Whats the specs on your comp Darko? Mine might be under powered.

I have two: the new one has 8 core processor, with 16gb of memory, but it works also on my old Dell D-510 laptop which has only 2GB and 1.8ghz processor. Sure, on the laptop it works much slower, and I newer tried nothing more than 300000 vertices.

Well, your new computer is twice the machine I have in every respect, but my machine is 3x your lap top. I must have something running that conflicts with it, or I am asking it to do the impossible. Some of the meshes I've tried are from my Lightwave 3D days when I used to built models one vertex at a time. I could have screwed the topology up so badly nothing can fix it

Sounds like something interesting to try thanks for the research and info.

Has anyone got any place that does production of actual 3dprinted figures...either in plastic or resins...oh at an affordable price for selling on?

Ta

http://scalehumans.com/ultimate
Thats my site. I don't do castings yet,,, I'm looking into having a production run by someone other than myself, because it is time consuming and I am running out of space for molds (I have over 50 previous sculpts casts available)
I will most likely cast the larger scale prints. Here is a bust I am currently thinking of casting in 1/6 scale. This print is in the cheaper material and I'm going to have to get higher res material if I want to cast her because a lot of the detail was lost.

Yeh ive had a couple of attempts at printing and the resuts were good....but to continue printing I would like to try and sell on copies so it in essence plays for itself.....sort of..most of my stuff will be more war games 28mm and 54mm to start but would like to find someplace where i can just get a bulk at an affordable price and go from there.....dont fancy doing it myself.

Interesting service, sort of photobucket or imgur type of service, you can upload 3D models so others can preview them.
Here is a an example I uploaded:

http://p3d.in/djP3B

Hi, been busy with other things since my previous inquiry.....but glad to see the forum is still going and interest seems to be picking up, And with some very useful links and tips on the process. Managed to finally get a figure printed out....and it came out nice..ish, if a little small but that all came down to real world proportions in my sculpt and it coming out looking small in the print....but another lesson learned...

will upload an image for you guys, as soon as I work out how to upload one...ooh did it..

Its a wrgames scale so 30mm to top of hat, will hopefuly get it painted...another good test regading details...

Hello,
Although the technology is neat, I have to say I don't really like it. Sure companies will love it, as once someone is proficient with the program they can knock out sculpts and interlay/modify parts that have been saved from other sculpts with great efficiency. But to be honest, to me, this is not sculpting... (but I guess it is an great enabler for a world built on mass-production and maximization of profits)
Maybe they could design a 3-D precision painter with shading/blending software to compliment the printer and spare us the physical labour...


Take care,
Joe

Joe,
That is a pretty rude and demeaning post. I suspect you have never tried digitally sculpting, because if you did, you wouldn't be making such an inaccurate statement as 'this is not sculpting'.

I have just bought ZBrush and want to give digital modelling a try. Would I be better off with a pen and pad rather than a mouse? Also I am going to scan some of my old 3D figures as a starting point is there any merit in this???

I have just priced up zbrush , new PC and tablet, I am looking at a WACOM tablet at present, most of the tutorials seem to use this with a pen.
From information given to me, and may be wrong, a scan will give a figure that can be scaled differently, however it doesn't contain any points or material to be changed or built upon as it is just a scan of the piece converted to a PC image.
You would be better off with a specific file close to what you are after to work on if you do not want to start from scratch.
Just my take, I am giving it a go for more engineered pieces to start alongside manual.
Here is the tablet I am looking at although I am getting a lot of advice as a newbie from people who have used this and will be doing a lot more homework before I invest, sometime this year.
There are people far better qualified here who know their stuff but I have found zbrush for beginners on Facebook to be the most helpful.
http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos-Touch-Tablet-PTH851/dp/B00EN27SMY/ref=dp_ob_image_ce

Guys, i've found a great solution for those who want to try out 3D modelling. I am a dummy myself and I just wanted to test if this the right way for me. Still waiting for my cheap wacom intuos tablet (i think it's enough for what I need right now), but I gave it a try and it's still better that spending horrible amount of money for Zbrush. Talking about Autodesk's Mudbox. You can get it for free for 3 years at student' license. Sure, I'm not a student, but all they want is schools name and website (i don't remember if i checked Secondary school od College though) and then it's for free. Surely you can't go commercial with it, but it's great for learning! After that you can save for Zbrush, or even Mudbox if you like it. I have never tried Zbrush before but from what I've heard Mudbox is bit more on a simple side (in compare ton Zbrush). Give it a try, there's nothing you can loose. I don't know if they're checking the info about the school, but I am up and running for about two weeks now. I guess it's just plain information you are giving. In worst case scenario, tell you student friend/family members, if you don't feel right. Hope this helps anybody

How about a url to the download site?

http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/mudbox
sorry i didnt post it and with all due respect, few seconds in Google

Thanks

A couple of things.

1) BEWARE of crossing Autodesk. If they bust you abusing a license, it could cost you your future ability to buy product from them... At the least.

2) Hello.

3) You MUST have, AT MINIMUM, a tablet to digitally sculpt with. It is theoretically possible to digitally sculpt with a mouse (five button minmum with ZBrush or Mudbox), but it would be sort of like trying to fix a Rolex while wearing mittens and using chopsticks. Even better than a tablet like an Intuos is a Graphic Screen like the Cintiq, where you draw/sculpt directly on the image of the model (I had access to one for a while, and going back to my Intuos feels like my fingers have all been cut off).

4) To sculpt at a sufficient level of detail, you need a minimum of 16GB of RAM.
4a) If you do NOT have 16GB of Ram, then close ALL other applications when sculpting, and, of your application supports it, Retopologize often (not having a lot of RAM will make the retopo slow, but it will increase the level of detail for a lower number of polygons tremendously).

I recently had to go back to a 4 core i7 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM from a 27" iMac with 32GB of RAM, and it feels like I have been dipped in mud. Saving for a new computer is going to take forever, and then I need to save up for ZBrush (For scupting, ZBrush is THE APP). I have a license for Mudbox, but it is old, and I do not really need (yet, but I will) the texturing portion of the program.

I will post some of my non-proprietary work soon. It is stiff, as I am not yet used to working in Mudbox Sculpting, nor with such little RAM (it affects a lot), but I am loosening up as I go through the sculpting process.

Not having enough RAM has also meant that I have to spend a lot of time in Maya or Silo (which also has sculpting features) doing explicit modeling of parts to get the topology correct for sculpting. That tends to stiffen things up as well.

But hopefully by this summer I will be able to get a new computer (and a Cintiq) and get more work finished.

Currently I am working on some Tolken Inspired Goblins/Orcs (NO, NOT the Peter Jackson variety... I said Tolkien inspired, not whatever it is that Peter Jackson did to abuse Tolkien).

I am hoping to produce them in 30mm and 54mm (or maybe larger for a couple of them.

MB

Where is RKapuaala now? Seems he stopped visiting the forum since 2014. Had to thank the guy as I happened to stumble across this thread last year and it's the postings and effort from him and Pokrad got me back to sculpting again ( or at least I tried again ) . Hope he is still exploring the hobby.

vince

Maybe someone can help:

Downloaded Sculptris to check out if I can work out scultures virtuell before getting me Zbrush. But the heck it don´t work on my Laptop. Can not open the program because some security problems are there I cannot change. Anyone any idea what to do??

Frank