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Contemplation in Blue: how to design large 3D sculptures with AI
I created a full-sized cubist head with DALL·E 3 and 3dmaker.ai and then used Blender to break it up into 3D-printable parts
I wrote a Medium article a few months ago on using AI to create 3D printable objects. Due to the limitations of the printers I used, the largest piece I printed for that project was 7 inches tall.
For this article, I explored creating larger AI-generated sculptures with my new Bambu A1 Mini 3D printer. I devised a scheme to build larger creations using “plugs and holes” to join smaller parts together. The scheme is similar to the Lego concept but with bigger and more intricate parts. My final piece, “Contemplation in Blue,” stands 24 inches tall, 17 inches wide, and 9 inches deep.
In the sections below, I’ll explain my process for designing, segmenting, and printing large-scale sculptures.
Designing Sculptures with AI
To start things off, I logged into my ChatGPT Plus account, which integrates with OpenAI’s DALL·E 3 image generator. The Plus version of the service costs US$20 per month.
I used the new ChatGPT 4o model and gave it the following prompt.
Rob: Create an image of a modern, abstract, cubist bust of a man crafted from blue plastic, featuring a smooth surface with subtle indications that it was assembled using smaller pieces. Show a wide-angle view of the sculpture on a white pedestal.
The results are below.
The first one I created looked great! The system did exactly what I asked. It even put a little description tag on the front of the pedestal, but it’s unreadable. Here’s what the response was:
ChatGPT: Here is the image of the modern, abstract, cubist bust of a man crafted from blue plastic. If you need any adjustments or additional details, please let me know!
That seemed helpful. When I clicked on the image, it showed a little info box with this text.
