3D Printing: Replicating Minecraft Creations in TInkercad

 

Challenge: To replicate a Dolphin from Minecraft using Tinkercad as a creation tool.

Background: Minecraft is a particular strong favourite of our students who like aspects of the game and the design potential of it.   We have one of our groups for our 2025 Market Day that is basing its theme and design on Minecraft and some of the characters from the game.    We also have our structured literacy running with a theme each week - in this case the theme was Dolphins.   We combined the two for a 'ten minute challenge' which is we allowed student creation and design based around a theme and time to do so.    We reported back to the class with ideas after ten minutes - highlighting designs that students were happy with or felt were showing creativity.

We have mentioned before that the geometric shapes that are freely available on the main Tinkercad design page lend themselves to certain shapes and creations - and this is clearly the case with Minecraft and this Dolphin.

As with nearly every project that we are currently making with students the criteria was for the print to be original and have a purpose if possible.   Both these criteria were clearly ticked by the seven year old student that designed this creation.

We are always asking the consideration for students as to 'what is the purpose of the print?' or 'what could it be used for?' - in this instance the student inserted a hole into the back right fin, suggesting that it could be viable as a key ring.     Given how the print has turned out there is the likelihood that this will be incorporated into our upcoming school market day.

Level of Difficulty: Medium.   The student is using the key geometric shapes which are available to replicate the design but the student has shown a consistent use of composition and balance to get elements of the design 'right' so it easily recognised as the original.

The student completing this design (independently) is a seven year old.

Size: The print measures 140mm long is between 10mm and 30mm wide (at the head) and is between 20mm and 10mm deep or thick for the various portions/parts of the Dolphin.

As shown left, in addition to being 3D Printed using the Schools Snapmaker printers the design was also AR/VR and tested using the Tinkercad App on an iPad.

This allowed us to see how the design would like print and adjustments that might potentially be made.  Although it was printed with glow in the dark PLA (pink) we were also to alter the colour of the design using Tinkercad to match the original Minecraft figure.   In this instance the student projected it onto the floor of the classroom but we did discuss being able to repeat the process in different locations.

Timeframe: Two and a half hours on the Snapmaker.  We would anticipate the Bambu H2D would deliver the same print, with slightly improved finishing in under half of the time.

What we would do differently/Next step for the students: The Dolphin in Minecraft has the eyes on the side of the head, in this instance the student placed the eyes at the front as they felt it better suited the design.   Other students pointed out to him that the fin on the back of the dolphin is longer than the Minecraft example on which the design is based, however the student was more than happy with the print.