Your two cents needed: Will this work?

Hi all, this is my first post here but after some lurking you seem like the sensible group of fellows to get an opinion on an idea I've been tossing around for a while.


I've been looking for ways to really justify having a printer and I'm certain I'm not the only one. my field of expertise is in creating monsters, video game characters, sci fi objects or fantasy items and so on, and various people have expressed an interest in procuring them in some form.


The reason I'm coming to you is to gauge whether or not there would be an interest from the 3D printing community in some type of subscription to unique, original printables. Ultimately my goal is to make a monthly monster, raygun, movie or game replica props, test print it to work out the bugs, and put it out there in such a way that I can afford the time to make another one the following month and so on. I love making things and I'm hooked on printing so I'd like to fuse them in a fun way that a lot of other people might enjoy as well and while I see that there's a lot of cool stuff out there, I'm not always up for testing and tweaking a found design until it actually prints.


Here's some recent examples of my work, please reply and let me know what you think of the idea, your two cents are much appreciated!


http://f.cl.ly/items/2q242K0w350f2A2...t_flesh_01.jpg


http://f.cl.ly/items/273z070g04301k1...orFolio-01.jpg


http://f.cl.ly/items/252d3b410s2P1G2...-13_154907.png


http://f.cl.ly/items/0J3h2s2F063q1k3...processing.jpg


http://f.cl.ly/items/2y2W2O3R1x1y0U4...2015.31.50.jpg

I'll give you my 2 cents, those are fantastic! perhaps a few bits that could be fixed for overhangs, but overall sensational stuff.

In my experience people are afraid of detailed prints because.

1. Slicing time, so if you can keep them under 80mb that's good or at least that poly count.
2. Hardly anyone paints them, so they wont use the detail
3. Alot of printers just don't print the detail properly

I however am not scared of detailed models :) if you want to send me one to test I'd be more than happy, please check some of my makes so you know i'm not after a free model lol..

Attachment 1645Attachment 1646Attachment 1647Attachment 1648Attachment 1649


http://www.thingiverse.com/Geoffro/made
http://www.thingiverse.com/Geoffro/designs

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IanVP

Hi all, this is my first post here but after some lurking you seem like the sensible group of fellows to get an opinion on an idea I've been tossing around for a while.
I've been looking for ways to really justify having a printer and I'm certain I'm not the only one. my field of expertise is in creating monsters ...

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Of course you need a printer...

Welcome to our Forum.

Really nice organic modeling IanVP. Great ideas. Yes, you need a 3d printer as soon as you can get one. And, with Geoff's help you'll be making fantastic characters soon. Overhang's and other details get tricky but once you start printing you'll learn how to work around that. Sometimes you have to print in halves and glue the parts together. ABS glues simply with acetone.

Are you modeling in ZBrush or Mudbox? Your work is nice and the details are well modeled. Do you freelance? I occasionally have jobs that I need to hire an extra modeler if I can't do the whole job myself in the necessary time frame. In fact, I may have one soon so if you are interested, PM me.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I have a printer, those parts pictured were printed right here in my office :)

Also, hi RobH2 -- I work in Zbrush/3D Studio Max primarily. I'm a professional freelance artist including the odd sculpting and modeling job -- happy to talk further on the subject mate.

To all: thanks for the warm welcome and thanks to all for the feedback on overhangs. There have been a lot of experiments but I'm now getting a good feel for "The Rules." As a follow up to my original question: do you guys feel there is any demand in the community for cool prop-like or art like prints? I read Geoff's (great makes and paints, btw) comment about people shying away from complex parts and painting. Do you think that shyness might be overcome if it were clear that the pieces were well tested?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IanVP

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I have a printer, those parts pictured were printed right here in my office :)

Also, hi RobH2 -- I work in Zbrush/3D Studio Max primarily. I'm a professional freelance artist including the odd sculpting and modeling job -- happy to talk further on the subject mate.

To all: thanks for the warm welcome and thanks to all for the feedback on overhangs. There have been a lot of experiments but I'm now getting a good feel for "The Rules." As a follow up to my original question: do you guys feel there is any demand in the community for cool prop-like or art like prints? I read Geoff's (great makes and paints, btw) comment about people shying away from complex parts and painting. Do you think that shyness might be overcome if it were clear that the pieces were well tested?

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It's not shyness really, I should have said reluctance... Depends on the machine you have really, like some of your models there is no way my printer will use the detail in the zbrush skin detailing, the tolerance is too low. A resin based printer is about the only thing that would faithfully print those or shapeways. There is plenty of demand for monster busts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IanVP

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I have a printer, those parts pictured were printed right here in my office :)

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Yea, sorry I misread that. You said you were looking for a way to "justify" the printer, not buy one. Got it. I was reading way too fast.

PM me if you want to show me a website or your work. I may have something you could do for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Geoff

It's not shyness really, I should have said reluctance... Depends on the machine you have really, like some of your models there is no way my printer will use the detail in the zbrush skin detailing, the tolerance is too low.

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Understood. So I would need to design for the medium as it were and leverage medium scale details for the best output.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Geoff

There is plenty of demand for monster busts.

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Are there places where people that collect printables of this sort of thing tend to concentrate? I'd like to get an idea of what's out there and see how other folks are approaching the FDM sweet spot for detail.

Eventually, say in 5 years or so, this will be the most viable way for toys to be distributed. Probably a toy-maker will bundle the printer with a subscription service, so it's paid for over time with models included. I expect it will be heavily promoted through the media, featuring popular licensed characters, so every kid will be begging for it at Xmas. But it will take a big company to pull it off, and 3D printers will have to be a lot better and easier to use. Hang in there!

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

Thanks for your reply @awerby. I should clarify my goal: I don't want to build a company distributing these to the masses for huge profits. My thought is to build a structured hobby that helps to pay for itself and maybe more over the long run. I guess I envision a more artisanal version of the whole concept. I think your thoughts about the size of the market are very reasonable. My perception of the makeup of the home FDM market is what lead me in a more collectibles direction (that and it's what I enjoy making).

I guess maybe it comes down to the answer to this question: can the printer print anything cool enough to be worth collecting and displaying to a viable percentage of the community and will they pay anything for the regular delivery of such items?

Thanks for helping me break question down more clearly.

Your designs are wonderful. Such rich textures will require high precision resin printing.

To tackle the various remarks regarding slicing, ... perhaps you could just sell as an alternative the gcode for the most known DLP/SLA printers ?

Have you tried going to tabletop gaming shops ?

I think it will work, but you need to advertise it good. Maybe ebay is a good source to reach out.

By the way, what printer are you using?

The meat guy, is it painted or full ABS color? That one looked so awesome! great work!

Thanks a lot for your comments and insights. That's a fascinating idea LAmbdaFF. I've been pondering issues of piracy and simplicity and while I'd have to own all of the major printers to undertake your proposal, it could make for an even better user experience.

Wow! I'm a lurker as well. Geoff, I didn't realize that was your stuff on Thingiverse. Fantastic prints, Yo!

Okay I'm gonna continue to lurk. Sorry for the interruption.