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I imported an STL model of a piece of Star Lord's mask (originally from The RPF thread).

Here's how a part of the mask looks like in Blender:

Star Lord mask bottom part

I intend to use a 3D printer to print this part, and I would like to "smoothen" the hard angle, so that I will not need support to print this part. Something like this (mocked using a 2D program, just a small example):

enter image description here

This is the back side of the mask, so I don't mind deforming it a bit to reduce the need for support material.

The problem is that the existing mesh is quite dense, and I don't want to move 1000 vertexes. I tried proportional editing, but I don't feel like I have enough control there. Also, even with connected editing, I managed to deform the other side of the mask (where I don't want to change anything) near the edges.

Any tips on how to do this? (would have been really easy with real clay...)

Thanks.

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  • $\begingroup$ I've had some success doing this with several iterations of the smooth modifier $\endgroup$
    – ajwood
    Nov 14, 2014 at 19:05
  • $\begingroup$ I would use a combination of the remesh and subdivision surface modifiers. $\endgroup$
    – PGmath
    Nov 14, 2014 at 20:58

1 Answer 1

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For fixing such models for 3D Printing I suggest taking a couple steps:

  1. Use 'Tris to quads' (Ctrl + j in Edit mode)
  2. Try selecting the edge loop in question (Alt + RMB)
  3. By using 'Scaling' (s) and 'Moving' the object (g) in combination with 'Proportional editing' (o, use mouse wheel to specify the radius in which vertices will be affected) you can smoothen the area in question.

I also suggest using 'Smooth Vertex' located in the 'Tools' panel (t), only the selected vertices will be affected.

If you edit the mesh and reduce the amount of proximity loops around the edge you want to soften, you can use subdivision modifier.

If you can't avoid the overhangs (front of the mask rounded, and the back has steep angles as in the picture you attached) you might want to split the model into parts and print them in a different orientation, in most cases however it requires more work to choose this solution.

Lastly, since the overhangs shown in the picture you attached are quite steep. Unless you want to make the back completely flat, I would suggest you still use some supports to print such models (as the overhangs tend to start at the last layers of the print, you might be disappointed to see the model printed well and when it came to the overhangs layers it failed.)

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