Gordon Fisher - Blender 3D Printing Essentials

Gordon Fisher , as a teenager, studied drafting and built plastic model cars. He got his start in 3D computer modeling back when one would have to create a 3D engineering drawing with a pencil and then input the information into a computer, vertex-by-vertex.

He led a three-person crew in building 3D models of 80 aircraft for the U.S. Army Visual Aircraft Recognition program. He also built an accurate model of the 17th and 18th holes of the Pebble Beach golf course for Callaway Golf's golf simulator. He's currently working with the Open Luna Foundation to create models, X3D and 3D printed, of their parts of their proposed lunar base.

He is the Creative Director at Point Happy Interactive. He has been using Blender professionally since 2002 and has given classes on using Blender and using Python with Blender at Python conferences in Texas and Arkansas. His work has been displayed at the National Air and Space Museum. He is also the author of the book Blender 3D Basics , published by Packt Publishing.

I would like to thank all the people who helped me write this book, especially Subho Gupta, the Commissioning Editor, and Amey Sawant, the Project Coordinator. I'd also like to thank Bart Veldhuisen of Blender Nation and Shapeways and Gary Fudge of mCor Technologies for taking the time to answer all my questions, and all the people who have devoted so many hours to developing better and less expensive 3D printers.

Sandra Gilbert started using Blender in the fall of 2000. Back then, there were not as many tutorials or educational resources available for Blender artists, so she, like many others, figured it out as she went along. Over the years, Sandra has seen not only Blender, but the community itself grow and mature. Now, there is a wealth of tutorials and educational materials available.

She is the Managing Editor of Blenderart Magazine. In 2005, she and her friend, Gaurav Nawani, decided to start Blenderart Magazine. Blenderart Magazine is a theme-based community magazine offering Blender tutorials, interviews, and making of articles.

Having been part of such a large open source community and watching how the community comes together to create and accomplish large projects, she knows that Blenderart's success is due in large part to the Blender community itself. The community supports their endeavor in many ways, the biggest being by contributing articles, tutorials, and images to be published in each issue.

I would like to thank all the talented writers and educators in the Blender community for sharing their knowledge and helping in teaching a new generation of Blender users.

Taylor Petrick is currently a student at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He took an interest in 3D graphics and modeling in middle school and has continued to develop his skills ever since. He has a strong programming background, with over six years of practical experience using C++ and technologies such as OpenGL, DirectX, and CUDA. Currently, he is working with ray tracing and investigating its potential for use in real-time applications.

He uses Blender3D both as a tool for his projects and to create artwork as a hobby. He first started using Blender to make models and animations for a video game project and has actively used it ever since. He is excited about 3D printing and how quickly it is entering widespread use. He is particularly interested in the Peachy Printer, a new low-cost option that interfaces directly with Blender.

I'd like to thank Packt for giving me the opportunity to be involved in the review process of this book. It was the first time I had a chance to work on such a project and I was fortunate enough to be chosen as a technical reviewer. Sharing knowledge has always been important to me, so I was glad to contribute my skills to help others learn. I enjoyed working with the team and becoming more familiar with the review process in general.