I’m in a tricky position here.
I use MyMiniFactory, have backed several frontiers things and am a member of a few tribes.
I also use Thingiverse a lot.
And while I certainly don’t want to pay for AI content, I don’t mind that much if it’s free. There have been times that I’ve looked for something for DnD and the only option was AI generated. And honestly, I’d much rather have that than no model at all.
I can’t see the video without an account, but the house in the thumbnail looks really good.
For DnD, my orcs all lived in a Tabletop Scenics Orc Barracks, but now I’m very tempted to try something like this for next time.
I use ESUN PLA+ for printing minis and would recommend it to anyone.
For reference, the only filament I’ve used that came out nicer was SUNLU high-speed PLA, but would NOT recommend for minis (it can’t cope with the constant retractions).
Oh, and also prime your models before painting them. I just use ordinary spray primer that you can get for dirt cheap - Tetrosyl Trade Spray / Hycote / Motip are all good brands. Just make sure you don’t get gloss finish and you’ll be fine!
Have you tried DAS clay? If you’re British, you can buy it pretty cheap from The Works, Hobbycraft or The Range.
It seems like it’d be exactly the right consistency to fill out these molds - a smidge firmer than playdoh, but much softer than plasticine.
Edit: just remembered, you can even get stone effect DAS clay for the same price, so no painting needed!
I didn’t know imagetostl took glbs! I honestly wouldn’t even have expected it!
I’ll definitely be using that then. Blender is great, but I’m tied to one machine - I’d much rather use online tools when I can.
Thanks for that :)
If you have at least one of each piece remaining, then yep - it’s easy!
The technology you’re after is called photogrammetry, and there are two inexpensive ways that I use often (there are more, but these are the two I rely on)
KIRI Engine - I have a subscription, but I think there is a free tier. You take about twenty photos of the object from different angles, upload for processing, and you get a 3D model back that you can print.
TRELLIS - take a single photograph and upload to here:
https://huggingface.co/spaces/JeffreyXiang/TRELLIS
You will receive a 3D model back that you can import into Blender, run a mesh operation to merge by distance (to create a watertight model), export as STL and then print.
KIRI Engine requires more work upfront, with all the photos, but is the best at recreating existing things accurately.
TRELLIS requires more work at the end, because it doesn’t automatically create printable models, and it isn’t a finished product yet, but it is the closest thing to actual witchcraft I’ve experienced.
It’s a neat idea, similar to how displacement maps affect the output without affecting the geometry of a 3D render.
Also, I like this image, as it makes me feel less bad about my own grizzly-looking heat block.
In the linked article, MyMiniFactory say that they’ll ultimately be removing AI content from Thingiverse.