Handmade 3D Cardboard Groot Sculpture

Recently, we've been ordering a lot of stuff online, and the cardboard delivery boxes are piling up at home. Instead of just tossing them out, I thought, why not make something cool out of them? So, I decided to create a sculpture of Baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. It's completely handmade—no printers, laser cutters, or fancy tools, just pure skill.

The best part? It's not that hard to make. I had a blast designing and building it, and it was surprisingly simple. In this tutorial, I'll show you how I came up with the template, cut out the pieces, and put it all together at home. You'll see that you don’t need any special equipment—just some patience and a steady hand.

Plus, this method can be used to create a 3D sculpture of anything you like. Whether you're into superheroes, animals, or abstract designs, or anything else. So grab those old cardboard boxes and let’s get started on turning them into something awesome!

Cardboard

Glue

A4 papers

Craft knife

Carbon tracing paper

We will be using Fusion 360 to make the template. To get the final output as clear and precise as possible, start by finding a detailed 3D model of the thing you want to make a sculpture of. For my project, I found an awesome model of Groot on Thingiverse, uploaded by a user named Raxian. It was exactly what I was looking for.

First, download the STL file of the model and import it into Fusion 360. Since it's an STL file, it will be a meshed model. But don't worry—that's totally fine, because we'll fix that in the next steps.

We don't need the lower body of Groot since that would be too complex to cut out and assemble. For this project, we're focusing on just the shoulders and head, which will be much more manageable and still look fantastic.

To do this, you'll need to use Fusion 360's tools to trim down the model. Start by heading over to the Mesh tab on the top bar. There, you'll find the "Plane Cut" option, which is represented by an icon of a half-cut mesh. Click on that.

Next, select the bottom plane as your cutting plane. You'll see a blue arrow appear, which you can drag up to slice the model with a red plane. Carefully move the arrow up until only the upper body and head of Groot are left. Once you're satisfied with the positioning, click "OK" to apply the cut.

Now, we have a model of Groot with just the upper body and head. But wait, it’s floating in the air! This happened because the cut we've made leaves the model without a base, making it appear floating in mid-air. But we will fix it in the next step.

Now, we will select the "Move/Copy" option, represented by two arrows in a "+" shape. Click on this tool, then drag the model and place it on the bottom plane to properly position it.

But, we can't edit the model effectively while it's still a meshed body. To make it easier to work with, we need to convert it to a solid. Head over to the "Modify" dropdown menu and select "Convert Mesh." Click on your model and then click "OK." This might take a while, so be patient. Once it's done, your meshed body will turn into a solid.

You might still see the mesh edges on the model, which can be a bit distracting. To fix this, go to the monitor icon on the bottom bar, select "Visual Style," and then choose "Shaded." This will smooth out the appearance of your model, making it look cleaner and more polished.

While I was at it, I also changed the material of the model to wood to give it a cooler and more finished look. You can do this by right-clicking on the model, selecting "Appearance," and choosing wood from the materials library.

Now, with our model properly positioned, converted to a solid, and looking great, we're ready to move on to the main part of the project.

We need to slice the model so that we can create templates of the sections. There used to be an awesome Fusion 360 extension called "Slicer for Fusion 360," but unfortunately, it seems to be abandoned and no longer maintained. Maybe it was because many users had minor issues with their models after using it. So, we have to do this manually.

It's not difficult, just a bit time-consuming. We start by creating planes along the side plane of the model. To do this, select "Construct" > "Offset Plane" from the top bar. Then, click on the right plane of the model. I set a spacing of 10mm, which means we'll get a new plane 10mm to the right of the selected plane. Repeat this process until the entire right side of the model is filled with planes.

Before doing the same on the left side, I decided to move forward with the next step since this is going to be a heavy operation.

Next, select "Split Body" from the top bar. Choose the "Body to Split" option and click on your model. Then, click on "Splitting Tool(s)" and select all the planes you just created. Take a deep breath and click "OK." This process will take some time, depending on your system's performance. For me, it took about 10 minutes.

Once it's done, you'll see the solid model (in the left browser) split into multiple solids. Now, repeat the whole process for the left side of the model. Afterward, hide alternate solids, and you'll see the model sliced into sections exactly the way we want it.

We're not done yet. Since Fusion 360 cannot export the slices directly as templates, we have to create them manually.

First, create a sketch on the surface of the first slice. To do this, select the surface and then go to the "Create" dropdown menu and select "Project/Include." Next, select the slice surface to highlight it and click "Project" in the dialog window. This will convert the edges of the slice into a sketch.

Repeat this process for each slice. This might take a bit of time, but it's necessary to ensure each slice is accurately represented. After you have created sketches for all slices, it's a good idea to add a rectangle of equal dimensions to each sketch. This step is crucial for retaining the scaling of each slice sketch. Without this, the sizes might get altered when you export to PDF.

By adding a rectangle of consistent size to each sketch, you create a reference that ensures all slices maintain their correct proportions during the export process. This way, when you print out the templates, they will all be to scale and fit together perfectly when you assemble your sculpture.

Once you have all the sketches and rectangles, the model will look as if it is embedded in some kind of blue resin! This is a good sign, as it means all your sketches are properly aligned and ready to be exported.

To save the sketches as templates, right-click on each sketch and select "Export as DXF." Do this for all the sketches you created. Now you have DXF files for each slice, but these aren't in a PDF format that can be easily printed.

That's alright. You can convert the DXF files to PDF using an online DXF to PDF converter. One option is to use a tool like this one. Just upload all your DXF files, and it will convert them to PDF in one go.

Once you have all the PDF files, merge them into a single document using a PDF merger tool. You can use an online tool like this one. This way, you’ll have one continuous document that includes all your slice templates.

It's also a good idea to add page numbers to the final PDF to help you know which slice comes after which one. This will make the assembly process much smoother.

Anyhow, I've attached the template I generated in this step. If you're planning to make Groot, you don't have to do everything I did all over ;)

Now it's time to print the files. I challenged myself to complete this project without leaving the house, so I decided to draw the templates on A4 paper by hand.

To do this, I laid my computer monitor flat on a desk and set the brightness to maximum. This provided enough light to clearly see the templates on the screen. Then I carefully traced each template onto sheets of A4 paper. It was a bit time-consuming, but it saved me the effort of going out to print and a few bucks as well.

Drawing the templates by hand also added a personal touch to the project.

We need to calculate the thickness of cardboard we need to use. The original fusion 360 model has a height (after trimming the body) of about 100 cm and a width of 53 cm. Which gives an aspect ratio of about 2. I wanted to make the model 30 cm high. So, the width will be 30/2 which is 15cm. And there are 36 slices and a cardboard spacer will be placed between each slice. Giving us a total of 72 slices. So, the width of each slice should be 15/72 which is about 0.21 cm. I decided to use a cardboard of 0.3 cm thickness.

Use a piece of carbon tracing paper to transfer the shape of each slice onto pieces of cardboard. Number each piece based on the page numbers from the templates to ensure you remember the correct order during assembly.

Carefully use a craft knife to cut out each piece of cardboard according to the traced shapes. Take your time with this step to ensure clean cuts.

Here's a cool idea to ensure the layers are aligned properly for your Groot sculpture:

1. Place the sheet with the first layer template on a glass tabletop.
2. Keep a light source underneath, such as your smartphone flash or a small LED light. This will light up the template from below.
3. Now, if you place the second sheet on top of the first one, you can see how exactly they differ.
4. Once aligned, use this reference to ensure all the layers are placed accurately on top of each other.
5. Insert cardboard spacers between each layer. These spacers will help maintain the distance and structure between the layers of your sculpture.
6. Stick each layer and spacer in place using adhesive. You can use a glue stick or craft glue as well.
7. Repeat this process for all layers until you've assembled the entire sculpture.

Finally, once it's dry, place it upright and enjoy your piece of art! I love how the contours of the eyes and mouth are so clearly defined. Using this method, you can create cardboard sculptures of anything you like, unleashing your creativity without limits.

Now that I think about the Fusion 360 process, I found it a bit time-consuming. I later realized I could have obtained a similar outcome using a 3D printer slicer software. Although I haven't tried before, I will definitely explore it for my next cardboard sculpture project.

While laser cutting would have resulted in cleaner cuts, I intentionally chose to make this sculpture completely handmade to add a personal touch.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed creating it :)