3-D printing

[radman]

Folks, the future of dinosaur  and prehistoric animal modeling has arrived.  While there will always be a market for traditional modelers like Shane, Malcolm and Rader (especially for larger models, where 3-D costs become prohibitive), among many others, artists like Krentz and Galileo have already embraced this new technology.  Of course, for Angie Rodrigues (3D creature), mb-cg, rarebreed, etc, Shapeways is the only place we have seen and bought their work.  Well, I predict this market will explode within the next few years.  Starting at just a couple hundred bucks, then of course spiraling into the high thousands, anyone can buy a 3D printer, get Zbrush or a similar modeling program, and start creating their own creatures!  Sell your models directly without going through ebay or shapeways, make whatever you want!  I think this guy has a good idea already:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Columbian-Mammoth-and-elephant-models-3d-prints-museum-quality-/231112618136?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35cf62b098

Anyway, if I had some extra cash lying around, this is exactly what I would do, start with relatively simple models like elephants, (no hair, scales, wattles, etc), then work up to more complicated stuff.  The beauty of these modeling programs is you only have to detail half the model - the other half is automatically done symmetrically.  You can still do action poses as well, though.  Anyway, this is the first I've heard of someone printing their own models.  I just bought the  brontotherium, 1:50 or so, can't wait to see how it looks in hand.
So, this is the thread, if you know of more to come, post here!

[Gorgonzola]

Depending on patents and tech development, we're still a few years off, but I'm still pretty stoked by it.

I don't think from a consumer standpoint that 3D printers won't become ubiquitous as our inkjet printers, namely because the materials cost/time is still lopsided for the near future. But for people that want to do, say, garage kits?  Holy moly is it a nice thing to have.

If I remember right, come February patents for SLS printing will be expired and opened up for everyone to use - this happened not too long ago with extrusion printing, and as a result of that we got the likes of Makerbot with affordable printers.  So to have the ability to do really high detail prints at home would be a boon, especially for the likes of me, who would want to use a printer to make one nice master copy, then use that to produce resin copies.  If the master copy ever got damaged or if I were to lose it, no problem, just as long as I have a digital back up I can just reprint that sucker and have another go with the molds.

That's the sort of future I'm looking forward to with 3D printing - not from a consumer standpoint of "Oh everyone will be able to print everything like how people use inkjet printers today" but for sculptors to transform their studio and continue to create some really outstanding things.

[radman]

Ack!  I should have mentioned you as well; I actually have a number of your models and just finished painting a Cryo and Carno , will post soon. 

[Gorgonzola]

Haha, no worries.  A lot of people ordered the Cryo's recently, I was really surprised.  I hope I get to see photos of all the finished models from everyone, I really enjoy seeing it. Can't wait to see what Martin did for Amargasaurus' er, um, Amargasaurus models.

But yeah, I love 3D printing and what it's afforded me recently - I haven't had a sculpting space set up in years, since I don't do it as a livelihood and there's only so much space one can have in the studio.  I've really enjoyed the whole process of it, and if in a few years there's high resolution, high quality 3D printers that are relatively affordable (on par with the price of like, a new computer), then things are gonna get interesting.

[Dan]

...and if in a few years there's high resolution, high quality 3D printers that are relatively affordable (on par with the price of like, a new computer), then things are gonna get interesting.

Yes, it may take a little longer for the high quality printers to become common, which will make things more interesting. While the artist responsible for those 3D mammals on Ebay is certainly skilled, he's obviously using a lower quality printer for now.

[SBell]

Depending on patents and tech development, we're still a few years off, but I'm still pretty stoked by it.

I don't think from a consumer standpoint that 3D printers won't become ubiquitous as our inkjet printers, namely because the materials cost/time is still lopsided for the near future. But for people that want to do, say, garage kits?  Holy moly is it a nice thing to have.

If I remember right, come February patents for SLS printing will be expired and opened up for everyone to use - this happened not too long ago with extrusion printing, and as a result of that we got the likes of Makerbot with affordable printers.  So to have the ability to do really high detail prints at home would be a boon, especially for the likes of me, who would want to use a printer to make one nice master copy, then use that to produce resin copies.  If the master copy ever got damaged or if I were to lose it, no problem, just as long as I have a digital back up I can just reprint that sucker and have another go with the molds.

That's the sort of future I'm looking forward to with 3D printing - not from a consumer standpoint of "Oh everyone will be able to print everything like how people use inkjet printers today" but for sculptors to transform their studio and continue to create some really outstanding things.

It's poised to become far more common than you might think--already you can get them for home use, and it is expected that some stores may stop carrying common plastic fittings and such eventually, instead printing on demand (obviously, detail is less important there than function, but that was also true of paper printers at one time--who though we'd have high-speed colour laser printers at home?).

[radman]

So, the brontotherium has arrived, and it looks pretty good actually.  The seam lines from printing are tiny, smaller even than shapeways, and it gives the model kind of a cool iridescent look.  Model seems to be hollow, based on heft, but there's no hole visible.  Will post some pics when the sun is higher.

[tyrantqueen]

Seems like a very exciting prospect. My hope for the future is that the cost of printing these models goes down, and the quality increases. One day, having to paint models in the horrible coarse WSF material will be a distant memory

Btw, you forgot to mention Aaron Doyle in there with the others- he's one of my favourite artists.

[tyrantqueen]

Btw, if you're interested in 3D printing as an industry, you might want to check out this site http://www.3ders.org/index.html for the latest news and updates.