This time, I will not even delve into the controversial issues and the possibly opportunistic reasons relating to MyMiniFactory’s decision to serially offer free downloads of 3D models based on hugely popular IPs. I will simply limit my reporting to the fact that, after Star Wars, Disney, Lego and a few other top-notch entertainment brands, Angry Birds are now paying a visit to your 3D printers, courtesy of MyMiniFactory designer Marco Autilio. And they look pretty awesome.
Autilio, who you may already be familiar with for the Plant Vs Zombie (another very popular mobile game brand) collection, has created – or actually re-created – many of the most popular characters in the Angry Birds series of games, as well as some of the destructible environments. In the unlikely case that you don’t know how Angry Birds works, you basically have a selection of spherical, stylized birds that you use as ammunition for a slingshot. By carefully calibrating the slingshot, you have to destroy similarly spherical green pigs, that hide within collapsible structures.
The underlying plot is that the pigs have stolen your eggs and the feature that made the games so popular, in spite of a simple gameplay and plot, is that their creators have integrated advanced physics simulations into the game engine, so that each bird has different abilities and each type of structure, made of different materials (ice, wood, concrete), reacts differently to the impact.
While you can certainly 3D print each bird and structure using different types of filament, it is unlikely that the material properties will have as reactive a result as those simulated in the games. However the best part about playing with physical objects is that you don’t have to simulate the physics: they’re already there.
The Angry Birds collection is present on the MyMiniFactory network – iMakr’s curated and guaranteed 3D printable database – as a series of 3D models tagged with “angrybrids”. As of the time of writing, these include 15 different 3D printable objects: seven birds, four pigs, three levels, and one slingshot. While these are mainly replicas of the game characters and objects, it would be interesting to see if other aspiring or even expert 3D modelers can come up with new items that will further develop and enrich the physical Angry Birds experience. Who knows, maybe they will one day find their way into the game as well.
