How to create Hexagonal/ Honeycomb Lattices with Shapekeys in Blender for 3D Printing

Inspired by the continuous buzz around the Wilson airless basketball, I ventured into designing a hexagonal lattice structure in Blender, and I'm excited to share this approach with you! 🏀✨ With just a few clicks and the power of shape keys, we can not only replicate this airless wonder but also adapt the shape to other balls.
Hit play to see my latest mini-tutorial, where I demonstrate how to harness Blender's shape keys to create adjustable hexagonal/ honeycomb lattices. Whether you're aiming to design basketballs or a football, this method offers a non-desctruvtive design approach in mesh-modeling. 🚀🏉
Any more sporting equipment we should reinvent with AM?
#Blender3D #3DModeling #SportsDesign #InnovationInDesign #dfam #AM #3dprinting

[@makosmakes]

great tutorial. how would you add the lines for the basketball but scale them into the hexagonal shape?

[@romanreiner1691]

Thank you! You can either cut them in the mesh via the knife tool (edit mode -> "K") or design them separately and unify them with boolean union. Does that make sense?

[@makosmakes]

@@romanreiner1691 yea thanks i'll upload a video soon on my design, thanks for the help and your tutorial

[@romanreiner1691]

@@makosmakes Great! Feel free to share the link here so also others can use it as inspiration! ;)

[@diegocosio5201]

Could you explain to me how you made the seams, I am making a tennis ball with that pattern and I don't know how to combine the two things.