3D Camp Houston was a success! Below are some photos and a list of links representing the highlights of the one day conference – the talks, the vendors, the artists!

3D Printing:  This was the big focus of the conference – new technologies, online solutions and consumer home-3d printing solutions, different materials available, and different philosophies and ethics involved with 3D printing and scanning — copyright concerns (once 3d scanners become more ubiquitous, who’s to stop someone from scanning and printing their own version of your work?), legal questions (if you scan and reprint some broken piece of your kids’ bike, and then it breaks, are you at fault or the original manufacturer?).

Even the possibility and potential of biological printing.  Already techniques have been used to 3d print custom molds for patients, or custom scaffolds which cells then populate; even now though a few companies are directly ‘printing’ groups of cells (imagine burn victims getting skin replacements derived/grown from their own cells)

–Kraftwurx had a large representation – similar to Shapeways or i.Materialise, these guys have the largest variety of 3D printing materials available that I’ve seen
–Cubify offers 3D printers that are only $1300 – that’s getting downright affordable!
–CarveWright is a computer-controlled carving machine.  You output an STL file, slice it if necessary with the CarveWright software, and then let the machine go to work with wood or a variety of non-metal materials! Around $1000.  Steven Ramirez, of Smash Designs gave the presentation and talked about their company as well.  Their company does some really interesting and fun hollywood props creation.

3D Scanning:
-Douglas Smith, smartgeometrics.com , talked about 3D scanning being used to scan really accurate physical data for huge objects like NASA’s Discovery and the Battleship Missouri

Combining Traditional + Digital media:
–Bridgette Mongeon gave a fantastic talk about her process of working in MudBox, outputting STL’s to be printed in specialty industry foam, and then piecing these objects together, coating, and painting them to create durable and professional and beautiful outdoor sculptures.
–The American is a really interesting (and huge!) sculpture being planned with combined 3D and traditional techniques.

There was more than this, of course, and we learned plans are already in place for 3D Camp Houston 2013!

3D printed stainless steel & silver anatomical jewelry, by Michelle Davis Studios
CarveWright machine – about the size of a breadbox
Example of CarveWright wood work – done from 2 symmetrical pieces glued together and then painted
The Maker-Bot 3d printer, one of several on display and in action