Wizards of the Coast have already launched their "Stay at Home, Play at Home" free gaming resource for the Dungeons & Dragons system. But while you're getting your campaign in order — and if you already have access to a 3D-printer — you can take your remote gaming to the next level with these free printable models created by artist Miguel Zavala.

From Polygon:

Miguel Zavala’s art project consists of more than 1,900 digital files, and he has nearly 3,000 paying subscribers supporting his work on Patreon. Polygon talked with Zavala about his work, and how (for the most part) he’s been able to avoid the ire of D&D’s publisher, Wizards of the Coast.

Zavala says he studied 3D modeling in college, but after a stint in the advertising industry he left it all behind. That’s until five years ago, when his wife inspired him to make a hobby of creating digital models for his own 3D printer. After getting a good response on Reddit, he started taking commissions for custom figures. Eventually that income became enough to pay the rent, he quit his day job to work at 3D modeling full time.

“I’ve made almost 2,000 models so far” Zavala said, “covering all of the D&D books all the way up to [Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes]. It’s just been a hell of a ride.”

Again, the models are free, but you can also join Zavala's Patreon and support him in his work, which is a good and right thing to do. Read the rest

In the early days of TV, it was routine to tape over the recording medium after the initial air-date, which means that no video record exists of many of the pioneering moments in television. Read the rest

Samuli Cantell had the interesting idea of importing her ultrasound data into a 3D modeling program to create a VR experience: Read the rest

You can download a high-res model of a 3D scan of the command module “Columbia.” Read the rest

Artist Anne Mondro uses narrow-gauged tinned copper wire and other materials to create works like If I can stop one heart from breaking. Read the rest

Autodesk's 123D Creature is an iPad app that lets you design a monster and then order a 3D print for home delivery. The app costs $2 and I just bought it. Looking forward to trying it out with Jane tonight!

Create a skeleton Add joints and create limbs to build up your 3D character in digital clay. Reposition, pose, and scale limbs; and adjust your creature's shape.

Decorate Add surface details using the sculpting tools, then use the airbrush to paint on color or use image paint add realistic details by to rubbing areas of a photo onto your 3D creature.

Export and share Bring your 3D creature into the render room to generate amazing images to share with your friends. Use the in-app printing service to order a 3D print of your creature, or export your 3D model complete with textures.

123D Creature

(Via Adafruit Industries) Read the rest

(MSOE staff member Jordan Weston shows the finished rapid-prototyped piece constructed of sintered nylon.)

The face vessels made by African-Americans 150 years ago in Edgefield, South Carolina, might have been small, but they told big stories -- stories of cultural movement, human survival, spiritualism and technological prowess, according to Jon Prown, director for the Chipstone Foundation.

Under curator Claudia Mooney, Chipstone has created Face Jugs: Art and Ritual in 19th-Century South Carolina, an exhibition that opens at the Birmingham (Alabama) Museum of Art on January 13, 2013.

(The original 19th-century face jug from Edgefield, South Carolina. Courtesy of the Chipstone Foundation.)

The exhibit, which originated at the Milwaukee Art Museum and was also on display at the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina, has a modern story to tell as well -- one that demonstrates the power of 3D technology to eliminate geographical barriers and preserve culture for future generations. Read the rest

How soon before we hear rumblings in Congress that cool handheld 3-D scanners like this need to be tightly regulated, lest they get into the hands of manufacturers of knockoff goods? Read the rest

Above, one of the bronze sculptures to emerge from the Object Breast Cancer project by art duo caraballo-farman. Snip from the project description:

1.3 Million women in the world are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

For most, the tumor has no image.

It’s an invisible monster, an unseen malignancy.

OBJECT BREAST CANCER (OBC) is based on the conviction that artistic interventions can have important social and psychological effects.

The project includes sculptural and installation work as well as jewelry.

I'm going through treatment for breast cancer right now, and man, this notion of an invisible monster within is something I can definitely relate to.

I don't know that I'd want to wear jewelry made from a model of the mass we're trying to eliminate inside me, but there is something primordially satisfying in the idea of being able to clearly see the contours, shape, size, and character of this thing.

I always ask for a copy of my data when I get medical scans related to my cancer treatment, and it would be really interesting to take the "before chemotherapy"/"after chemotherapy" scans and see if I could get a 3D printout of the cancerous mass, as it (science willing!) shrinks. Not that I'd want to look at it all the time, you know? But I really would like to just see the goddamned thing, and understand it, visually. Once.

The "worry bead" design is brilliant. I could sure use one of these to fondle and fret over during chemo. Read the rest