Sharingan Capsule (Suspended String Art)

Intro

I’ve seen a bunch of suspended string models through the years, and I wanted to try and take a crack at them myself. If you’re not familiar, these types of models take advantage of the extruder on FDM printers to bridge the gap between an object and multiple walls. An object is printed in the center of a frame, and strings of filament are used to connect the two together. When the model is removed from the build plate, the middle object is suspended in between the frame by strings of filament, which collectively work together to make a strong enough connection between the two items.

This model in particular was inspired by the anime/manga Naruto, in which a certain family of characters by the name of the Uchiha inherit a special power in their eyes known as the Sharingan. This greatly increases their ability to fight as Ninja, so there are many instances in the story where characters have had Sharingan transplanted into their eyes (whether that was done willingly or not). While we don’t ever see a genuine Sharingan being stored in a capsule like this, I took the creative liberty to make this model–the suspended lines represent a preservation fluid used to keep the eyeball safe until the time comes where it needs to be used.

The model itself comes in three main parts in addition to the pegs that hold it together: The bulk of the capsule as well as the white of the eye, one of twenty different irises (the 3 versions of the ordinary Sharingan, 15 different characters’ Mangekyo Sharingan, and the two Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan; every version I could track down across the manga, anime, and games), and the front of the capsule, which contains the lines that are visible in front of the iris.

The model is made to be printed with a multicolor printer, but never contains more than two different colors in any single layer. If you have a printer with two different nozzles, that will help you reduce on purge waste. A build plate that doesn’t have high build adhesion even after cooling down is recommended, as something like a SuperTak plate may cause the parts to stick and snap the strings as the frame pulls away but the eye does not. I personally used a textured PEI plate with nothing applied to help adhesion, and waiting until it cooled to room temperature before removing it from the plate.

Parts List

Files:

• SharinganTubeSTEP.step - The STEP file of the original model and all its parts.

• SharinganString3mf.3mf - A 3mf that contains the Capsule with the standard 3 Tomoe iris. Ideal for single nozzle printers that need to purge at every color swap.

• HighQualitySharinganString3mf.3mf - Same as above, but the two halves have been separated and the tops’ layer height is much smaller, which allows for less stair-stepping on the front and back of the model. 

• Irises3mf.3mf - a 3mf file that contains all 20 iris designs. I advise that you move the particular one you want to another plate, and print only that.

• HighQualityIrises3mf.3mf - Same as above, but with a 0.2mm nozzle and 0.08mm layer heights. Use this if you really want a smooth design on the actual iris.

• (Various Iris Steps) - All 20 different irises are included on their own as STEP files, and the name of each step dictates which character it belongs to.

Filaments:

Feel free to use whatever colors you want for the main body of the capsule; I personally used white for the outside so that the color of the other filament would bleed through a bit, giving the implication that the inner color is a “liquid” glowing through it.

Assume all colors are BambuLab Basic PLA, unless specified otherwise. 

• Jade White - used for the outer core of the main body

• Cyan - used for the inner parts of the blue model

• Matte Scarlet Red - used for the inner parts of the red design, as well as the red on the irises.

• Matte Charcoal Black - used for the black parts of the irises

Printed Parts:

Special Print Instructions:

I highly recommend you just use the premade 3mfs I’ve created for you, but if you really want to use the STEP file I’ve included, you first need to Right Click->Merge all the parts that start with “Back” into one sub-merged body, and then do the same with all the parts that begin with “Front.” Then you can split the body to objects, and everything should split accordingly.

Everything should be printed with 0.2mm layer heights anywhere where there are strings.

• Back

  • BackCore - the blue part seen on the larger part with strings

  • BackShell - the white part seen on the large part with strings

  • BackStrings - all of the strings attached to the larger part

  • BackEye - the white part of the eye

• Front

  • FrontStrings - all the strings on the smaller part

  • FrontCore - the blue part seen on the smaller part

  • FrontShell - the white part seen on the smaller part

• Pegs

  • Pegs - each of the individual pegs aren’t named, but it contains four separate bodies–3 square ones that attach the Front and Back together, and one triangular one that attaches the Iris to the BackEye

• Iris

  • Iris - this only has one named part in the Step file, but can be Split to Parts in order to assign the correct red and black colorings to it

Non-Printed Parts:

• Glue

Assembly

Intro:

The assembly for this is relatively simple; the three steps are shown numbered in the images section of the model. 

Instructions:

Print out the Front, Back, and Pegs. If you want the standard 3 Tomoe design, you may print it out directly from the Capsule’s 3mf, but if you don’t, open up either of the Iris3mf’s and pull whatever Iris you DO want to another plate, and print that one.

1. Glue all 4 Pegs into their respective holes on the back.

2. Glue your Iris of choice onto the triangle peg on top of the BackEye.

3. Glue the Front onto the Back by lining up the Pegs.

4. That’s it! Enjoy!

Conclusion:

Thanks for checking it out! Making suspended string art is something I’ve had kicking around my bucket list for a while now, and it was fun taking a swing at it!

I have to say, though, I had a rather frustrating time trying to get each of the strings to actually show up as one single string, and not 0 or 2. However, I somehow finally did it, so that’s good enough for me!

In any case, let me know if you have any complaints or suggestions for the model, but for the time being, on to the next!