Lattice chess set: Pawn

Hi All,

This is a recent project I’ve been working on for a lattice chess set. I’ve been iterating through different pawn designs riding the line between what can physically print and the level of detail I’m after… it’s a fun game :slight_smile:

https://www.instagram.com/rhinoitall/

14 Likes

I love it!

1 Like

I’d love to see these printed in metal…

Expensive for a whole set but definitely possible.

is that some sort of raisin printer? or did you use aceton to smooth the filament? could you elaborate a bit more on the technology in use?

Those are renders :slight_smile: … I’m waiting on the test print from Shapeways now. I’ve ordered it in their “versatile plastic” which is the least expensive and offers both white and black which I’ll need. From other prints I’ve received, they appear to be run on a high res FDM printer probably in some sort of ABS type filament. They charge a little more for a post process to get the surface finish smoother as well which they recommend.

I use to have a running Form2 printer which had great resolution but it sadly stopped turning on. The company wasn’t helpful in troubleshooting the cause with me so I now use a service bureau for prints and just wait. It’s certainly cleaner! SLA printing is nasty work.

1 Like

oh my… ic, well it looks like you have some really naturals subsurface scattering there, i was thinking it could be renders, but you left no indication of your work other than you are up to some 3d prints so i automatically assumed prints, already skipping rendering evaluation possibilities. :smiley:

care to share your subsurface settings?

what happened to the printer in the end? tossed it into the bin?.. these are the pricy ones, one would assume to get some service there.

1 Like

Here are the sub-surface settings for the PBR material in Rhino 7…


Use a sub-surface color slightly different from the main color. I also like to use some depth of field and two rectangular lights set to linear with a cool color for one and a warm color for the other. The Skylight is still on with an HDR (El Born BCN in this case) but the cool and warm lights on either side improve realism. Balance the power of all three light sources to taste and you’ve got an all purpose product rendering scene.

Occasionally I attempt to fix my Form2 again but so far no luck. It’s unfortunate, I agree… it was out of warranty and they wouldn’t help me help myself. I’m working on getting over it :slight_smile:

1 Like

Hi Brian! Really nice design! May one ask how you did model it?
Best regards
Per

Nah, it’s not expensive, it’s just a lot of money.
Think of the cost of a fabergé egg back in the days… gold, stones and velvet + countless skilled workhours and the world would have been poorer with out them. And I am sure McNeel has a pretty descent RnD budget :wink:

i.materialise has some pretty cool brass coatings:

I have not tried these though.

Thanks @Per

I first modeled the form of a solid piece using any means… it’ll ultimately need to be a mesh in Grasshopper. Then I used two plugins in Grasshopper, Dendro and Crystallon together to create a voxel lattice structure shell thickness. The last step was a voxel difference using a custom variation of the original solid form. This let me slice away the outer bits of the lattice to create a smooth profile. Lots of iterating and workarounds for voxel size limitations as well :slight_smile:

@Holo You make me want to model and render a fabergé egg

1 Like

Cool, that’s a nice SubD challenge too!
And then maybe 3D scanning an egg and 3D printing the frame would be a good idea? :wink:

Thank you for info! Had a hunch Crystallon was involved… Very nice pawn! Eager to see the rest of the pieces!

@BrianJ. Posted them here

1 Like

Thanks @Willem

@Per I also jumped through ZBrush for the final meshes to finesse thicknesses for printing. I love the Rhino <> ZBrush flow too.