How to use AI to create a 3d Model

First and most important. Please be respectful! This is an amazing tool and should be used responsibly. Put in the effort to learn and play and most importantly have fun!

Second, if the process is too complicated shoot me note here or on Patreon with a photo of a model you would like to see and I will try to make it for you!

See a quick tutorial video here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-use-ai-to-120617822

Here is a quick step by step guide to use AI to create a 3d model.

1. Find a suitable image (or create one from a prompt)
2. Use a service like https://hyper3d.ai/rodin or find a suitable model on https://huggingface.co/ to run yourself
3. Get the output obj and shaders - I use the plain shader/textures but you can get PBR (diffuse, metallic, normals, pbr, roughness textures)
4. Open the file in blender
   • go into edit mode and separate by loose parts to remove any artifacts that were added (sometimes little islands will appear like in the sample file!)
   • apply a subdivision modifier (I tend to use 2-3), you could also use a multires modifier if you want to do some sculpting before the next step
   • apply a displace modifier - I use 0.013 strength and -1 midlevel but you can play with these settings
   • sculpt as needed (I adjust eyes, add held items or weapons and clean up artifacts, add fingers etc... etc...) - weapons should be 1.5mm or larger across so that you don't have tiny sticks that snap on FDM but resin can do some small stuff - alternatively you can add your objects AFTER the next step
   • apply a voxel remesh modifier - aim for 200k vertices for a nice 20mb file, use the adaptivity setting to balance voxel size and quality (I use 0.003mm and around 0.1mm adaptivity but jump around in there) - before applying this step you can copy your higher res version then apply it as a shrinkwrap modifier on your remeshed model to return some detail
   • optionally add your optimized eyes, weapons, shields etc... here via a boolean modifier
   • use the 3D-Print Toolbox to optimize your model for printing cleaning up non manifold edges, intersecting faces, and distorted edges - I haven't figured out 100% how to fix degenerated, sharp and thin edges yet but it doesn't seem to matter (TBD)
   • once you've got everything optimized you can use the export feature and it will give you an STL file

I've attached by source files, blend starter file, sculpted file, output STL files, and the source image. The character printed out OK at 0.08mm but if I were to redo this model I would say that the weapon should be thicker - It was under 1mm across in the smallest parts and that is just too thin.

If you haven't used Blender before you'll have to go through some setup process to set things up - there are lots of video tutorials on this subject but I highly recommend looking up how have blender use your graphics card instead of CPU for processing otherwise things are going to be SUPER slow!

I got into 3d printing in early 2024 and fell down a rabbit hole into modelling - I've printed over 700 figures so far and while I like paid/premium models I was always kinda sad that there was a lack of free models. Giants like MZ4250 are amazing and up to 5k+++ figures made free to all and I wanted to do this too. I'm on a quest to generate 1000 AI 3d print files for DND/TTRPG figures in 2025. I want to make these free and I want to use this work as a way to get better at Blender, sculpting, scripting and create some figures that people will be happy to have on their table. You can follow along on my journey on Patreon or Printables or Thingiverse!

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/Adamnant
Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/adamnant/designs
Printables: https://www.printables.com/@adamnant_1815442