Mark Zuckerberg 3D Prints His Dog to Celebrate Dog’s Birthday

Formnext

Share this Article

dog-birthday-cake-1

Not my dog.

When I was a kid, I treated my dog’s birthday with all the seriousness that I believed I would one day treat the birthday of a child. I opened a can of wet food and plopped it on a plate, then stuck a rawhide stick in the middle of the foul-smelling “cake” to represent a candle – I figured he wouldn’t appreciate an actual lit candle, which would interfere with his ability to immediately shove his face into the pâté mess. I then invited his friends, i.e. my stuffed animals, to the party where I presented him with the cake and sang happy birthday to him. I may have also tried to outfit him with a special birthday hat or bow, but I don’t believe he was having any of that frippery.

Nowadays, I don’t make quite such a production out of pet birthdays. I may buy my cat a new toy or give her an extra cat treat on her birthday, which I arbitrarily assigned to her as she was a stray with a mysterious past, but we don’t do parties – she’s not especially social. Many of the pet owners I know celebrate their pets’ birthdays, real or assigned, in some fashion, even if it’s just a Snapchat of said pet sent to friends with scribbled streamers and “HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!” across the image.

beast

Beast Zuckerberg

No one I know personally, however, has marked their pet’s birthday in as elaborate a way as Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg recently did for his dog, a white Puli named Beast. (Pulis crack me up – they look like actual smiling mops.) As you may recall, Facebook owns Oculus, so Zuckerberg tasked one of his virtual reality artist employees to use the new Oculus Medium, a VR creation tool, to design a 3D version of Beast.

In a video Zuckerberg posted to his Facebook page, the artist expertly wields the Oculus Touch controllers to sketch the dog in midair, glancing at photographs to make sure that every virtual detail is sculpted in perfect Beast likeness. Once he has finished the image, the file is sent to Facebook’s hardware lab, where a technician 3D prints and post-processes the miniature Beast (he requires a lot of support material, it seems).

vrbeast

Beast, who is now six years old (or 42 in dog years – a healthy middle age) looks pretty excited to be presented with his mini-me – although perhaps slightly disappointed when he realizes that he can’t eat it. His 3D printed doppelganger is a very good likeness, however, right down to the blue bow on his head.

beast2“Beast was pretty confused, but I love that we have the technology and culture where people just make things like this for fun,” Zuckerberg said on Facebook. “And I think it’s pretty good!”

It’s a pretty clever way to advertise the Oculus Medium, which looks like a lot of fun and which I would love to play around with. I’m not going to 3D print my cat a replica of herself for her next birthday, though – like I said, she’s highly antisocial towards other cats and would likely feel threatened by a miniaturized version of herself. I’ll stick with her usual gift  – a good old-fashioned squeaky mouse toy. Discuss in the 3D Printed Dog forum at 3DPB.com.

 



Share this Article


Recent News

3D Printed Construction: Hype vs. Reality in 2025

Nanochon Gets Health Canada Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Trial of 3D Printed Implant



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

The Dental Additive Manufacturing Market Could Nearly Double by 2033, According to AM Research

According to an AM Research report from 2024, the medical device industry, specifically in dentistry, prosthetics, and audiology, is expected to see significant growth as these segments continue to benefit from...

3D Printing News Briefs, June 28, 2025: Defense Accelerator, Surgical Models, & More

In this weekend’s 3D Printing News Briefs, 3YOURMIND was selected to join an EU Defense Accelerator, and PTC has announced model-based definition (MBD) capabilities within Onshape. Finally, a study out...

3D Printing News Briefs, June 21, 2025: AI Co-Pilot, Plastics Recycling, & More

In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, opdo is launching an AI-powered co-pilot for advanced optical systems, and Tempus 3D received $250,000 to advance plastics recycling in 3D printing. Moving on,...

AM Research Says 3D Printing Could Be Responsible for Half the Parts on Launched Satellites by 2033

The satellite industry has grown significantly in the last decade. In the “new space race” between the more industrialized nations of the world, stiff competition has resulted in new and...