eat the little one.

Scene Preparation:

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Scene Preparation:

Since this scene can be 3d printed afterwards, we´ll have to make sure that we use the right units. By default Cinema4D uses a rather large scene scale in "centimeters". If you drop a cube inside the scene, you´ll see that it is 200×200×200 cm.  (Figure 1.)

To change that go to: EDIT > Preferences > Units > Unit Display
Inside that new window you can choose between different units (metric, imperial), due to my personal preference i always use "millimeters". (Figure 2.)

Unfortunately "C4D" hasn´t change the scene scale but rather recalculated the units.

To change the scene scale you can go to: EDIT > Project Settings > Project Scale.
A new field pops up in which you can adjust the scene scale to "0.01 centimeters". (Figure 3.)

Now that everything is set up we can start modeling.

Tiny Pumpkin Define Basic Shape:

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Tiny Pumpkin Step 1:

We´ll start off with the tiny pumpkin. To define the shape we´ll use "Circles" which can be found inside the "Spline" tab and the "Loft Nurb" which can be found right next to it inside the "Nurbs Tab".

By dragging the circles inside the "Loft Nurbs" the object creates a cylinder based on the diameters of the circles. With that in mind we now can duplicate some circles to create the desired shape. (Figure 4. - 7.)

Tiny Pumpkin Apply Characteristic Gaps:

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The tiny pumpkin still lacks its characteristic gaps, in order to create them we´ll need the "Displace Deformer" which can be found inside the "Deformers Tab"

With the "Displace Deformer" active we switch to the "Shading Tab" and load the "Layer Shader" and inside that we put a "Gradient Shader". (Figure 8., 9.) 
This creates our first gab, which we now have to duplicate around the entire pumpkin.

To do so we´ll load an effect called "Transformation" by reducing the scale to "0.1" the entire pumpkin gets engulfed in gaps. (Figure 10.)

Due to the low resolution the pumpkin has, those gaps lack definition, which can be changed by adding a "Hypernurb" as parent object to the "Loft Nurb". (Figure 11.)

Tiny Pumpkin Define Gaps:

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To get the desired gap effect you can then play around with the "Gradient Shader". Up till now the pumpkin has no wall thickness, which is needed by 3D printers. (Figure 12., 13.)

Tiny Pumpkin Make Hollow:

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By converting the object into polygons we can edit them, in polygon mode we extrude the outer shape inwards by "1mm", which is the typical minimum wall thickness requirement by most 3D printers. (Figure 14.,15.)

Tiny Pumpkin Cut Out Cap.

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The next step involves the separation of body and cap. You´ll need a “Boolean Object” which can be found inside the "Nurbs objects tab" and a sphere, by making the pumpkin and the sphere a child of the Boolean object we cut out the geometry. (Figure 16., 17.)

Tiny Pumpkin Cut Out Face:

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The same principal applies to the face, we draw some splines for the eyes and the mouth and make them a child of a “Extrude Nurbs”, which transforms them into geometry in order to be recognized by the “Boolean object”. (Figure 18., 19., 20.)

Tiny Pumpkin Create Stem:

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The last part the stem, is created with a spline and its defining cross section a circle. In conjunction with a sweep nubs a basic cylindrical shape is generated. By editing the scale and cap parameter inside the sweep object, we now have the desired shape we were looking for. (Figure 21., 22., 23., 24.)

Big Pumpkin:

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The Big pumpkin was also created in the same manner, without any extra steps. (Figure 25., 26., 27.) 
except for the tongue, which is the last part of this instructable.

Big Pumpkin Tongue:

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Like the little stem, the tongue consist of a rail spline and a cross-section, which is defined in size by the “Sweep Nurbs”. (Figure 28., 29., 30., 31.)

With everything in place, most 3d Print services could print this model, if exported right into the needed 3D formats, like .stl .

​If I Win the Formlabs 3D Printer Contest:

If I win the Formlabs 3D Printer Contest:

As a little kid I got a slot car racing track with a Lamborghini Countach, I was so fascinated by the electronics and the product itself that this was the time when I started to tinker around.

And now as an industrial design student i'm challenged with a lot of product design task on a daily basis.

From funny ideas during lunch break to serious company related products.
Each time I came up with an idea I immediately want to see it, feel it, hold it and see the final product come to live. That is the beauty of the 3d printer.

The rest of my free time I spend tinkering around with electronics, augmented reality, or household hacks.

If I would win a Formlabs printer, I could step up the game and combine all those fields.

I could build the slot car I was so fascinated as a kid, but this time around from scratch and 3d printed parts. Every idea, every doodle I made on a napkin could come true as an actual physical product, that is so fascinating and the reason why I would make a good use of the “Formlabs 3D Printer”