2016-01-07
       
       The Mannequin
       
 (IMG) Image 1
       
       I've made a few geometric squickles on Shapeways, but this has been
       by far my most ambitious and time consuming project.
       
       Here's some pictures and a short tutorial for anyone interested in
       the basic workflow I used in Blender.
       
 (IMG) Image 2
 (IMG) Image 3
 (IMG) Image 4
 (IMG) Image 5
       
       Rendering the model in 'X-ray' gives an interesting result, showing
       some of the joint detail:
       
 (IMG) Image 6
       
       I won't say anything about the modelling, but here are the
       technicalities:
       
 (IMG) Image 7
       
       I used the 3D cursor as a center for spherifying scale
       (ctrl+shift+s) to make the ball joint sockets roughly round. Added
       a skin modifier with sane thickness and sharp (1.0, 1.0) inner and
       outer creases, and a subsurf.
       
 (IMG) Image 8
       
       I kept the 'source' model and the printable output separate, so
       about now I'd copy the whole thing and apply skin modifier.
       
 (IMG) Image 9
       
       At this point some of the skin overlaps, so I removed some edge
       loops (x -> "Edge Loops"), and then applied subsurf.
       
 (IMG) Image 10
       
       Voilà!