In the drop down menu in the lower left of the 3D view go to Object > Apply > Scale. Also some tools and modifiers act strangely when the scale of the object isn't 1.0 in all axis.

This way if you edit the mesh later its parts will also be in the same scale as the object as presented in the scene. Hit enter to set the desired size.Īt this point I usually apply the scale to the object. You can check the dimensions in the Transform section of the Properties palette. I usually start by scaling it up by typing in multiples of 10 until its close. If you type a number after pressing 'S' it will scale by that amount.

Make sure the plane is selected and then press 'S' to scale. If it isn't you can toggle its visibility by pressing 'N'. On the right side of the 3D view the Properties panel should be open. Next you should resize your image to size you want your final print to be. If you want to see the image click on the icon with the sphere in the toolbar at the bottom of the 3D View and choose Texture. Use the file picker to chose your edited image. Under Mesh at the very bottom pick Image as Plane. In the 3D view press 'Shift-A' to add a new object to the scene. Most like these little specs would be difficult to print well on most 3D printers.įirst thing will we do is use the Import Image as Plane add-on we just activated. The larger the radius the greater the smoothing but the more detail you will remove. This removes tiny dots and specs and smooths the contours of the posterized image. One thing to keep in mind is that the dynamic range of the image is going to be much less than a jpeg or photographic print because you will never get a true black.Īfter posterize I run a median filter on the image. I plan to have 16 layers of image density so I will posterize to 16 levels. If you have 5 layers in your print you will have five levels of gray. The way the lithograph works is to use the thickness of the plastic to make the image darker or lighter. This will give a good sense of how the image might look once printed. Now that you have the basic image I suggest posterizing it. Next you should convert your image to black and white. You will want your pixel resolution to be slightly greater than the width of the extruded plastic. I used Photoshop but the filters I am using are found in GIMP and ImageMagick as well.

Using blender to make 3d prints