Royal baby fans can 3D print Princess Charlotte … sort of

7 May 2015

Royal baby fanatics might have an outlet for their Princess Charlotte obsession now that a 3D print designer has created a printable design based off an image of the newly-born princess.

Despite her being less than a week old, the world has once again gone royal baby crazy for Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, or Princess Charlotte of Cambridge to give her official royal title, and the first image of her was featured by news outlets all over the world.

And now, it you’re really obsessed, you can download the design for a lithophane – a translucent material used for art that only shows when placed in front of a light source – that features none other than the little princess herself.

According to 3DPrint.com, the design was the masterstroke of Franc Falco, who, spurred on by a friend, did a Google Image search for the princess, uploaded it into Photoshop, and turned it into a greyscale negative.

He then used modelling software called Maxon C4D to create a 3D relief map and, with the addition of some PLA filament as his canvas, printed off his bizarre baby creation.

Princess Charlotte’s bandwagon firmly jumped on

Franco, who also runs the CreatePrint3D website, said that the entire process was a bit of a joke.

“The idea for the lithophane actually came from an email a colleague sent me regarding how a lot of big brands were jumping on the ‘royal bandwagon’ and releasing various products all commemorating the new royal birth,” Franco said, speaking to 3DPrint.com.

“And to be honest, I actually created my piece as a tongue-in-cheek example of what could be done with 3D printing in that theme. However, I do think there is something interesting about using a modern technology to reproduce a traditional craftsman technique and it always brings a smile to my face to watch the reaction of people when they first see the printed piece and then the ‘wow’ when they hold it up to the light!”

If you are one of the people obsessed with Princess Charlotte and have access to a 3D printer, then get on down to the Thingiverse website where Franco has posted his design for people to use freely.

Rats, if only Siliconrepublic.com had access to a 3D printer…

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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