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I've finally finished and publicly released this project! Check it out and download the STL/STEP files here: https://www.printables.com/model/843125-thrixels-a-system-for-3d-printed-pixel-art

I'm working on a fully 3D printed tile mosaic system. Each tile is a 4x4mm square, each base can be printed to an arbitrary size or shape, and individual sections can be seamlessly joined together to make up much larger designs than can be 3D printed in one go.

I'm doing this because I've been searching for the right medium for an homage to the pixel art graphics of old computer games. As a proof of concept and stepping stone to that idea, here's a timelapse of me making a QR code which links to the original video this music is from - it's a cover of New Order's Blue Monday by Orkestra Obsolete, a one-off performance in 2016 of a song from 1983 played only on instruments that existed in the 1830s. I wanted to start this project with a tribute to another bunch of folks doing what I want to do: make new memories from the old.

In case you don't want to scan the QR code itself at the end of the video (or if the system of doom strikes down the audio portion of this video), it just links to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHLbaOLWjpc

Obviously you can do more than black and white - theoretically, with enough first layer adhesion, you can print a whole bed of tiles in any single colour. On my Bambu X1C I put down a 2-layer raft with PLA and breakaway support material and haven't had any failures with the current model, even when printing 1,000 of them at once.

I do plan to release the models (and any code I write to handle generating mosaic images or different base shapes/sizes) under Creative Commons, so if you'd like to make something like this yourself, you'll be able to download the data and print your own!