Fictional worlds, whether from books, films, or video games, have the power to immerse us, whisk us away from our stresses and obligations, and engage in some soul-soothing wish fulfillment. Teenagers who wondered what lived beyond the hedge of their quiet neighborhood find a kinship with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, High Schoolers with overactive imaginations and friends they know better than themselves readily group together to slay imaginary dragons, and children chase each other about with sticks, believing that they are Jedi knights.
Beyond childhood indulgences, there is a huge industry behind making the objects in these adventures real. Modern blacksmiths have found new forms of employment and popularity by crafting weapons, clothing, and everyday items from different franchises. For example, the AWE me channel on YouTube, a group of artists and artisans who collaborate to create armor, weapons, and even food from fantasy series, currently has a subscriber count above five million people. With this fascination comes a high price. A middle-of-the-road Anduril (a popular sword from the Lord of the Rings series) will set a prospective adventurer back nearly three hundred dollars. In production for the at-home voyager, 3D printing emerges as a viable and cost-effective way to craft items from popular series and have them in your own treasure horde.
Ryan Snyder has been pursuing this objective during the semester. Ryan has used his passion, as well as his extensive knowledge of math and computer science to render class challenges and individual undertakings in unique and thoughtful ways. Ryan’s foray into the fantasy world is happening for his final print, a rendering of Dawnbreaker, a sword from Skyrim. Skyrim is the immensely popular fifth entry into The Elder Scrolls video game series. Below is a clip about Dawnbreaker, and how it comes into the hands of the Dovahkiin, the player character. The relevant bit begins at 31:31
Here’s what Ryan said when I caught up with him about his build:
LC: So, have you been interested in fantasy weapons for a long time?
RS: So, relatively. Really, ever since I started playing Skyrim is what really got me into them. Um, just because of all the different types of weapons and the moment of “Oh, what am I going to find next?” And then of course I did watch The Lord of the Rings and that sort of deal – but that wasn’t until I’d already encountered weapons in Skyrim.
LC: So what inspired you to craft this particular weapon?
RS: It’s been one of my favorites since like, the beginning. I stumbled across it in my first Skyrim playthrough; I just happened across the statue of Meridia, and I went through the whole questline. It’s been the weapon that, as soon as I’m high enough level to get, I try to get as soon as possible. And then I just wield it as long as I can.
LC: Yeah. Is that your favorite moment of Skyrim – the moment that you get it?
RS: Uh, I would say one of them. There’s a lot of like “favorite moments” – in Skyrim, those are mostly when you’re just out exploring and discover something new. Especially – I have hundreds of hours logged in the game at this point – and I’m still discovering new stuff. Like, it’s amazing that I can discover new things after over two hundred hours of gameplay.
LC: Right, because the game was released in 2011, right?
RS: Yeah, it’s five years old.
LC: So, I mean, it’s a video game obviously, but what does it mean to you, in the grand scheme of things? Why is it something you keep coming back to?
RS: Skyrim? I think it speaks to the explorer in me. I heard this great quote once, it goes something like: “Our generation was born too late to explore the earth, but too early to explore space.” I think Skyrim kind of speaks to that urge within me, and lets me do this thing I love, where I just pick a direction and I start going.
Ryan used an open-source graphics and animation software called Blender to design Dawnbreaker. Below, he detailed some of the benefits of the software and the challenges he ran into during his design and print process.
LC: What were some of the challenges in realizing Dawnbreaker?
RS: Dawnbreaker has a lot of really minute details, ‘because, you know, it’s designed by professional 3D modelers, and I’m obviously not that skilled, so trying to kind of get even some of those details in it, like the bottom of the handle actually has these little tiny points in it that you can see on the game rendering. And even just crafting that took me a solid hour, if not more. Just trying to get them right.
LC: So Blender is something I’m a little bit familiar with, but could you walk me though why you chose that program to use for this final?
RS: So, there’s a couple of things. First, I had some previous experience – not a bunch, but it’s enough. I’m somewhat familiar with the UI, and this actually taught me a lot about it. Um, and it’s also – I know it’s really, really powerful, right? It’s ultimately a mesh modeler, at the end of the day. If you’ve ever used the sculpting tools in Fusion 360, it’s like that but on steroids – it’s very very powerful, and I knew that would be helpful.
LC: Right, to make sure it’s as accurate as it can be.
RS: Yeah, exactly. And to make it easier to craft it. In fact, I started in Fusion 360, I started trying to do it in OpenSCAD, um, and they were really, really difficult because I didn’t have all the tools available to me that I knew I would have in Blender, like I found myself constantly thinking that what I was doing would be only a few clicks in Blender, and then I decided I was just going to use it.
The approach Ryan took for this project is indicative of his work for the entire semester. While working with the print of Dawnbreaker, using the ultimaker, he ran into several issues, including a wobbling blade, and a raft that refused to lay flat. He troubleshooted these issues and is currently working on a finalized print.
The fantasy genre is a radically equalizing one. It allows the reader, player, or viewer to feel immersed and active in the story or game regardless of the constrictions of their everyday life. The objects that a participant encounters in those stories carry a significance beyond their function. As Ryan shows, producing these, and creating something of sentimental and aesthetic value used to be quite difficult or time consuming, but now, 3D printing has made the manufacture of physical objects as available and immersive as the genre itself.
Ryan isn’t the only person adding to his treasure horde. Thingiverse turns up 65 different prints for a search of “Lord of the Rings”, 182 for “Harry Potter”, 186 for “Skyrim”, 1341 for “Star Wars”, and, astonishingly, 1537 for “Pokemon”. Clearly there is a community of designers dedicated to bringing the important things from their fantasy world to life.
Beyond mere aesthetic and sentimental value, this process brings to life the magic inherent in 3D Printing, and does prompt the question: would a dragon horde include a 3D Printer? As long as wonderfully geeky, intelligent, and passionate people are asking that question, 3D printed fantasy objects will continue to thrive in a variety of outlets.
Below are pictures of the Dawnbreaker, both in-game and of Ryan’s print progress.
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