I’ve seen a lot of talk, and complaints, about 3d printing in the cosplay community lately. The shortest summary of those complaints would be: 3D printing is ruining cosplay because you can just 3d print some stuff, strap it on, and be done.
Listen, I get it. 3D printers are new, they’re popular, they’re making people’s lives easier. Yes, it is true that you can download a file and print it fairly easily, producing results that would have taken hours and hours of difficult skilled work before. However, in my opinion this doesn’t take away from anything, and complaining about it makes you look like an insecure, uneducated, jerk.
Lets look at a few key points as to why 3D printing isn’t the magical “push button, win contest” item that people complain about it being.
The newness is gone
Some have complained that simply showing up to an event with 3d printed items puts you way ahead of the rest. They’re new, exciting, and again, you can do some really cool stuff without having to know how to fabricate it. People could theoretically download some fancy file, print it out, and get undue credit for great stuff, or win contests having only had to “press a button”
This just isn’t happening anymore. People(judges) now recognize common files, and a bare 3d print fresh off the machine is losing favor. For those who lamented the edge a person 3d printing had in contests, it just isn’t so anymore. They’ll only have an edge if they have clever design and skilled finishing, which I’ll address next. On top of that, there’s makeup, circuits, sewing, and all the other aspects of a great cosplay.
Design
Modeling props for 3d printing is a very difficult task. You have to express incredible amounts of skill to know the software you’re using, the limitations of the materials, and the limitations of the 3D printer itself. It takes time and persistence to get good at this, enabling high quality designs that print well and stand up to use. The perception that the computer is doing all the work is such a short sighted and frankly ignorant view. Design is hard. Watch this series on design to learn how to design for print.
Finishing
A bare 3D print sticks out like a sore thumb now. Those layer lines, while initially were cool and interesting, are now the bane of a prop 3D printer’s existence. Every print has to go through a long process of sanding and finishing to get to the final result. This finishing isn’t easy, it takes time and effort. Check out this article on how it is done.
A powerful entry point
To gatekeep and say that anyone not doing it the way it was done immediately before 3D printing is just silly. At some point, you have to accept that right now, we have more capabilities than we had in the past, and this point is always true. It was true even in the period the complainers think of as being “true” cosplay. Before 3D printing, people took advantage of pre-printed fabrics, plotters and cutters of various types, lasers, etc. Foam board, a favorite construction material for many many years, isn’t a naturally occuring material, you’re taking advantage of fancy technology to create this material that is sooo much easier to work with than wood. Complaining that tech makes things easier is hypocritical.
3D printing is an incredibly powerful tool. It is bringing multitudes of people into cosplay and prop building that have wide varieties of skillsets. It is enabling people to diversify their creations in incredible ways, and even bringing people with physical disabilities into the community. Welcome it with open arms. Does that mean that you need to praise every 3D print you see? absolutely not. But take a moment to educate yourself on what skill looks like with modern tools, and seek out those who shine.
For a great breakdown of how to judge 3D printing in cosplay, check out this fantastic article. It covers what to look for to figure out if something is good and deserving of praise or not.
[feature image from Simplify 3D’s quality guide]
