Gradient Colour 3D Printing

With the advancement of 3D technology in all ways possible over the last few years, there are some things that are still challenging. One of them is full colour printing and recently a step towards it was made by Stratasys and Adobe. The most recent version of Adobe; Photoshop CC includes a 3D component, which can be used for importing your three dimensional design in a number of file formats (STL included), creating 3D models from a variety of 2D tools, and since January 2014 includes the ability to make a 3D printable object.

Meanwhile, Connex 3 by Stratasys is a multi-martial Colour 3D printer, which combines a mix of three primary materials; tough Digital ABS mixed with TangoBlackPlus, to represent a variety of Shore A values with great durability. The Connex3 also allowed us to print in a variety 46 colours in a single prototype.

The idea of Stratasys Connex coloration model is to subdivide a 3D model into a collection of independent “shells”, each of which is a solid, watertight object on it’s own. They are adjacent to each other and create a complete model. The software permits you to select a color from a Connex3 color palette.

In this a recent demonstration of Photoshop CC filmed at the Stratasys booth at EuroMold Show, Mike Scrutton, Senior Product Development Manager for Adobe, talks about the way the new Photoshop can be used to easily design and prepare files for a Stratasys 3D Printer. Once a model is loaded into Photoshop CC, it can then be processed and fixed with the Photoshop 3D printing pipeline and an output file created.  Photoshop CC is able to create the exact file type that the printer requires to correctly build the model and hold any additional information (like colour and textures).

The example Mike uses is an airplane model and gradually he designs its gradient colors and advanced textures. The colorful airplane model has also been 3D printed on the Objet500 Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D Printer from Stratasys.