I tested Backflip AI
The Atomic Layers: S5E22 (00138)
Atomic Layer of the Day:
Last Friday, the news of the day was supposed to be Backflip AI, but Nexa3D and Desktop Metal stole the show. A rather unlucky start to a career, but let’s hope it’s a bad beginning that leads to something good...
Anyway, Backflip AI is the new startup founded by Greg Mark and David Benhaim, who a decade ago founded Markforged (a company they are no longer part of). It’s a platform that uses artificial intelligence to create 3D objects based on text prompts or uploaded images.
So Backflip officially launched on Friday, announcing it raised $30 million in funding from prominent investors such as NEA, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and angel investors like Kevin Scott (CTO of Microsoft and co-founder of LinkedIn), Rich Miner (founder of Android), and Ashish Vaswani.
Amid the AI arms race among major tech companies, it’s refreshing to see an application directly relevant to additive manufacturing, especially one led by well-known figures like Greg Mark.
In press releases - such as one published on VoxelMatters - we can see sample projects created using the application. They are truly impressive—so impressive that I decided to sign up for Backflip and see how it works for myself.
The good news is that currently, Backflip is free for a trial period, and we have unlimited credits.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, I registered and started browsing the models. There are over 60 of them, and they indeed look remarkable.
They can be downloaded for free, but obviously users come here to create their own projects.
We have access two main tools:
3D model generator
3D model editor.
In the generator, we can create a 3D model based on text, a drawn sketch (which I haven’t tested), or an uploaded image. Additionally, we can set the style (e.g., figurine, wood, sci-fi, or steampunk) and manually edit its detailed description.
When using the text-to-3D generator, the platform first produces 2D graphics. I must admit, it does this remarkably well.
For instance, I generated images for “robot” and “filament spool holder to mount on Prusa i3 3D printer” in a steampunk style. Here are the results:
We can pick one, and transform it to 3D model. Once again we receive four versions to choose from.
However, after converting the 2D image into 3D model, the result doesn't look that good anymore. While the robot was reasonably accurate (although with some broken connections or artifacts around), the filament holder was really poorly rendered.
Continuing with the robot, I decided to use the editor to remove an artifact under its arm. Similar to Microsoft’s now-defunct 3D Builder, objects can be subtracted by overlaying another shape one onto another.
Unfortunately, I messed up the settings and accidentally deleted the robot instead of the artifact. To my dismay, there’s no undo function (and CTRL+Z doesn’t work).
I went back to the beginning and uploaded a drawing of Cedric—our old robot from the Centrum Druku 3D logo. I generated the 3D model and... the result was disastrous. Additionally an error occured when generating the model.
Finally, I decided to try one last, silly thing—though I suspect most users will end up using the app this way. I uploaded a photo of Naomi Wu from an article I’ve published on Friday.
It was a mistake. Yeah, don’t do that… This app is not ready for real human photos.
So, what is Backflip AI useful for at the moment? For now, it’s purely for testing and experimentation. The app has a long way to go before becoming functional. It does generate truly beautiful 2D images. However, converting them into 3D models produces mixed results.
Of course, you can export your creations to STL, OBJ, PLY, GLB, which I did. I won’t share another screenshots, but the mesh quality is poor. Additionally, the exported models were very small (just a few centimeters in size), so scaling it up only emphasized the low triangle count.
So you can check how the application works on your own examples (while it is still free), and test it on maybe slightly more technical projects (even though at the moment it is definitely aimed at consumers). We'll see what the next iterations look like? And will its creators manage to repeat the successes of Markforged, or will they just ride the AI hype while they can?
Atomic Layer from the Past:
12-22-2012: Cody Wilson launched DEFCAD.org.
News & Gossip:
After my publication about Nexa3D, I received a lot of additional news and stories about what it was like to work there, the irregularities that occurred, and how it was managed. It’s truly depressing. Honestly, I’m surprised they managed to keep it going for so long. I feel for the people and the work they done. Everything’s now wasted. I’m still considering what to do with this? Whether to go for an old-school article in the style of Michael Molitch-Hou?
A moment ago, I finished writing tomorrow's LinkedIn newsletter (which I highly recommend reading!). It will feature a big recap of the 2024 year. Anyway, while reviewing the events, I remembered that we’re still waiting for Bambu Lab’s response to Stratasys’ lawsuit. Interesting, isn’t it?
Interesting things happened on the stock markets this week. BLT and Farsoon experienced significant drops (-9% and -14%), while Xeometry’s stock price soared by over +20%. As a result, Xeometry now leads with a market value exceeding $2 billion, while BLT has fallen to second place (~$1.5 billion market value).
Me too. Still a bit Limited but fun. I already created some stuff i printed. I also posted them on Thangs 😝