For the last few days the whole of Poland and the entire gaming world has been talking about one thing only – the release of The Witcher, the blockbuster by CD Project RED. The third part of the classic game, based on the stories and novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, even before its official release was considered the most outstanding Polish production of its kind in history. “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” succeeds “The Witcher” released in 2007, and “The Witcher 2: Assassins of kings” of 2011, and is meant to be the conclusion of the cycle. To celebrate this event, Sony Computer Entertainment Poland (PlayStation) decided to prepare a real treat for the most influential Polish bloggers, YouTubers and gaming journalists, by preparing special sets with unique stands for pads for the PS4 in the shape of the Witcher’s medallion in the form of a wolf. We were chosen to be the proud printers of these stands, which proved to be a challenge due to a very limited time allowed for their production.
At the end of April we were approached by the Direct Channel company with a proposal to print models in the shape of a wolf, which were supposed to work as stands for the PS4 pads. The story behind this project was very peculiar, in the end it turned out that we were one of the few companies that had been able to take on such a large order, in terms of volume, in such a short time.
The project involved a number of challenges. First, we had to optimize the obtained STL file a bit in order to adjust it to the pads (a pad was to be held by the wolf in the mouth, which was rather unlikely because of the length of the fangs). Second, we had to increase our production power, which we achieved with the help of our colleagues from Monkeyfab. Thanks to Piotr and Paweł Twardo brothers we had at our disposal a total of 5 3D PRIME printers, which were accompanied by an HBOT and a Robo 3D.
The third challenge was to obtain silver filament. It turned out that it was practically impossible to get several dozen kilos of it in a short time. We used all our channels and eventually purchased it from the Devil Design company, adding a few extra rolls from 3D Phoenix and iGo3D (some of our 3D printers work with the filament of 3 mm diameter).
Finally, we had to print everything… to meet the deadline! The production took straight two weeks, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the beginning we had a lot of failed printouts because we had to optimize the production process, both in terms of time and quality. We were constantly modifying the project of the wolf itself in order to make it as good as possible in terms of usability.
The wolf was 17 cm wide and 11.5 cm high. The average time of 3D printing was about seven hours on Monkeyfab PRIME and about 11 on the other devices. One-kilogram roll of material was sufficient for approximately 7 prints.
The work lasted until the very end. The prints were packed in special boxes prepared by the Direct Channel.
In the end, the project was a success. The influencers who received the gifts from PlayStation Poland reacted very enthusiastically, as did the people who commented on their posted photos.
Although the project effectively shut us out from many other activities for more than two weeks, it was a remarkable experience, especially since it involved such a prestigious client and an equally prestigious occasion.