Spores - 3D generated models
by Fernando Jerez

Hi all, I’m Fernando Jerez, a computer science teacher, amateur designer and 3D-printing hobbyist. This set of pieces is the 4th design of “Plastic Reef” series where I tried to recreate weird undersea creatures using procedural and generative algorithms implemented in Openscad.

The style and look of the “Spores” are inspired by Ernst Haeckel drawings. I’m fascinated with this kind of drawings and the organic structures that seem like they have been made by some sort of algorithm.

As with much of my procedural stuff, I used Openscad as a tool to implement this one. I needed some sort of algorithm that could generate a big variety of different patterns but keeping a similar structure.

After a few failed approaches, I went into ‘loops’ so I improvised a mix of formulas to get a sinusoidal path that twists itself to make an organic shape then populate the path with balls and spikes. Tweaking path and distribution of balls/spikes, there’s a lot of weird organic creature to be discovered. My intention was to make a dozen, but finally, I couldn’t resist and render up to 30 STLs.

Community project

The nicest part of this project has been promoted by Laila from Fillamentum. She has made a huge effort to involve makers from the 3D-printing community to test, print, and send the pieces to Fillamentum.

Lot of people got involved, and for me as a hobbyist designer, my best revenue is seeing other people enjoying and printing my stuff. When I see those figures printed at such high quality, it feels great.

Big thank you goes to all makers who made these awesome models: 3DMN, SADDEXdesign, Filament Frenzy, https://futlab.cc, Filip Žákovec, Lab.cafe, Leonardo Delgado, Open Innovations, Openfil, RavMeimad, Stereolab & Trilab.

Gallery

So this has been a nice and fun project, I’m still impressed by all the makers involved and the support that Fillamentum made for us.

I just hope you find these designs nice, print them, and give to your best friends or family.

This is not a functional design, but it’s cool!!!! : )

Check the project: Spores

Cheers!!

Fernando

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