Low Poly Pocket Nativity

Have you ever thought "Man, I love Christmas, but I wish I could carry a little bit of it with me wherever I went? No? Huh. I really thought that would be more of a selling point. Well, no matter. Because whether you wanted to or not, now you totally can! The components of this palm-sized Nativity can fit into themselves, nestling like a puzzle into its own case and folding up for easy storage and carrying. It's a cute reminder of the reason for the season that you can setup wherever you are. This set was sized for mini printers. If you have a larger printer, feel free to scale it up to really let the details shine. This project started as a wood cut puzzle that my Grandfather made with a jigsaw. Then in 2017 I was invited to use a modeling tool and decided converting this woodcut project into a 3D printing project would be a perfect application of that modeling tool. It turned out okay. But ever since making that 3D printed pocket nativity, I had an itch to revisit it. But this time I wanted to make a cover that would close up and put a lot more detail into the models, similar to what would happen if a talented carver got ahold of that original jigsaw nativity. However, after experimenting with sculpting tools it became clear it was too easy to go off spec and make the pieces so they wouldn't fit together as a puzzle any more. So I shifted gears and redesigned the pieces in 3D printing's equivalent of carving: Low Poly. The limitations of fitting the pieces into a puzzle led to some of the characters being admittedly oddly shaped. But low poly, I think, allows for this sort of semi-abstraction. Over all I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and I hope you will be too. Here's wishing you all a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!