Multicolor Easter Eggs with 3D Color Composition

These are multicolor Easter eggs comprised of two parts. One part is made of levels of polygons (dodecahedrons) and the other part is made of levels of zigzags. The two parts are interlaced with each other. If you have a multicolor printer you can set a different color for each part. The polygon levels will dominate the color of the print, but depending on the viewing angle it will dominate more or less. Even though the design has only two colors I called it a Multicolor Easter Egg because the color composition changes with the view angle.

There are a dozen egg variations available in the download with three sizes (32mm, 64 mm, and 96 mm) each with four variations of level heights (0.4 mm, 0.8 mm, 1.2 mm, and 1.6 mm). 

My cat loves playing with the 32 mm version, so it seems to be a great cat toy. I think it's because it wobbles due to the design.

Design Details

The lines on all the models are 0.4 mm wide, designed for a single print line with a standard 0.4 mm nozzle. You could scale the model up or down in all dimensions to match the nozzle width if you're using a different sized nozzle.

The outer dodecahedron has attachment points on the "zig" vertices below it and an inner dodecahedron attaches to the "zag" vertices. Each successive pair of levels is rotated by 1/11 of a circle to make the swirl effect.

The models in the cover image are all 0.4 mm level versions except the front left 64 mm model which has 0.8 mm high levels, the front center 32 mm model which has 1.2 mm high levels, and the back right 64 mm model which has 1.6 mm high levels. Three of the models are mirrored on the X-axis so the spirals are going in the opposite direction.

Printing Tips

The bottommost and topmost levels can be challenging to print because of the low slope and substantial overhang of successive levels, especially for the larger models or larger layer heights. The most difficult model to print will be the 96 mm model with 1.6 mm levels. So you might want to cut off a pair of levels on the top and bottom of the 64 mm models or a couple pairs on the 96 mm models to make them easier to print. You can just lower the model below the build plate in your slicer to remove some of the bottom levels. I had to cut off the bottom two levels of the 96mm-1.2mm model that I printed and even then the bottom few levels were a bit messy. If you have really good cooling, you might be able to print the bottommost levels of the larger models with some success so the published models have all the levels intact.

I'd be very interested in seeing some multicolor makes. I don't have a multicolor printer, so the prints that I made are all single color, but they prove that the models are printable. 

The Alternating Levels Technique

I think this technique of alternating levels with different colors is pretty cool. If you agree, please give this design a like.

I've not seen the technique used on any other 3D model so if there are any out there I'd be curious to see them. If you know of any, please drop a link to them in the comments.