# Turn your animations into real-life figurines

## Hold your 3D mesh in your hands with 3D printing

#### Help All Along the Way

Global Customer Service Team and in-depth tutorials to answer your questions

#### Full Color Prints

Print single models or entire renders using the best printers available

#### Affordable & Fast

Save on 3D prints and ship them anywhere in the world

## How it Works

### 1

**Design Your Product**

- Tutorials on how to design for 3D Printing. Guidelines for each material. Support from a global design community.

### 2

**Upload to Shapeways**

- Instant pricing. Automated checks. Tools to improve printability.

### 3

**We'll Make it Come to Life**

- Latest industrial 3D printing technology. High-quality materials. High-touch quality control (from quality checks to finishing).

### 4

**And Deliver to Your Door**

- Fast turnaround time. Global shipping options.

## What Our Community is Saying

> Price was very affordable. You guys have the best submission system and tools... And it most importantly, it looks fantastic!

**Branden C. - 3D Artist**

> Since the moment I saw 3D printing capability, especially through Shapeways, a whole new world opened in front of me.

**Alharith - Shopowner**

> Love shapeways, you can get inexpensive & very highly detailed 3D prints to realize your ideas.

**Jill Davis**

> Shapeways is awesome. The ability to create anything your imagination and capabilities allow is a powerful thing. I'm in love.

**Shapeways Community Member**

## Get the Help to Get You Started

#### [How to Prepare your Render/Animation Model for 3D Printing](/content/tutorials/how-to-prepare-your-render-animation-model-for-3d-printing/index.html)

Expert 3D Animators that are new to 3D printing have expressed their frustration in uploading their geometry straight to the printers. This tutorial is designed to help bring your models ready for animation, ready to be 3D Printed.

#### [Creating Hollow Designs](/content/tutorials/creating-hollow-objects/index.html)

When you create an object with Shapeways, the order price is primarily determined by the actual printed material volume. An easy way to save some money, sometimes a LOT of money, is by making your object hollow. This short tutorial will explain the basics of hollow objects for 3D Printing with Shapeways.

#### [Design for Cheaper Printing](/content/tutorials/design_for_cheaper_3d_printing/index.html)

Shapeways only charges you for the amount of material you use. There is no penalty for complexity or the bounding box of your model. This makes some products seem surprisingly inexpensive, like spectacles and jewelry, and for some products, more expensive. Here are three tricks to optimize your design for the lowest cost 3D printing.

#### [Designing for Full Color Printing](/content/tutorials/designing-for-better-colors-in-full-color-sandstone/index.html)

Like many of our printer technologies, our full color sandstone printers work by laying down thin layers of powder and selectively binding this powder together to produce solid parts. Unlike our other printer technologies, this printer also uses a set of CMYK printheads to color the part while binding the powder together to produce the colorful solid parts.

## Designs by the Community

##### Tag your uploads with Animation to show them off on this page.

#### Ready to get started?

From product development to industrial 3D manufacturing, we can help you scale your business.