OMG the 3D printer is gonna sculpt everything..not

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Uratz-Studios's avatar
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Well some of you probably know by now that I've invested in a 3D printer and some of the "old school" prop makers are going crazy and some are being defensive of the old school ways of doing things and accusing me of cheating or something by not doing every thing by hand. LOL I just find it all very amusing. Before I made the decision to buy such a "wonderful machine" that seems to solve a lot of my time problems, I've actually read a lot into it and finding out its limitations such as it not being able to respond to my voice commands like JARVIS and produce an Iron Man suit and paint it while I attend some luxurious gala dinner event and have it ready to fly supersonic morning time to Afghanistan and take out some terrorist. To my surprise that the machine actually can't even print correctly if the bed plate is about 1mm warped.

First of all there are a lot of misunderstanding about the 3D rapid prototyping technology which actually existed over 30 years ago for the manufacturing industry. Fortunately I know and have thought about it carefully before buying something that I can't use if there were no 3D designers there to create and design perfect creations for the printer to produce.  This is where my ingenuity and years of costume design comes into play. The machine can only produce parts as good as the designers who made it. I wouldn't say its for everyone especially kids since both PLA and ABS is melted and produces fumes that make you dizzy which I've noticed since placing it next to me as I write this journal. Currently for some certain projects I believe 3D printing allows me to get almost perfect parts, but since I'm using fused deposition material that's melted, much hand work is still required and a lot of hand trimming to get these parts to look perfect and that requires years of prop making experience which is applying bondo and hand sanding (now I'm cheating by using a power sander because I don't want to have carpal tunnel from hand sanding). In reality using this 3D printing technology actually involves more cost, time and man power than if I were to just sit there and fudge around with clay until the cows come home. There's just no way to achieve perfect symmetry by hand and not even Miles Teves who sculpted the original Iron Man helmet and 1:2 scale maquette could achieve perfect symmetry. I'm not saying its impossible but very hard even for a pro. Then there are those like me who want to achieve greater results to produce machine perfect parts but not all designs fit the bill, that depends on the design call like for example if I want to make a skull mask I would actually hand sculpt it because it would look better than if a machine were to produce it.

So in conclusion, I believe its all about answering the design brief and asking yourself "how can I use certain tools or methods to achieve certain results?" As an Artist I have cultivated an open mind to new tools that could push my art to a certain level of perfection and also delivering quality pieces on time. Since graduating from Art school like millenniums ago, I learned a lot about designing and making real life wearable art pieces and being able to share my art with the rest of the world and I can only do this by learning about new tools that can be a benefit to my process in creating art.

I leave you with these quotes:

"Imagination is nothing without a paintbrush and the ability to use it."
- Pablo Picasso


"If an Artist's imagination is limitless why should he be limited by the tools around him?"
- Mike Loh

To learn more about the truth and clear up your misunderstandings please read these articles:

Hype vs. Reality

www.3dprint-uk.co.uk/portfolio…


The 3D printing reality distortion field

www.tctmagazine.com/blogs/gues…

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Hypercats's avatar
Awesome! Looking forward to what you can do with it!