Tutorial 14: Wobble Vase
Create a vase that sways and meanders as it spirals upward. By driving the circle's center with Sin and Cos, the vase traces a helical wobble path — organic, fluid, and impossible to achieve with traditional 3D printing.
What you'll learn
- How to use Cos alongside Sin for circular motion
- How to drive Circle CX/CY with mathematical expressions
- How sin and cos together create helical (coiling) paths
- How wobbleFreq controls the number of oscillation cycles
Prerequisites
- Completion of Tutorial 6 (Sine Wave Vase) is recommended.
Step 1: Define variables
Set Variable
Interactive preview is available in the interactive reader.
Step 1
Create four slider variables
Add four Set Variable blocks with Show in Viewport enabled:
- vaseRadius =
25— the circle radius (wall size)
Step 2: Center and add Spiral Up
Spiral Up
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Step 2
Add Translate and Spiral Up
Add Translate with X = Bed Size X / 2, Y = Bed Size Y / 2. Inside the body, add Spiral Up with Start Z = Layer Height, End Z = vaseHeight, Rotations = vaseHeight / Layer Height.
Step 3: Build the wobbling circle
Circle
Interactive preview is available in the interactive reader.
Step 3
Add Circle with Sin/Cos driven center
Inside the Spiral Up body, add a Circle with:
- CX =
wobbleAmount × sin(normZ × wobbleFreq)— build this with Arithmetic (×), Get Variable, Sin, and Variable (normZ)
The key insight: Sin drives the X displacement, Cos drives the Y displacement. Since sin and cos are 90° out of phase, the circle center traces a helix — coiling around the central axis as it rises.
Complete block program
Full program — Tutorial 14
Interactive preview is available in the interactive reader.
Final block structure
| # | Block | Where | Values |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | Set Variable | Path Group | vaseRadius=25, vaseHeight=60, wobbleAmount=8, wobbleFreq=20 |
| 5 | Translate | Path Group | X = bedsize_x/2, Y = bedsize_y/2 |
| 6 | ↳ Spiral Up | Inside Translate | Start Z, End Z, Rotations = height/LH |
| 7 | ↳ Circle | Inside Spiral Up | CX = wobble×sin, CY = wobble×cos, R = vaseRadius |
Outcome
You should see a vase that coils and sways as it rises, with the wall tracing a beautiful helical path around the center axis. The shape is organic and fluid — every layer is a circle, but its position shifts smoothly.
Load this tutorial
Interactive preview is available in the interactive reader.
Interactive preview is available in the interactive reader.
What's Next
Tutorial 15: Organic Bezier Vase — Use a Bezier curve to create a sculptural vase with a non-circular cross-section that breathes as it rises.