3D printing is still, to an extent, finding its feet and searching for a deep purpose other than being very cool - but it may have finally found its role: materializing children's imaginations.
Yes, a company called Crayon Creatures will drag your child's scribbles, doodles and drawings kicking and screaming into real, full-colour sandstone figurines. Crayon Creatures 'inflates' the drawing - defines the contour lines, creates a plane where the drawing is projected as a texture, extrudes it, and applies some pressure physics to soften the shape.
The sculpture is now ready to print in 3D in a sandstone material to create a hard, slightly brittle model of your tiny tot's creative imaginings.
Crayon Creatures is an offshoot of designer Bernat Cuni's 3D printing and creative fabrication firm Cunicode, and they will charge you an eye-watering €99 plus shipping to make a drawing leap off the page and onto your kitchen table.
Despite this, we think these are brilliant - expect to see some of these appearing on proud parents' office desks and bookshelves soon...
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