In this video, we're going to be
exploring the most beautiful filaments to take your 3D printing projects
from looking like this, to this. So whether you're printing display
pieces, toys, or even functional parts that you just want to be proud of, hold
on to your wallets, cause this video is gonna get really expensive to watch. Let's get after it. So I don't know about all of you, but I
still remember the days when beautiful filament meant a basic silk, or maybe
if you were lucky, a matte filament. But over the last few years, we
have become spoiled for choice. Not only do we have sparkling
colors, but we have dual silks, triple silks, silk gradients, matte
gradients, fast transitions, slow transitions, textured filaments. We even have filaments with all
kinds of trippy, iridescent effects. I love printing with new and
exciting colors, but I know that filament can get expensive. That's why I wanted to narrow down the
list from hundreds of different colors that I've tried to give you some of the
top, most beautiful filaments on the market right now, in no particular order. And if you want to pick any of these
up, I will make sure to put direct links in the description below, which
does support the channel and helps us make more videos just like this one. Oh, one last thing. I hate to state the obvious,
but I am only able to recommend filaments that I've actually tried,
either by buying them personally or receiving them from sponsors. So while no money has changed hands
to be featured in this video and all opinions are absolutely my own, you will
definitely notice more filaments from companies like PolyMaker and SliceWorx,
who are notoriously generous in sending out samples to creators like myself. With that said, if I am missing your
favorite fancy-pants filament, please drop me a comment down below so I
can pick up a roll for myself and hopefully show it off in a future video. To start off the list, I want to give
proper credit where I think it's due, and shout out to Fillamentum, a company
that has quietly created a lot of the innovations that I'm pretty sure the
rest of the industry later adopted. For example, they're one of the first
brands that I noticed creating these cool iridescent effect filaments. Now the first one to come across
my radar was this one, Wizard's Voodoo, which was recommended by
my friend Ben over at Ravmeh Mod, the local Fillamentum importer. Now, this filament is really unique
because it offers a satin finish mixed with sparkles or glitter, but it also
has an iridescent effect, looking blue at some angles and purple at others. All the while, it accomplishes this
without looking garish or cheap. Highly recommended. Now that we've given credit to
Fillamentum, let's check out PolyMaker's relatively new Starlight series,
which in my opinion, takes this iridescent effect to the next level. It comes in a variety of different colors,
as you can see on the screen right now, but I am particularly partial to the
Starlight Comet and Starlight Nebula ones. Each of these filaments mixes multiple
colors, similar to the iridescent effect of Wizard's Voodoo, but I guess the best
way to really describe this effect would be that they have a kind of primary
color and then a different color for the reflection or pearlescent effect. Then, on top of all of that, they
also have a light glittering as well. In person, this effect is seriously
trippy, and it makes these filaments some of my absolute
favorites for aesthetic prints. I also want to point out that unlike
the previous generation of what were considered beautiful filaments, these
are not silk filaments, which means that they aren't nearly as weak or brittle as
silk filaments are from my experience. Oh, and by the way, I am totally
counting each of the separate colors as a separate filament for my total count. So, I'm going to get a little
bit controversial here and talk about galaxy colors. If you want to take a black print and
elevate it to looking like a finished product, one of the best ways to do
so is to use a galaxy color with some sparkle to obscure the layer lines. Now, there is some debate about
who came up with this idea first. Most people believe that it was Prusament,
but I'm actually pretty darn sure that Fillamentum actually introduced their
own Traffic Galaxy filament before then. Honestly though, it doesn't matter,
because I'm here to tell you that they are not all the same. While some people swear by Prusament's
Galaxy Black, and it is, indeed, gorgeous, I personally find that it
actually has too much glitter in it, making it appear almost charcoal gray. Conversely, I've tried other
companies versions of it, such as Kexcelled, and found them to have
too little sparkly stuff in it. That's why, in my humble opinion,
PolyMaker actually makes the absolute best goldilocks perfect
galaxy black in the galaxy. Of course, the perfect proportion of
sparkle is a highly individual thing. So here are some printed parts
with each filament, and I'd love to know in the comments below
which one you like the most. By the way, unlike a lot of companies
making galaxy or sparkly filaments, PolyMaker does get extra points here
for making their Galaxy series available across three different filaments,
from PLA to ABS and ASA, which is really, really helpful if you want to
be able to get parts out of different materials to match on a single project. One of the other ways to make
your 3D printed parts look just a little bit more polished is to
improve the texture of the surfaces. We all know about textured
build plates, or the more recent PEI and PEO build plates. But those only texture the bottom surface. They don't hide layer lines,
which are one of the tell-tale signs of a 3D printed part. For years, people have used matte
filaments like my personal favorite filament line, PolyMaker's PolyTerra
PLA, to get a matte finish on the rest of their print, until carbon
fiber composites came along. With the addition of carbon fiber
shreds to the filament, you now had the option of getting real texture on the
sides and top of your print, all but eliminating the trace of layer lines. Unfortunately, these filaments were
generally expensive, particularly in the case of carbon fiber and nylon, and they
were almost always limited to black. Now, matte black is my favorite color
for everything, but sometimes you want a little color in your life. Eventually, we started getting
PLA-CF options, and finally, Bambu Lab, and to be fair, Qidi Tech, came
out with a line of colored PLA-CF. To be fair, the colors aren't "wow". They come in black, gray, and some pretty
basic shades of blue, green, and red. But just the fact that you can now have
a choice of colors while still getting that truly textured finish throughout your
parts at a price that doesn't break the bank, well that's pretty special and it
earns these filaments a place on our list. By the way, if you're curious about carbon
fiber composite filaments as a whole and you want to better understand the
differences between, say, PLA-CF, PET-CF, ABS-CF, or PA-CF and so on, check out this
video where I cover them all in detail. So far, we've discovered a handful
of filaments that are guaranteed to make your project look incredibly
polished and professional. But sometimes, FDM
still just isn't enough. Sometimes, for example, you need the
level of detail that only SLA can offer, the strength that only SLS nylon can
offer, or the durability that only 3D printed aluminum or steel can offer. Or maybe even that isn't enough. Maybe, just maybe, you need
something machined out of titanium. You crazy son of a gun. In cases like that, your best bet is to
turn to this video's sponsor, PCBWay. Whether it's injection molding, sheet
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channel, and to get a discount on your first order, visit the link in the
description or go to jle.vi/pcbway today. Up next on our list, I have to give
a mention to this dual extrusion magenta blue silk PLA, simply because
I printed something out of it for my kids and hands down, it has gotten
the most compliments and questions from non-3D printing people out of
any 3D print I've ever brought home. Now I have rolls of this from both eSUN
and Sovol, and I'm honestly not sure I can tell the difference, they might be
the same filament, but let me show you some prints from each and you tell me. Hey! Editing Jonathan here. I don't know what I think
of this haircut either. But I do know that once I got these
under the light and looked at them side-by-side, even though they looked
almost identical on the roll, I definitely think that the eSUN version is much
more vibrant than the Sovol version. So I stand corrected, they are
definitely not the same filament, and I kind of prefer the eSUN one. In any case, out of all the bajillion
dual-extrusion silk filaments out there and the handful that Sovol makes,
this is the only one that actually made the list, and for good reason. Each of these colors is incredibly
vibrant, and blue magenta is a winning color combination. I mean, there's a reason that videography
geeks and just your standard annoying YouTubers always choose magenta
and blue for their backgrounds. Plus, I think Sovol and or eSUN did
a really good job, not overdoing it with the silk additives. This filament comes out
shiny, but not over the top. Just keep in mind that, as I said before,
silk PLA as a whole is significantly weaker than standard or even matte PLA,
so I wouldn't use this one for things that are going to be handled a lot. For this reason, when I need
something that needs to be both beautiful and durable, I've recently
been turning to SliceWorx's Matte Gradient series of filaments. Though they don't look matte
on the roll, they do come out matte when you print them. Which I greatly prefer to the silk
look, if I haven't already mentioned. Unfortunately, it seems like most of
the companies out there making gradient filament insist on making it with
all kinds of silky metallic looks, which can often be just too much. With this stuff, you get a nice,
clean, matte look without sacrificing the visual appeal of a gradient. It also transitions colors pretty
quickly, making it quite useful for small objects or vase mode prints like these. Now, it wouldn't be fair to feature
SliceWorx's matte gradient filaments without showing off this matte macaroon,
macron, macaron, rainbow gradient filament from a company called ZIRO3D. Now, I'm generally not really into
rainbow gradient filaments as a whole, particularly when they are
silky or look like unicorn vomit. But as you can probably tell by looking
around my studio, if there are two things that I love in a filament, it's
a nice matte texture and a pastel color. And this filament nails both of them. So while I don't often find myself
wanting a rainbow gradient 3D print, if I do need to print one and I don't
want it to be super weak or super garish, this is the filament I lean to. Nice job, ZIRO3D. While we're on the topic of
non-silk gradients, check out another one from ZIRO3D. It actually combines a semi-translucent
look, which I love, with a gradiet, and then glitter on top of that, to achieve
a really unique effect that I actually haven't seen in any other filament. Definitely beautiful, especially
for a smaller company that many people haven't heard of. And for some reason, I do keep coming
back to this filament when I want to create a beautiful and polished 3D print. So there you have it, 20 or so of the
most jaw-dropping filaments to level up your next 3D printing project. But honestly, there are so many new
filaments coming out you every single day, I am sure that I missed quite a few, so
I would love it if you let me know your favorite filaments in the comments below,
and maybe I'll do a follow up video. Let me also take a moment to thank
our YouTube members and Patreon supporters, particularly our Nylon and
Peek members: Chip Cox, 2 Krazy Ketos, Amir Chen, Kris Miller, and Aaron Pape. And if you want to gain access to
exclusive content, amazing discounts from many of the top brands in the
industry and early ad -free access to my videos, check out the link in the
description to our Patreon community. That's all for this week, but I'll
see all of you on The Next Layer.
