Ice Duckies!

[GallenWolf]

Hello peeps!

This is a fun project created using Houdini, so hopefully it ain't against the rules! Vancouver had a snowmageddon last week, and I thought it was the time to make snow ducks! I whipped up this simple mould inside Houdini, got it 3d printed and BAM! Ice ducks!

There's some improvements to be made - the joint that aligns both halves of the mold fills up with snow really easily, and they need to be kept clear in order for both halves to form a perfect seal. I think instead of using a half ball with its matching negative space, a cylinder matches with a through hole would allow the snow to pass through, and the cylinder would resist the moulds sliding out sideways.

The head was also difficult to form - the ice kept sticking to the mould. Perhaps a coating of polyurethane or even just sanding the insides would help with that.

The ducks themselves are a rubber duck model I got off thingiverse, converted to vdb then back to a mesh, sculpted that mesh in sops to remove undercuts, and finally I used the boolean sop to create the empty areas. The final snow duck is about 12cm tall, and the moulds themselves are printed with abs filament. It took about 12 hours for this print using a 0.4mm nozzle. 

I hope you found this interesting!

[CHIN]

My first reaction was to marval at the rendering tech.

Then I findout it's a photograph.xd

Still like it very much.

[kumpa]

you can poke a hole in the side and blast it out with a burst of air from can

 

[s4l4x]

This is wonderful! It feels like non-destructive tagging in the winterverse. Seems very Houdini! 

[StephaneS]

Awesome !