There are multiple different modules available for each body part. The Modio app offers several different heads, torsos, legs, arms, hands, and weapons to choose from. Each module connects to the other with a cool lightning effect and a snap. If you decide you don't like that particular combination, you can flick it away until it disappears forever. Once you're satisfied with your creation's body, Modio lets you adjust the color, texture, and position of each limb. If you're not really the creative type or you need inspiration, you can work with preexisting designs, too.
You can view your creation from any angle and touch each body part to adjust the angle. A preexisting ninja design (shown above) can be formed to strike a deadly blow with a powerful kick, crouched down as it prepares to spring out of the shadows, or just about any other position you can imagine. The piece move in a fairly realistic way, that is to say, the way you'd imagine a human could move and then some.
When you're finally ready to print your monster, all you have to do is tap on the icon in the bottom left-hand corner where the printer settings are. Once you've connected to the 3D printer, the app shows you the size and weight of the toy. Then, tap on the settings icon to resize your design. You can make the toy any size you want: It can be a giant monster or a tiny bug-like pest.
The Modio app is compatible with nearly any 3D printer currently on the market, but it is optimized to work with MakerBot printers. Each part prints separately and then you can snap them all together the way you did in your design. The parts should move when you turn them, too, just like you saw onscreen while you were designing the toy.
The sheer amount of variations you can choose from ensures that your monster will look like no other. Forget mass produced toys, Modio makes it personal.
Modio's founder and CEO, Hilmar Gunnarsson, told Digital Trends that the idea for the app came out of his desire to make fun physical toys that will engage his children in more creative pursuits. It was also an excuse to make something cool with 3D printing.
"I've been fascinated with 3D printing. I think it's a technology with huge potential," Gunnarsson said. "At the same time, I have three kids and they are playing more video games and doing less creative things like drawing. I wanted to create an app that was very simple to use but also very creative."
And so Modio was born. The app has received a very positive response from everyone who has used it, including Gunnarsson's kids. He says that inspiring kids to actually design and create their own toys changes the way they value the toy.
"As soon as people make their own things, they form a different attachment to them than something just bought in a store," he explained.
Every toy made on Modio with a 3D printer is the unique expression of its creator's mind, as such, the child (or adult) learns to cherish the object. Gunnarsson hopes that Modio inspires the next generation of kids to create their own apps, gadgets, and art.
"I hope Modio can open kids' eyes to the fact that we can make amazing things and shape our own worlds," he said, adding that "3D printing gives us interesting choices and options. Everyone likes making things…if they are given the tools to be creative."
Perhaps the best thing about Modio, though, is that printing one creation probably ends up only costing a few dollars. Gunnarsson explained that Modio is geared toward 3D printers that use spools of plastic, which only cost between $30 to $50 per kilo. Since all the components used to make figures in the Modio app are hollow, the amount of material used to print one average sized toy is very small. In other words, Modio creations will cost a whole lot less than those mass produced plastic toys you've been buying at Wal-Mart and Toys-R-Us.
Gunnarsson's future plans for Modio mostly involve expanding the amount of content available for creators. The first step will be to add more pieces and building kits to the mix, which will be available as in-app purchases in the future. He also hopes to bring the app to more platforms like Android. Still, his main goal is to inspire kids to create, encourage the 3D printing industry's growth, and "make creations come to life."
You can download the app on the iOS App store here to get started on your design.
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Jerad and Amanda Miller had been kicked off a Nevada ranch where anti-government protesters faced down federal agents earlier this year because they were "very radical," according to the son of rancher Cliven Bundy.
Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the Millers had ideology shared by "militia and white supremacists," including the belief that law enforcement was the "oppressor."
Police believe the shootings were an isolated act, not part of a broader conspiracy to target law enforcement, McMahill said.
Ammon Bundy, one of Cliven Bundy's sons, said by telephone that the Millers were at his father's ranch for a few days this spring before they were asked to leave by militia members for unspecified "conduct" problems. He called the couple "very radical" and said they "did not align themselves" with the beliefs of other protesters, who thwarted a roundup of Cliven Bundy's cattle by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which wants to collect more than $1 million in grazing fees and penalties.
While thousands of people have been to the site over the last couple of months, "Not very many people were asked to leave. I think they may have been the only ones," Ammon Bundy said.
On Sunday, the two Las Vegas police officers were having lunch at a pizza buffet in an aging strip mall about 5 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip when the Millers fatally shot them. The attack at a CiCi's Pizza killed officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, both of whom were husbands and fathers.
About 100 people attended a candlelight vigil for the slain officers at CiCi's Pizza on Monday night, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1uOYPSo).
According to McMahill, this is how Sunday's events unfolded:
The Millers left a neighbor's apartment where they had been staying around 4:30 a.m. and walked for hours, eventually reaching the strip mall, about 5 miles away.
Around 11:20 a.m., Jerad Miller went briefly into the restaurant, then left and got his wife, leaving their backpacks outside.
The two officers were sitting in a booth. Jerad Miller fatally shot Soldo in the back of his head. As his partner tried to react, Miller shot him once in the throat. Amanda Miller then pulled her own gun and both shot Beck several times.
Police believe that while the Millers wanted to target police, the choice of Soldo and Beck was random.
Pulling the mortally wounded officers from the booth, they took their guns and ammunition and put a yellow Gadsden flag featuring the phrase "Don't tread on me" and a swastika on Beck's body. The flag, with its roots in the American Revolution, is a symbol for anti-government groups. Police said they believe the swastika was intended to paint police as Nazis, not necessarily as an expression of the Millers' own white-supremacist views.
The couple also told restaurant patrons that their act was "the beginning of the revolution," the same message as a note they left at the restaurant. That was what the Millers told customers at a Wal-Mart about a block away, where the couple fled. Jerad Miller entered, fired one round and "told the people to get out and this was a revolution and that the police were on the way."
In the frenzy, shopper Joseph Wilcox decided to confront Jerad Miller — not realizing that Amanda Miller was his accomplice. Wilcox went from the checkout area to Miller and pulled his concealed firearm. But before he could fire, Amanda Miller shot him in the ribs and Wilcox collapsed.
"Joseph died trying to protect others," Sheriff Doug Gillespie said.
By now, police had arrived, and two five-officer teams entered the massive store. Near the back, one team confronted the Millers, and exchanged fire. At one point, Jerad Miller tried to blast a rear emergency exit door open with a shotgun, but police had blocked it with a car and he could not escape.
One officer went with store security to screens showing feeds from surveillance cameras and saw that Jerad Miller had built a makeshift barricade around his wife.
As police closed in, Amanda Miller shot her husband several times with a handgun, killing him. She then shot herself in the head. When officers arrived, she was still breathing, and was taken to the hospital. She later died.
Police found hundreds more rounds of unspent ammunition in the Millers' bags.
The couple moved to the Las Vegas area in January, police said. Amanda Miller had worked at a Hobby Lobby craft store there until she was fired in April, the chain store said in a written statement.
Jerad Miller, 31, was convicted of felony vehicle theft in Washington state, and several other offenses, including phone harassment, driving under the influence, theft and malicious mischief, between 2001 and 2003, according to a Washington State Patrol database.
He also had a criminal record in Indiana.
Miller attended Kennewick High School in Washington state for one semester in 1999, his freshman year, district spokeswoman Robyn Chastain said. The district had no other record of him attending schools in the district, or of what he did when he left the school.
He and his 22-year-old wife were married in August 2012, according to a marriage license on file in Indiana.
When police descended on their apartment complex Sunday night in a rundown neighborhood, officers evacuated other residents.
On Monday, Sheriff Gillespie said he was pairing officers together for safety and that, for now, 300 will be on patrol — twice what is normal.
Asked about worries that more officers may be targeted, he responded: "Is that weighing? Sure, there's no doubt about it."
Ammon Bundy said supporters of his father are saddened by the killings and "have had no quarrel" with Las Vegas police.
"The only thing worse than (government) tyranny is anarchy," he said. "And we certainly recognize that."
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Pritchard reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle and researcher Judith Ausuebel in New York contributed to this report.
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