Becoming a Fashion Designer

Have you ever had that dream? Maybe, something less luxurious than that, maybe just the owner of a custom shirt design studio. That avenue of design has always been sort of closed off and limited.
By expanding the everyday persons' creative palette and allowing the design of clothing, Electroloom a 3D clothing printer, promises to change that; PROMISES. I honestly don't know how well they intend to keep that promise. But, the advent of being able to design custom fit clothing for a reasonable price is a very attractive idea. Honestly now ladies how many times have you been to your favorite store looking for the exact size you want? Perhaps the sleeves are a bit long or maybe the waist is a bit to large on the only pair of those jeans you like. You can't steal someone's design, but, the advent of making something incredibly similar sounds better than having to settle for clothes that just don't fit right? It sounds good to me. I've had clothes that I've always really wanted but never been able to find the size for. I hate settling for exactly something that I didn't want. So when I heard of Electroloom it sounded like my kind of machine.

Exactly how this machine functions and how good the prints are awaits to be seen but if Electroloom keeps its promises we may be enjoying 3D printed clothes at year's end. It also awaits to be seen exactly how large this machine is; I imagine quite large considering it'll need to print a variable amount of sizes. Also how much the machine costs will factor into how the market receives the machine. I mean I want custom clothes but not at the cost of $300,000 for the machine. So have hope, but take the sweet news with some salt.

-Kenta

3D Printing, it's not all sunshine and roses.

Hi, my name's Kenta, I'm now one of the official authors for Chic O Chic blog. I was involved in the last few entries but this will be an unofficial entry of my own. I spent all last week touting how 3D Printing would make life easier, that it was the way of the future. While that is true for the most part, all of that praise has to be taken with a grain of salt. While it is true that 3D printing will make our lives easier in the long run there's still the monster of designing what needs to be printed. I myself am currently involved in learning both Rhino and Zbrush as my modeling programs. I can tell you now that the prospect of being able to print yourself a sofa sounds attractive. However, few have the technical acuity to use the software to design a cutting edge product.

Even after learning Rhinoceros 5.0 for my basic CAD training and graduating shortly after into using Zbrush for full on modeling I'm still far from an accomplished 3D designer. Most of the programs now while certainly getting more intuitive than their original beasts, still have a large learning curve. The price you literally and mentally pay for getting into a beast like 3DMax is all its own; around 3500~5000$ USD for the software followed by investment in training and long hours modeling. You may not have to be as artistically inclined as your actual artist counterparts, but it's still no walk in the park. Anybody who already majors in Art or has experience working with their hands will already have an edge up as they'll be able to envision what they want to build. But, having what it takes to translate that into digitally generated model with a keyboard, digitizer tablet and mouse is again another hurdle that needs to be traversed.

You may also have to learn multiple programs to fabricate what you desire. Rhinoceros for example is great with designing rigid more technical structures. It excels vastly in that sense over Zbrush. However, Zbrush offers smoother/easier modeling. Allowing you to make vastly superior organic models at a much quicker pace.

A highly detailed workflow could take you not only days, but weeks/months to complete depending on the level of complexity. So if you're dreaming about owning a machine be prepared to put some blood and sweat into mastering it. Aside from mastering using a program. If one wants to print a functional piece you will also have to consider materials, structural integrity, among many other common design problems.

Ok, ok enough doom and gloom. I think I've made my point. While it certainly is an exciting field don't everyone go out and by a machine all at once. You'll still need to consider if you'll really be able to use such a machine. I look forward to talking more about this topic. I hope you'll continue to read my posts.

-Kenta

The future development of the 3D printing industry

Since 2008 3D printing technology patents expire and open. The past five years, 3D printers has gone from costly industrial equipment, to a tool accessible to hobbyists and DIY amateurs; and they’re fairly inexpensive now you only need a few hundred dollars to get cheap ABS extruder models. While owned by 3D systems, the Selective Laser Sintering, SLS technology patent will expire in February 2014, this is by far the lowest-cost 3D technology. Nowadays 3D technology is no longer an abstruse technology,  heating up inter-industry competition.

FDM (Fused Depoition Modeling) printers appeared after an explosive growth when the patent expired, so MakerBot Industries LLC became a well-known desktop 3D printer manufacturer, Stratasys Ltd. purchased the rights to MaketBot technology, spending a whopping $ 403 million in the acquisition process. Before, the expiration of the patent 3D printers cost upwards of $ 14,000, acquiring a basic 3D printer now will run you just a few hundred. Unfortunately, Cheap 3D desktop printer still can’t print out mass production molds, so they cannot replace traditional manufacturing.

But, when the laser sintering technology patent expires, expected changes may occur, due to the very high resolution of this technique, printed products can be sold directly. Will be more used in various industries.

Now even the big traditional printer companies like Hewlett Packard, also see the potential of 3D printing. At the Canalys Channels Forum meeting held in 2013, in Bangkok, HP announced it is working on a 3D printer, and is expected to be ready in middle of 2014; will this be a new breakthrough in the quality of 3D printing? At present, we can see on the Internet that many companies are frantically developing 3D printer technology, jumping on the already crowded bandwagon. You’ll soon see the 3D industry entering the consolidation phase. Let us wait and see the growth of the 3D printing industry in 2014.

2014 CES Techzone continued

2014 CES Techzone continued

There are many amazing 3D printing technologies; with rapid development of new features and technologies.

Let’s look at the few covered here —

• How miraculous, 3D Systems printer can print the musical instruments needed for a large instrument.

• As well as AmericanPearl.com can provide customized jewelry , you can choose different metals , precious stones , coupled with a GIA certified diamonds, designing your own jewelery could never be easier.

• 3D systems ChefJet can print out edible foods and chocolate candy. Priced below $5,000 .

• 3D system Cube can print two colors for under a $1000.

• This printer is produced in Taiwan, in their first exhibition XYZ’s Da Vinci can simultaneously print color to the low-low cost of $ 499, winning the CES Editor’s Choice Award, and was praised by consumers around the world for being the most affordable and approachable 3D printer.

• More reports check Here.

CES 2014 3D Printing Techzone

There’s an entire 3D printing section at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, in Las Vegas; from 1/7-1/10/2014. Just a few years ago this section was limited to the few largest competitors in the industry; there are over 28 exhibitors this year from featured companies like 3D Systems to start-ups and newcomers like Formlabs. If you’re interested it’s definitely worth checking out this year. If you can’t make the trip you can always wait for more articles to come out.

A list of all the exhibitors can be found here Techzone 3D Printing Exhibition List

More exciting news comes in the form of 3D Systems announcements of a Full Color 3D Desktop Printer, 3D Ceramic Printer, and 3D Sugar Printer.

Also competition in the Stereolithography processes as FSL 3D pushes out its Pegasus Touch Printer. I will say one thing comparing the two build models not only does Formlabs printer seem substantially sturdier but the print quality seems more consistent. Note this is just my opinion on the subject done from my own research. You might want to look further into this matter as there is quite a large difference in price between the two models.

Formlabs Print Process:

Pegasus Touch Print Process: Fast Forward to 2:30

Notice the shaking of the resin tank/build platform in the Pegasus model while there’s no shaking in the Formlabs model.

A New Step

To have known 3D printing for a decade, but only become familiar with this industry in the last few months. We just crossed a big stepped 3D threshold.

With the rapid development of technology and the positive maturation of  3D printing, it will become the new darling of today’s mainstream. It not only allows designers to have more opportunities for creative expression, but also significantly reduces the cost and time of product development, in general application this means more convenience and fun. 3D printing in the past was used often in mold manufacturing, industrial design and other fields to manufacture the model. It is being increasingly used in the direct manufacture of some products. In particular, some high-value applications, has been small parts, stationery, jewelry, food, large home decorations, costumes, props, almost nothing is not printed. I believe in the near future, the prospect of 3D printing will jettison many industries into a completely different phase. We are here to share our learning and experience here.

This has been just one new step to build a new future. Once the seeds sprout, then the roots will grow, when finally the roots have reached maturity we will be rewarded with fruition．