3D printable flexible articulated octopus (formerly thing:3531563)
Creative Commons - Attribution
This model is inspired by McGybeer's Cute Mini Octopus. However, this was re-created from the ground up in Blender, which means it is not a remix.
This is a print-in-place octopus with flexible legs, in the same style as McGybeer's Cute Mini Octopus. Just for fun, as a toy or fidget, or to show off the possibilities of 3D printing. Unlike the original, this one has no mouth on the side, which allows to print it entirely without supports. It also makes it slightly more realistic because real octopuses (or octopodes for the linguistic fanatics) have their mouth at the bottom. This is where the striving for realism ends though, because real octopuses obviously do not have a nose or eyebrows either.
The Blender source files are provided and are a good illustration of how I usually go about designing a model like this.
For a strong result, use 3 perimeters. Infill doesn't matter much. No supports required at all.
A 0.2 mm layer height should work well, but 0.15 mm as shown in the photos gives a smoother result (expect between 4 to 5 hours print time at this resolution). If your slicer supports variable layer height, using thinner layers for the top of the head will provide an even nicer result (in the photos, the topmost layers are 0.1 mm).
If you can, position the seam at the back of the head to get the nicest result, especially when printing with a silky filament as in the photos. In PrusaSlicer, you can use the seam painting feature for this.
This can be scaled up at will. Scaling down could be challenging and will likely lead to a seized-up or fragile result.
Depending on how stringy the filament is, you may need to wiggle each joint to loosen it completely. If you place the octopus on a flat surface and rotate it by the head, it should look like the third photo if you correctly loosened the joints.
If you want to print and sell or give away the Funny Flexi Octopus, keep in mind that it is released under a Creative Commons - Attribution license. In the next sections, I explain my interpretation of this license.
This model has an interesting licensing history. If you just want to know how to legally sell prints or display the model, skip to the next sections.
This originally started out as a straightforward remix of McGybeer's Cute Mini Octopus. That was possible due to the license under which that model was originally released, but shortly after, its license was changed to a more restrictive one. Because the remix caused major headaches for the original author, he reached out to me and we resolved this situation by me creating a similar but noticeably different model from scratch with a different name. The Funny Flexi Octopus bears the same license as my former remix.
Those who downloaded my original remix can in theory keep printing it if they still have the files. However, we kindly ask everyone selling it to either switch to my Funny Flexi Octopus, or contact McGybeer about licensing the original Cute Mini Octopus. This will make things much simpler for everyone.
If you switch to my Flexi Octopus, you only need to update the name and your attribution message as explained below, the license itself is the same as before.
The Funny Flexi Octopus is released under a Creative Commons - Attribution license. Details can be found on the CC website, but in a nutshell, my interpretation of this license is that you are pretty much free to do anything with this model including selling prints if you comply with the following conditions.
‘Attribution’ means you must always provide a clearly visible reference to the source of the model. This is a very easy requirement that does not incur any significant extra cost.
Here is an example of a full attribution message:
“Funny Flexi Octopus by DrLex on GitHub, released under a Creative Commons Attribution license.”
If you are somehow tight on space, the most minimal attribution could be a hyperlink:
“print3d-funny-flexi-octopus by DrLex0 on GitHub - CC BY”
leading to this GitHub repository, but the full format shown above is preferred.
If there really is no way to provide hyperlinks, either of the above lines of text suffice because they contain enough information for people to find this source page, but you must provide links when possible.
When selling or giving away prints of the Funny Flexi Octopus, you must have this visible attribution message both on the webpage where you sell the model, and on a physical medium (like paper) included with each physical product.
- For the required attribution message on your website/store, simply copy either of the above example lines, and ensure the hyperlink to this GitHub page is preserved (or re-add it).
- For the required physical message that must be included with physical sold or gifted prints, simplest is to use the ready-to-print attribution cards in PDF format that can be found in this repository. You may also hand-write it, 3D print it, carve it on a clay tablet, I don't care. The only thing that matters is that the physical sold or gifted object is accompanied by a physical readable attribution message that contains at least the minimal information from the second example.
When showing the 3D model or prints of it in photos or in a video outside the context of selling printed copies, the same kind of attribution message as shown above must be included as a text overlay on the photo or in the video, or in the video's end credits. For static photos, if you really don't want to put the message in the photo itself, the text with link may also be placed on the webpage that contains the photo.
The most important thing is that the attribution message is present and clearly visible. For videos, it must appear for at least 1 second. For both video and photos or on webpages, it must not be hidden by silly tricks such as an unreadable font, low contrast, or putting a lot of whitespace before it.
Remixes are still subject to the attribution requirement. When you sell or give away prints of your remix, or display the remixed model, the origin must be attributed as described above. You can change the message to: “Based on Funny Flexi Octopus by DrLex.” You do not need to use the same attribution cards, but it must be obvious that your remix is derived from my model, and must provide a link to this GitHub page.
You are not obliged to make the 3D model for a remix available, this is not a SA license.
If you do publish the 3D model, it must have the same CC BY or a compatible license. (If the remix makes substantial changes and is tailored to a specific situation, its license may also be a more restrictive one like BY-ND or BY-NC-ND. Modifications anyone can perform in something like TinkerCad in a few minutes, do not constitute substantial changes.)
As you can see:
- There is no requirement to ask and obtain my explicit approval if you simply follow the above rules. Feel free to drop me a message to notify me that you'll be selling or displaying this model somewhere, but it is not required if you comply with the license.
- There is no need to share profits. Of course you can always tip me if you insist on sharing some profits or just want to show some appreciation.
Needless to say, this contains small parts and should not be used as a toy for unsupervised little children due to possible choking hazards.
Remix of JR_Jae's model published on Thingiverse. A while later, the original source model changed its license (and JR_Jae became McGybeer).
Replaced remix with new model rebuilt from scratch and changed the name, to get rid of the licensing confusion.
Migrated to GitHub.
Articulated, cute, cute_octopus, flexible, funny, octopus, print_in_place, tentacle, tentacles