3D printing itself is no longer simply a sci-fi fantasy — but that doesn’t mean it’s left that genre behind. As we’ve seen with other 3D modeling, video games provide plenty of great inspiration for small- and large-scale 3D printing projects. Grey Box‘s new real-time strategy (RTS) video game, Grey Goo, was a collaboration between Six Foot, Petroglyph, Weta Workshop, Axis Animation, and Powerhouse Animation, which all came together to bring the nanotech-inspired game to life. One of the most intriguing characters in the game is Singleton the robot, which was the brainchild of Weta Workshop’s Stephen Lambert.
Singleton is sworn to uphold its vow, “We fight so that others may live,” as it acts as Commander Lucy Tak’s companion and advisor on the far-off planet Ecosystem Nine. And now, Gentle Giant Studios has created models so that you can have your very own 1:4 scale 3D printed robot commander… as well as making a full-size one to show off their impressive modeling skills.
Grey Box provided Gentle Giant with the digital model for Singleton, ensuring that the statue would be the most
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Once the pieces printed out, the Gentle Giant team set about the process of putting them together and turning them into a robot. As they describe it:
“For the assembly, our artists printed out a 1:1 graphic to chart t
he parts as they came off the printer. Once printed and mapped, we cleaned off any remaining supports and sanded the surfaces. Some of the Singleton parts had to be further engineered post-printing due to the physics of his skeleton-like structure. Our artists found skillful ways to ‘cheat’ the geometry and back-fill and stabilize areas that were otherwise fragile. The parts were then molded in fiberglass, reinforced with steel structure and hand-painted by our talented in-house painters.”
The full-size model of Singleton stands over seven feet tall, while the quarter-scale model is 22″ tall. Both versions of the robot showcase impressive adherence to the original design concept — and it seems there’s more to come. Gentle Giant is looking next toward Saruk, the alien commander from the “Greyverse.”
Check out the video, below, of the process of Singleton’s 3D printing process, as well as photos of the full-size and quarter-size sculptures. Are you a fan of Grey Goo? Let us know what you think about Singleton’s realization as a 3D printed sculpture over in the Singleton the Robot forum thread at 3DPB.com.