How to Make Marvel Themed Accessories for Birds Using 3D Designing! (TinkerCad)

Hello there! This instructable will show the design process of making accessories for birds using TinkerCad. This is not an easy process, but with some practice and some time, I think anyone could do this. This took a lot of time and effort to create it. This project started off when I started getting into Marvel, and thought that Marvel themed bird toys would be kind of cool. I have seven buddies, and though they might enjoy these toys when I print them eventually. The design is made up of the cage and the toys/accessories. I hope this instructable is easy to understand, and easy to follow! And I hope you enjoy!

Step 1: Finding Reference Photos

These are the reference photos I used for the design. You may find it useful to base your design off of something else, like a cage or toy you may find of the internet. But, these were the only reference photos for this project.

Step 2: Cage Overview

This is what the cage looks like. Its a simple cage I found online, and decided to make in TinkerCad. Its not a very large cage, but it does the job. Its is made up of the four walls, the roof, the doors, the drawer, and the bottom part of the cage. The next few steps will show the process of creating these parts.

Step 3: How to Build the Drawer

The drawer was pretty simple and was one of the easiest parts to design. First, start out with a cube and extended it to the desirable length. Then, flip another cube on its side and extend it, to make a thin wall around the base. Then, take two wedges and a cube and make a small grip portion. Also, use that same grip and copy it, and take out a small portion underneath the handle, as was shown on the original cage. Then, the drawer is done!

Step 4: How to Build the Grille (Bottom)

This step and the walls are probably the part that take the longest. Since there are bars on the cage for the birds to climb on and to surround the cage, it takes some time to design. This is the part that goes on top of the drawer. First, bring out a cylinder on the workspace and make it a 2mm diameter cylinder. Then, duplicate it and move it to the desirable length, and keep pasting it. This trick works well because you don't have to keep copying the object and moving it. Instead, it will equally space it out to the same length you chose at the beginning. After you add the right amount of bars, flip a bar and put one at the left, two in the middle, and one on the right. Then, the grille is done!

Step 5: How to Build the Bottom Part of the Cage

The bottom portion was pretty easy, but takes some time to perfect. Start out with a cube and extended it to the desirable length. Then, flip another cube on its side and extend it, to make a thin wall around the base. The part that makes this different from the drawer was that the first wall only has three walls instead of four. That's where the drawer will go. After this, repeat the wall step over and over again, and make sure it gets smaller and smaller as each wall goes by. You need to make sure the bottom portion can fit the grille and drawer. If it all fits, the bottom part of the cage is done!

Step 6: How to Build the Walls

This step and the grille are probably the part that took the longest. Since there are bars on the cage for the birds to climb on and to surround the cage, it takes some time to design. This is the part that surrounds the whole cage. First, bring out a cylinder on the workspace and make it a 2mm diameter cylinder. Then, duplicate it and move it to the desirable length, and keep pasting it. This is the simple part. After this, you need to start working on the part where the roof goes. Since the roof is slanted, then the walls have to be slanted a the top too. So, slant the cylinders at the top, and make the bars taller and taller as each one goes. I made mine rise by 2mm each bar for the slant. Also, the front of the cage needs to have three holes that are equally spaced from each other. The two on the left side are for the food and water containers, and the one on the right is the main door. The main door needs to be a bit bigger than the other two. In addition to this, there is a design on the front of the cage. I just used some hearts and cut them using anither heart to make a small pattern, and added it to the front. The right side is simple, and is shown in the last photo. The left wall also has a slant, and rises by 1mm for each bar at the top. After this, check your reference photos and your design match, and make sure the walls fit inside the bottom part of the cage. Then, the walls are done!

Step 7: How to Build the Roof

The roof is probably the most complicated part of the design. Since its angled, it makes it way more tricky compared to the walls and grille. First, bring out a cylinder on the workspace and make it a 2mm diameter cylinder. Then, duplicate it and move it to the desirable length, and keep pasting it. Then, angle it the same amount of degrees that the front and back walls were at. Make sure to extend it a little more than the cage, so it overhangs the cage, as shown in pictures earlier. Also, on the right roof, on the left side, the bars have to increase by 2mm until it reaches the middle, so it makes a small triangle. This will help with the next part. Then, the tricky part is that on the real cage, there is this part that goes down and is angled too. You can see this clearly in the third picture, where it shows these two lines in the middle of the cage. It angles inward and downward at the same time. Then, the left side has the angle for the roof. In addition to that, add the edging to the roof. After this, all you need to make is the handle. I made mine for looks, and not for functionality. Each of the cylinders on the handle have a 2mm diameter. Arrange in the same way as shown in the last two pictures. Make sure to make the triangle in the middle by angling two small cylinders toward each other. Then, the roof is done!

Step 8: How to Build the Doors

The doors are pretty simple, and don't take a lot of time if you go with a simple design. First, take an oval and cut it so that you only have 1/4 of it, as shown in the fourth picture. Then, make sure the diameter if the curve is 2mm, and then start making a pattern by duplicating and then twisting the shape, as shown in the sixth picture. Then, do the same thing you did for the wall and grille, but way smaller. First, bring out a cylinder on the workspace and make it a 2mm diameter cylinder. Then, duplicate it and move it to the desirable length, and keep pasting it. After this, add the edging to the bars. Then, make sure the door fits for the whole you made on the front of your cage earlier. If it doesn't, just shrink it down or increase the size to make it fit. The next part is designing the pattern on the door. I just did something simple, where I took a diamond and duplicated it. Then, I made the second one a little smaller than the first, and made it a hole in the diamond. And I just added it to the door. You could definitely do something way more complex, but I just wanted to do something simple. After all of this, duplicate the doors and make one slightly bigger to match the hole for the main door. Then, the doors are finished!

Step 9: Exporting the Cage

When exporting in TinkerCad, you need to first check if your design has a lot of small details and grouping. If it does, then its more likely that it will not download. In order to fix that, go to the right-hand side of your screen while in TinkerCad, go to the dropdown, and scroll all the way down until it says Shapes Collection. Then select the part that you want to completely group, and click create shape. Then, name the shape, and then it should save in your collection. Then, after your design is done, put all the parts together, and download it. Then, it should download, and be ready to print/export.

Step 10: Bird Toys Overview

These are all the toys and accessories I chose to make for this project. These are just some things I have in my bird car at home, and I decided to change it up a bit, and make it Marvel themed. The list includes a food/water container, perches, chew toys, a nest, a bird bath, and a swing. The next few steps will show the process of creating these parts.

Step 11: How to Build the Food/Water Container

The food and water container were made using Mijolnir, Thor's hammer, some trapezoids, cylinders, and some cubes. First, take a Mijolnir file and cut it into two pieces, the handle and the head of the hammer. Then I sized down the handle to be the right size. The head of the hammer was were the water and food would go. First, make an initial cut into the hammer, to make an area that would be open for the birds to eat/drink from. Then, make a hole in the middle of the hammer, as shown in picture 10, to make an area for the food or water to stay in. Then, use the trapezoids to connect the handle of the hammer,or where the birds would perch. Also, use another trapezoid to make a small thing to lock the container so it will stay on the cage. Here, add two small cylinders to act as a grip. Then, put it all together, and make sure it fits in the small hole, and duplicate it. Then, the food/water container is finished!

Step 12: How to Build the Perch

The perch is probably the easiest of all the toys. First, start out with a cylinder that has a 6mm diameter, and is 10mm long. Then, make a smaller cylinder that has a 4mm diameter and is 5mm long. And, put it in the center of the first cylinder. Then, duplicate this over and over again until you have 23 cylinders, and have two big ones on each end. And for the end cylinders, add a rectangular cutout as shown in picture 13. This groove is what allows the patch to fit on the cage. Since the perches are based off of Black Window's Batons, add some small rectangles in the middle of each big cylinder, as shown in picture nine (the red squares). Then duplicate the perch. If the perches fit in the cage, the perch is done!

Step 13: How to Build the Chew Toy

The chew toy takes the longest, and isn't based off of one thing. If you look at the pictures, you can see a bunch off small things such as Captain America's Shield, Stormbreaker, the Avenger's Logo, and etc. I searched up for Avenger's key chains, and I found a bunch, which I will link below. First, start out with a cylinder that has a 2mm diameter and make it pretty long. Then, add another cylinder that has a 1mm diameter and is 12mm long. Then, add two rings on each end off the cylinder that is 2mm in diameter, and is 0.5mm in length. After that, duplicate it in the same pattern as shown in picture 10. Then, duplicate that shape 4 times, and add a keychain to each ring. Finally, make sure it fits, and the chew toy is done!

Link to the the Keychain design-
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3784003

Step 14: How to Build the Nest

The nest is of course based off Iron Man's helmet. Start off with an Iron Man file and make sure the faceplate and the rest off the helmet are separate pieces. Then, angle the faceplate in an angle that allows things to enter and pass out of the helmet. After this, if your helmet has a hole in the bottom, make sure to fill that hole with some shapes, as shown in the last picture. Then, the nest portion is done. Then, add a cylinder that has a diameter of 1mm and make it 30mm long. Then, add a carabiner at the end. Make sure the nest isn't too large, and still fits in the cage with the perches inside. If it fits, the nest is done!

Step 15: How to Build the Bird Bath

This par is pretty obvious. The bird bath is based off of the infinity gauntlet, which Thanos used to snap half of the world's population out of existence (spoilers). First, use an infinity gauntlet file and cut off the end, to make sure it is completely flat. This allows the bird bath to sit flush with the cage. Then, like the Iron Man nest, fill in the gauntlet if it has a hole in it, as shown in picture 11. Then, its time to make a bath portion. I made mine using cylinders and made a thin wall around the cykinder , so it could hold water. Then,after the bath portion is done, duplicate I and use it to make a small indentation in the gauntlet, so the bath sits flush with gauntlet. If the bath fits in the cage, the bath is done.

Step 16: How to Build the Swing

The swing is really simple. It is based off of Hawkeye's bow. First, start out with a hawkeye bow file. Then, enlarge it so you have more to work with. Most likely, the file you may be using has a thin bow string. The birds won't be able to sit on that, so add a cylinder that has a 3mm diameter and make it as long as the bow. Then, its time for the part that attaches it to the cage. Make a cylinder that has a 2mm diameter and is 28mm long. Then, add a carabiner to the end. If the swing fits in the cage with all of the other toys, the swing is done!

Step 17: The Carabiner

This is not a carabiner I made. I found this on Thingiverse.com, and used it for my design. Its made up of two parts, the main body, and the clip portion. Its a nice design, and I want to give the credit to the original designer, Enerdesign from ddf.com. The link will be down below

Link to the the Carabiner design-
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1819242

Step 18: Exporting the Toys

These are the same steps for exporting the cage. It shoukd work for both. When exporting in TinkerCad, you need to first check if your design has a lot of small details and grouping. If it does, then its more likely that it will not download. In order to fix that, go to the right-hand side of your screen while in TinkerCad, go to the dropdown, and scroll all the way down until it says Shapes Collection. Then select the part that you want to completely group, and click create shape. Then, name the shape, and then it should save in your collection. Then, after your design is done, put all the parts together, and download it. Then, it should download, and be ready to print/export.

Step 19: You're Finished!

And this is the last and final step! Taking a look at your design! I am happy with how this turned out, and I hope you liked it too. It took some effort and time, but I obviously think it pays off after you are finished. I will still be tweaking the design and making changes and adding things, so stay tuned for that. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed reading through this instructable and seeing the design process of making a Marvel themed bird accessories using 3D design. Just remember that your imagination can take you anywhere!