Fish - MakerEd

thingiverse

This is the Fish Design That Was Created for Our Local Primary School's Chinese Language Course. This Page Will Include the Model/Design as Well as the Steps I Took to Construct It. How I Designed This I designed this fish in Tinkercad, a 3D modeling software that most people are already familiar with. If you've read our main project page, you'll know its advantages and usage scenarios. Every Design Starts with an Initial Idea Mindlessly placing blocks down doesn't always work. Research is key to creating something great. I usually browse Thingiverse or Tinkercad galleries for inspiration. For young kids designing themselves, drawing their ideas helps them visualize it later on. Older kids may not benefit from this method, so we use class discussions or talking to them individually instead. Basic Building Blocks This design started with a sphere, which I then stretched into a cartoony fish shape. I added the tail by rotating and stretching a paraboloid 90°, making sure it intersected with the body at the right spot. Throughout the process, I kept in mind that this would eventually be 3D printed, influencing my choices on overhang angles. Designing the Dorsal Fin I envisioned a dolphin-like fin, but ultimately decided on a slightly squished hemisphere, moving and grouping it until it looked alright. It wasn't perfect, but good enough. Moving and Resizing the Dorsal Fin I moved the dorsal fin into its position and then created a pectoral fin using another paraboloid. I resized and reshaped it to fit the absurd angles I had given it. To make this process easier, I used the mirror tool, which allowed me to reverse the object over the x, y, or z axis. The Eyes I placed two spheres at the front of the head for the eyes. That's about it really. Adding a Mouth After doing the eyes, I thought the fish needed a mouth – specifically, a goldfish-like one. This was because I was thinking about being able to print this model. A spherical hole makes more sense than a pacman-style mouth when dealing with overhangs. So You May Have Noticed... I placed some shapes partly under the work plane, which ties back into printability. The model needs a flat surface for adhesion and tidiness, so I used a square block to cut away everything underneath the work plane. The Finished Design Here's the finished design of a simple fish easily created in Tinkercad. This is one of the simpler designs but looks decent enough even when printed.