My Little Adventure In 3D Modeling

Well, 3D modeling turned out to be magical,
but it requires a 3D printer.

It is not good to just learn 3D modeling,
without anything to take to a printer in the evening.

My favorite internet tutorial video is:
“MODELLING For Absolute Beginners | Blender Human Tutorial”

It is a 30 minute tutorial that shows how 3D artists think,
and how they operate.

It is so easy,
I stopped writing down the shortcuts, and just started shaking my head.

Seeing the progression of Cutting, Extruding, Scaling, and Beveling,
and the power of Mirroring, and see a little human sculpted out of a cube...

Shows the workflow,
for everything else.

I created a new wallet, The Saturn 1.0,
with things pointing upwards for a change, and it looks great.

I have been creating new wallet designs almost every day,
it has been a fantastic experience.

I even identifies the main ways,
to connect wallet face plates together:

Side teeth that can hold para-cord, or even hairbands,
that also create a proper pocket with zero chance of anything falling out.

Elongated holes for elastic bands, about inch in width,
here the elastic is fed in up and down until it locks in, much like a book bag strap.

A t-shaped protrusion, often inset, that accepts o-rings, basically rubber washers,
this creates fantastic looking hinges, that look nothing like rubber washers.

A single elongated hole, on one face plate and an elongated protrusion at a small angle, on the other, to create a latch, for o rings, or even standard paracord.

And of course plain holes for string, elastic shoelace, or para-cord,
the string is looped up and down to keep the plates together.

I think with just a tiny bit more practice I can begin modeling,
a variety of hinges, and locking mechanisms.

At this point I will be able to add my second project,
which is miniature computer cases for the Raspberry PI, including the tiny Zero model.

When I started learning modeling,
the single most important thing for me was perfect precision.

Blender allows that, by presenting a confirmation box for every action,
where once can change values.

But now, especially with the mirroring feature, which takes care of the sides of my wallets,
I no longer pay that much attention to dimensions.

Rather than mathematical perfection,
I just make sure that things look interesting.

I still sometimes adjust dimensions,
just now I indented a side of a para-cord guide by .5 millimeters so that it does not slide off.

The only thing that requires perfect dimensions,
is a credit card/id template so that I know everything fits.

As with mathematics, learning mathematics for mathematics's sake,
is very difficult.

Learning 3D modeling, just to be able to make a little human as in the tutorial I mention,
this is not easy.

But if you get a 3D printer,
Ender 3, version 2, and a $30 roll of white PLA - then everything changes.

Because at that point,
you are no longer learning modeling, or how to use a program.

You become a Product Designer,
it can be wallets, but there is nothing wrong with printing small sculptures, or organic looking products, or jewelry.

Jewelry is going to be my third project,
an Ender printer can’t print very small things.

But it can print enlarged models,
during prototyping.

The bronze/silver/gold properly sized versions have to be ordered via Shapeways or similar
but, they only get printed when someone actually makes a purchase.

They are printed on demand,
when a sale is made and in case of Shapeways this can be done through their online store.

But there are several methods that can be used in jewelery making,
you can search the internet for “3d printed jewelery tutorial”

In closing I just want to say, if you need proof that you really are a genius,
just watch the 3D modeling tutorial.

School grades are only meant for state testing and getting funding,
we are all equally intelligent, all you have to do is find a hobby that interests you...

And call it, self education,
learn at your of pace, in your own sequence, and and have fun.

Integrated self paced education, that produces real results,
it is the best kind of education.