Hi!

I cant understand what is print figures in 3D???
I look a printer with paper and inks, not with resin and tools????
Where is the moulds and all that stuff?
If anyone explain me I will appreciate.

Thanks and sorry for mine ignorance.
Pedro.

Pedro you and I are being left behind, couple of dinasaurs.
It is my understanding that you need to get a new type of printer, more like an engineering machine tool than a printer. Your average printer or any other printer cant touch it.
However if you find out I would love to share the knowledge with you.
Hope you'r not wanting to make guns to build our own army?

Don

Strange tecnologie.
They make pistols I dont want fire arms, the gun I´ve always wanted I is on my safe box: Luger P08.

THANKS Don!

Pedro.

Pedro the two items I have seen being made are a firearm and a whistle. Both seemed to work well. I am sure they can make reall good helpfull things as well. The thought of a firearm made without any steel would be a security nightmare.

Don

Pedro, Don,
It is called a print because of the technique used to create the object.
A layer of heat reactive material is printed on to the plaque. This first layer defines the bottom most outline of the object as if you took a razor thin slice of the object and laid it flat on the plaque.
The next layer is printed on top of that and so on and so on till the object is completely printed like a stack of layers laying one on top of another.... sort of like building a pyramid with blocks.
The information the printer uses to print each layer is described in a file called a 3D file. There many variations of file formats for 3d but the one consistency between all is that the contain a list of 3 coordinates that describe the x (side to side),y(top to bottom),z(front to back) location of a points in a given space with a given axis that begins as 0,0,0.
These coordinates are nothing new. They are Cartesian coordinates that were introduced in the 15th century I believe by the mathematician who argued correctly that the location of any object in space can be described by its distance from a fixed object zero and its distance from 0 sideways, up or down, near or far. It pretty much has been used since then for that purpose.
Thats it in a nut shell.
There are various types of printers, but they use a form of the printed layer some way or another.

Thanks RKapuaala!

Pedro.

Thanks mate, dont feel lke a dinasaur any more, but still feel like someone not sure what you guys are saying. Now I must spend some time looking up details on the internet. Thanks mate any info on the internet that can help?

Don

It can be baffling at times. Even for me and I've been doing 3D since 1989. From a sculptors point a view all you have to focus on now adays is finding the right applications and learning to use them. Then pick the 3D printing service that best meets your needs.
Jargon wise, just post your question and I will try my best to answer it as simply as possible.

You would have to see it I think to really understand. Suggest looking for a video on YouTube that actually shows how it works.

Thanks you all!

Pedro.

Here is a short video. I have a couple more if you want more explanation of the applications and how they are used.
I keep them all here http://www.scalehumans.com/orderform?Howto
They are at the bottom of the page. I will update these with more instructions from time to time.

Amazing simply amazing. Bit at 2.25 where it looked like knife cuts being done around the eye sockets long before the eyeballs go in. Found that a bit strange, the rest was wonderful.

Don

Don, good catch. It seems counter intuitive at that point. That is one failure that I hope they correct on future sculpting apps. It does not recognize collisions with other objects in the file. So where you could use a bebe with wax or clay and underscore a lid accurately around the bebe, you can't do that with 3d because the tool will just go straight through to the other object as if they were one, or it will go passed the plane of the other object.
This is my work around. I do the lids and socket first close to the shape of the eye and then pull the lid and the rest of the socket out to conform to the eyeball.

Maybe more easy than the real sculpting but is odd for me. I wish I had a figure of this technology to write my thoughts about, until then, I will continue giving preference to the traditional sculpture, anyway this is extraordinary.
Thanks for the video!!!

Pedro.

Thanks, RKapuaala. This is a terrific video, but it's a bit too speedy to follow tool use, step-by-step. I've been working with 3D software for 15 or so years but have used it to model technical subjects only and find organic sculpting a completely different kettle of fish. Having downloaded Sculptris, could you suggest some simple exercises to help build skills and confidence with the software, please? (I don't yet have the skill-set to tackle a human head!) Thanks.
Jeff

Jeff,
In the sculptris main folder (on win 7 it is located in the Program Files (x86)/Pixologic/Sculptris Alpha 6 directory) there are some important start material. The most valuable it the Sculptris_Alpha6_Documentation.pdf. This is a pretty good manual.
I started without referring to the manual first and had not problem making my firts humnoid figure.

I sculpted him in a T- Pose and posed him in DAZ3D.
In retrospect, I think I could have done a better job if I had taken the time to go through the manual and try each of the tools in it on the sphere that loads by default. By doing so I would have learened how to control the number of polygons in the figure and I would have known how to hide parts of the sculpt so I could work on parts next to the part I wanted to work on without messing up that part.
So I guess your first excercise IMHO is to go through that manual and use it to try to make a star fish shape then something human.

BTW,,, the video was not meant to be an instructional video. I have other videos that explain steps on how to create the mesh. I scripted them, and my acting abilities suck so it sounds pretty unnatural, but it will take you through it at a more moderate pace, but some of it is sped up to because it takes a few days to make a convincing figure from scratch. Once you make your first good mesh, you can use it as an armature and that speeds the process up a little.

That's good advice, thanks. Typical of me, wanting to run before I can walk. I'll try and get to grips with the manual. Expect to see my first effort in, I'd guess, six months or so!

tonton,,,, you'll be surprised by how quickly you can pick it up.

Thanks for the encouragement. We'll see...