123D Creature – Character Design

123D Creature is a new iOS app from the team at Autodesk that allows students with no previous experience to engage and experiment with 3D modelling. 

Creatures are the name of the game and the app provides an intuitive interface that is easy to use. Starting with a skeleton, it is very easy to add limbs, bones & joints , sculpt details much like you would if working with clay. 

Processing your model or ‘baking’ as 123D Creature refers to it, allows you to add textures, poses, scale, colour etc. and to place your model into a background to produce photorealistic renders. 

I think it’s awesome.

Creatures can be exported in .obj format, and if you have access to a Makerbot 3D printer, you can import the .obj directly into MakerWare and start your print job. If you don’t have a Makerbot, you will need to import the .obj into blender and export as a .stl – the file format required by most 3D printers.

This is the scenario I am going to give students:

Download your own copy of this unit of work.

Thingiverse already has a number of exemplar models available to download. We are currently printing the Elephanticus on a Dimension 1200es series with layer resolution of 0.254mm – estimated build time of 10 hours.

Will post updates when done.