3D printable flexible articulated octopus (formerly thing:3531563)
Creative Commons - Attribution
This model is inspired by McGybeer's Cute Mini Octopus. However, this was re-created from the ground up in Blender, which means it is not a remix.
This is a print-in-place octopus with flexible legs, in the same style as McGybeer's Cute Mini Octopus. Just for fun, as a toy or fidget, or to show off the possibilities of 3D printing. Unlike the original, this one has no mouth on the side, which allows to print it entirely without supports. It also makes it slightly more realistic because real octopuses (or octopodes for the linguistic fanatics) have their mouth at the bottom. This is where the striving for realism ends though, because real octopuses obviously do not have a nose or eyebrows either.
The Blender source files are provided and are a good illustration of how I usually go about designing a model like this.
For a strong result, use 3 perimeters. Infill doesn't matter much. No supports required at all.
A 0.2 mm layer height should work well, but 0.15 mm as shown in the photos gives a smoother result (expect between 4 to 5 hours print time at this resolution). If your slicer supports variable layer height, using thinner layers for the top of the head will provide an even nicer result (in the photos, the topmost layers are 0.1 mm).
If you can, position the seam at the back of the head to get the nicest result, especially when printing with a silky filament as in the photos. In PrusaSlicer, you can use the seam painting feature for this.
This can be scaled up at will. Scaling down could be challenging and will likely lead to a seized-up or fragile result.
Depending on how stringy the filament is, you may need to wiggle each joint to loosen it completely. If you place the octopus on a flat surface and rotate it by the head, it should look like the third photo if you correctly loosened the joints.
This model has an interesting licensing history. If you just want to know how to legally sell prints, skip to the ‘practical’ section below.
This originally started out as a straightforward remix of McGybeer's Cute Mini Octopus. That was possible due to the license under which that model was originally released, but shortly after, its license was changed to a more restrictive one. Because the remix caused major headaches for the original author, he reached out to me and we resolved this situation by me creating a similar but noticeably different model from scratch with a different name. The Funny Flexi Octopus bears the same license as my former remix.
Those who downloaded my original remix can in theory keep printing it if they still have the files. However, we kindly ask everyone selling it to either switch to my Funny Flexi Octopus, or contact McGybeer about licensing the original Cute Mini Octopus. This will make things much simpler for everyone.
If you switch to my Flexi Octopus, you only need to update the name and your attribution message as explained below, the license itself is the same as before.
If you want to print and sell the Funny Flexi Octopus, keep in mind that it is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license. My interpretation of this license is the following.
- If you sell or give away prints of this model, you need to mention “Funny Flexi Octopus by DrLex” and provide a visible link to this GitHub page both on your shop website, and on a piece of paper included with physical printed objects. I have provided PDF files with ready-to-print attribution cards for your convenience.
- If you remix this model and publish that remix, the remix must have the same license or a more restrictive one. You must provide a visible link to this GitHub page wherever your remix is published. If you sell prints of that remix, the original source should be attributed as described in the previous point.
- You do not need to ask explicit permission from me to sell prints of this model. Just do the above. Of course it is fine for you to drop me a message, but you don't need to.
- You do not need to share profits, although of course you may. On my site you can find a few ways to donate, should you want to.
Needless to say, this contains small parts and should not be used as a toy for unsupervised little children due to possible choking hazards.
Remix of JR_Jae's model published on Thingiverse. A while later, the original source model changed its license (and JR_Jae became McGybeer).
Replaced remix with new model rebuilt from scratch and changed the name, to get rid of the licensing confusion.
Migrated to GitHub.
Articulated, cute, cute_octopus, flexible, funny, octopus, print_in_place, tentacle, tentacles