DEVLOG 8 - Chitubox

 Setting up Chitubox -

Before adding supports, I made sure to check what the model of resin printed confetti uses is. Chitubox has a folder full of presets to choose from and so I selected the ELEGOO Saturn from the menu. I did not have to change any other details as they were all correct. [though it is important to check the settings related to resin are correct as these may cause issues later on].

Exporting my models as STL files -

As Chitubox requires STL files to work, I needed to bring my base with the slot in into Zbrush to export it as the correct file. However as I did this, I noticed some holes appearing in my model that weren't' there in maya. I believe this has something to do with the low poly count of the model, as when I added in more topology using the retopology tool, this issue was resolved. I did also do the mesh integrity check just to be 100% sure that there were no issues with my model, which thankfully there weren't. I made sure to export both the base and the model as STL files.

Adding supports in Chitubox -

I wasn't  quite sure on what the method to add supports to miniatures was, so I found a very good video explaining how I should go about doing this. According to this video, the auto support tool in most software is the most reliable option to choose from, however some tweaking may be required to support certain areas and remove floating islands. The guy in this video used the medium density supports for his model, and so I decided to use the same even though my model is of a slightly smaller side [his was around 36 mm I believe, whereas mine is 28 mm roughly]. He did explain though that larger models would be better off using the heavy support density to ensure they are adequately supported, I may have been ok with using the light density, but I wanted to follow the advice of someone who was more well versed in the topic.

https://youtu.be/9G3Oq3_LtEQ?si=93IIQAKY_0S6GNY_

Here are my models brought into chitubox. I made sure to scale them together so that they would retain their scale and should hopefully still be able to slot together. I then oriented them at a 45 degree angle to hopefully make my print more successful.

I then used the support option to make certain areas of my model more sturdy, Chitubox highlights potential problem areas in my sculpt in orange, that way I can add more supports to those areas. As a precaution, I made sure to support the back [underneath her cape] a little more than anywhere else, just because I wasn't sure if the gap between the back and the cape would make the model unstable. I also added some supports to the slot in the base just to make sure that doesn't collapse in on itself.

Here is a better look at the supports at the back of my model, here you can see the areas that were highlighted in orange, and the subsequent supports I added to this area.

Checking for Islands -

The final step before printing is ensuring there are no islands in the breakdown of my print. Islands are areas that are not supported by any scaffolds or the base sculpt itself, leaving them in would mean there is no platform for the resin to build from and thus the print would likely begin to have errors if not fail entirely. Chitubox's inbuilt island checker helps identify problem areas in red which can be resolved with the support function.

After fixing the islands, there being two within my sculpt of the character, I was able to finalize the slicing function and prepare to print.

I found it really helpful that Chitubox estimates how long the print should take, I am looking at roughly an hour and a half, so I will have to hopefully start my print next week and hope that I had followed all the steps correctly. I am feeling relatively hopeful that it will be successful, so far I believe I have fixed all the potential problems such as non manifold geometry, weakly supported areas and floating islands.