How to 3D Print Italian Brainrot Figures

Italian brainrot characters are some of the best first prints in the hobby. They’re small, they’re recognizable, and thousands of people have already uploaded files for them. Here’s how to get one off the bed in one piece.

We’ll add photos of our own prints to this guide, and to each specimen page, as we make them.

Find a free file

Start with a search that covers several sites at once. Every specimen page on BrainRot3D links to a Yeggi search with the free filter on, which pulls results from Printables, Thingiverse, Cults3D, and more. MakerWorld and Printables are also worth searching on their own, since both have large brainrot collections.

Before you download, check three things on the model page:

• The license. Most free models use a Creative Commons license. BY means you credit the designer when you share a photo or a remix, and ND means no remixes at all.
• The makes. Photos from people who printed the model tell you more than the designer’s renders.
• The notes. Designers usually list the settings that worked for them. Use those first.

Pick the right kind of model

Brainrot models come in three main kinds, and each prints differently.

• Flexi, or articulated. The joints print already assembled, so the model comes off the bed ready to wiggle. These usually need no supports. Don’t shrink one much: scaling a print-in-place model down also shrinks the gaps between its joints, and a gap that’s too small fuses shut.
• Static figure. A statue. Thin legs, wings, and tutus hang in the air and need supports.
• Keychain. Flat and fast. The best first print if you’ve never used your printer.

The three settings that matter

1. Supports, when there’s overhang

Anything that hangs out past the layer below it needs something to print on. Tralalero Tralala’s three thin legs are the classic case. Tree or organic supports work well for figures: Prusa’s guide says organic supports are easy to remove and don’t scar the surface.

2. A brim, when the feet are small

A figure that stands on two sneakers touches the bed at two tiny points. A brim adds a thin skirt of plastic around the base to increase the first layer’s surface area, so the print doesn’t tip or shift halfway up. Prusa suggests a brim of at least 3 mm. It peels off afterward.

3. Orientation, or split it

Some models print best in pieces. Our field notes say Bombardiro Crocodilo prints cleanest split, with the wings flat on the bed and the head on its own. Ballerina Cappuccina’s tutu is the hard part, so print it upside down or split it off. Glue the parts after.

Color: paint or swap

A multi-color printer can switch filament mid-print, which is how the best Tralalero Tralala models get their blue sneakers. With one color, print in white or gray and paint afterward. Acrylic paint and paint markers both work, and a black marker is enough for eyes.

Three good first prints

• Amogus. One bean-shaped body. The easiest print on the internet.
• Tung Tung Tung Sahur. A cylinder with a bat. It prints in an afternoon.
• A Tralalero Tralala flexi. No supports, instant payoff, and it’s the character everyone asks for.

Print to learn, not to sell

We advise against selling brainrot prints. Many model licenses forbid it, and who owns the characters themselves is now in court. Our story on how Italian brainrot took over the model sites explains the case. Selling them also misses what a printer is good for.

A brainrot figure is the fun way to learn the machine: supports, first layers, heat, and patience. Once you have those, the same printer can make things that change lives. e-NABLE, a volunteer network, prints prosthetic hands and arms and gives them away free. By November 2019, its volunteers, many of them students and teachers, had delivered about 7,000 devices in more than 100 countries.

So start with a shark in sneakers. Then print something that helps someone.

Sources

• Creative Commons, “About CC Licenses”.
• Prusa Knowledge Base, “Organic supports”.
• Prusa Knowledge Base, “Skirt and brim”.
• e-NABLE, “About”.