There was a thread here recently about the future of sculpting that got me wanting to try digital sculpting. I'm not ready to drop a couple thousand dollars on high end 3D software and the new computer I'd need to be able to run it, but I found a nice free program called Sculptris. You can download here if you're interested: http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/

I'm really just playing right now, but so far I'm pleased. One big thing I've noticed is if you're getting old and farsighted like me, it's a real pleasure to not have to use an optivisor and reading glasses

If it turns out well, I'm going to have www.shapeways.com print it out in a couple different materials so I can see how digital printing compares to my Magic Sculpt creations.

I really don't know where the subject is going to go, but here are a couple pics after maybe 5 hours of work. I am speeding up as I get used to the UI, it's pretty intuitive.

thats looking good for just a few hours in the program! I downloaded sculptris myself last week, it is pretty sweet for a free program. Its sad the real ones are 750.00! But your right, the future for us in business will be the computer soon.

Very nice James

Ethan, yes it is the future. There are some 3D packages that do offer Academic versions at discounted prices

I'm a retired Sheet Metal Journyman. I never thought a machine/computer would replace a person to draft and cut out duct fittings from a flat sheet of metal. The machine does it so fast a person can hardly keep the scrap cleaned away!

At least we will still have our paint brushes! I don't count airbrushes, try painting eyes with one of thoses!

Nick

Eh !! - nowt wrong wi' airbrushes me auld, lol - use 'em all the time, not for eyes though of course, love me brushes too.

Thanks for checking out the thread guys!

We'll see if I can get this to print when I'm finished, but so far this isn't really that much different from normal sculpting. Like everything I guess, there are some things I like better about it and some I like worse. The undo feature is very nice, I just wish I could figure out how to redo. Ctrl-Y isn't working for me. It would also be nice if there were a few more tool shapes, although buying Zbrush or Mudbox would probably solve that.

The strangest thing is not having any feedback from the material. I started out using a mouse and that was too difficult, so I went and bought a Wacom pen tablet. I highly recommend the tablet, it makes it a lot more fun

Anyhow, here's where it's at after a few more hours.

The ears are pretty much done and I've started on the neck. The more I get into this one, the more fun I'm having!

I've started working on the torso. It seems difficult to rotate in more than one axis in Sculptris when you're in symmetry mode, so I'm doing the head and torso separately. Then I can move them together later, get the angles I want and take off symmetry mode in order to finish with the arms and hair. At least that's the plan...

I've joined the head and the torso now and just need to refine a bit and add hair. The join line at the neck leaves something to be desired, but with Sculptris, I can't get a decent tilt to the head without taking it out of symmetry mode and just using the grab tool would mess up the head. I'm thinking the hair will hide some of it and I'm not too sure it will be noticeable once printed.

I've done a couple test uploads to www.shapeways.com and at this point at least, it should print. It's difficult to scale though, my first try got a 3.4 mm tall figure. I still need to hollow out the torso to lower the cost.

Certainly looks like there are no limits to this kind of sculpting. Gonna be tough to teach the younger generation the old art, just like using a land line or an actual hardback book, they won't know what to do with a blog of putty and maybe soon a paint brush??

Pretty cool program and very impressive, but I prefer the artistic hands on side of the hobby. No sense in fighting it, but it might someday become a treasure to find an actual sculpted figure done by "hand" (human, not a printer). Who'd a ever thunk a dat???:thumb down::thumb down::thumb down::lol:


Cheers, Ski.

Until I tried this, I've always been a bit skeptical of digital art in all of it's forms. It's different than sculpting with putty or clay, but I was surprised how small the difference is, especially once I bought a pressure sensitive tablet. I'll have to see once it's printed if I'm satisfied with the results or if I'm going to go back to putty. I have a feeling I'll probably use both if possible. I'm just hoping that putty sticks to the plastics they use.

One other note with Sculptris is that you can paint your models in it without having to worry about UV mapping and then have them printed out in color for I think around 99 cents a cubic centimeter. Right now from what I've read, the detail level is low in the color prints and they are brittle so I'll probably stay with paint brushes for a few years at least!

Interesting project James.
Following with interest.

Cheers,
Adrian

Thanks for checking out the thread, Adrian.

A bit more done here. I've added a base and started another blob for the hair. It looks like it's going to take a while for the hair, it's kind tricky to manipulate right where I want it. I may have to learn how to mask...

I'm finished! At least I think. Now I just need to have her printed in a few different materials to see what works best, I'm a little nervous that the earring will possibly be too small and cause the whole thing to reject.

I did find this place http://www.meshmixer.com/ that has yet another free sculpting program. Meshmixer has an option to directly upload to www.shapeways.com and you can select your size! I just import the .obj file from Sculptris and it makes it much easier. It looks like I may be able to use meshmixer to hollow future models out more quickly and more accurately than just sculpting a hole. There is one hole you can see here in the base, but there is also a teeny tiny one on the torso behind the base that expands inside. You can see it in the third picture. Hollowing is necessary in order to keep your printing costs reasonable.

Right now, it looks like it's going to cost me around $50 - $125 for a print in 1/9th scale depending on materials. I think they ship from the Netherlands and worldwide shipping is included in the cost but import duties may add to it. I can even have them print in stainless steel for about $350

Anyhow I'm going to play around a bit more and maybe resize. When and if I get my prints back I'll take pictures and post

Very interesting, I like the natural way the body is shaped and the hair flows. As you say, it will be interesting to see if you can add putty or reshape some areas by hand once you have it printed out. I quite often do this with jewellery that I CAD/CAM and then get cast in gold, I then add hand made pieces etc to it to give it a more handmade feel. All it takes is experimenting to get that look that you are after.
Ben