So I had a little sculpture I did laser scanned by a very nice man in Yorkshire and have been playing with the scanned data using Sculptris. I hollowed out the model using some other software, then chopped it up so the pieces would fit into my Form1 and have been merrily printing away. Now I have a photo I thought I’d share, I’ll add more as I go.
There are seven parts to the larger model, I have six (two aren’t in the photo) but ran out of white resin, so a clear one is printing now and then I can finish the model and reassemble ready for traditional casting using rubber and resin, then possibly china and perhaps even plastic (via company I’ve been working with who makes models for the collector/toy markets).
I’ve not had as much success with clear resin as I have with white. The clear resin I have is Formlabs version 1, the white I was using was some early MadeSolid resin I got when I bought the printer, I have to say the MS resin was SO much easier to use and has provided better results for me. I am now very tempted to buy MadeSolid resin, particularly as I can buy it from Europe and avoid paying extortionate shipping and Customs taxes on it. Any thoughts on this?
Actually, just cancelled the print, the clear resin isn’t adhering the base to the platform, this is the problem I had before! Really don’t like this Formlabs resin! I’ve not had a print fail with the Madesolid stuff - might start a new thread on this actually…
I used the pic with my hand for scale. The grey model is the original sculpture, the small white one was a test print (I am also planning a tiny edition as people saw the test and suggested that, but I’ll print it at 0.025 as these are all done in 0.05) and the big pieces are what I’ve been working on. As you can see, there was some flaking on the shoulder of the model, I printed it along with the head and part of the head didn’t print (on the other side) which I think caused this, it’s not a big issue though, I’m a sculptor so will just fix that.
This project is unusual as most sculptors have large models scanned and reduced to make small ones, but as my little sculpt proved quite popular, I am going the other way and gigantifying my model using the Form1.
I love the idea of scanning something small from the real world, bringing it into the digital world, scaling etc. and printing out to the real world again.
I was really interested on you comments on the MS resins. I will have to give them a go once my printer working correctly.
Regarding your problem with the clear resin, have you tried lowering the platform height via the fine tuning tab in Preform?
How are you intending to glue you pieces together?
Thanks Steve, I should really buy some new Formlabs resin and try that, I’ve heard that the version 1 resins are not as good, but the printer came with the version 1 and now I’ve used up the MS stuff it’s all I have for the moment. I was made redundant recently and am hoping to set up in business, so can’t be spending out too much, or I’d be buying one of each type to see which I like best.
I sent a new print with the platform set to zero - I did try lowering the platform last time I had issues but didn’t get any success until I set it back to zero. The new print did adhere, but a couple of supports were missing so the print isn’t going to be whole. I’m not sure on the damage just yet, I can live with a bit of a gap but if it ends up printing two sides and no middle I might have another go tonight with a higher density (I set it right down to 0.5 as the white liked that setting). I also just realised that the clear stuff I’m using is the used stuff (I was given some new and a bit that had been used previously) so I should try with the new stuff next time, I thought this was the fresh resin but just discovered the note on the bottle.
I plan to refine the pieces individually as it’ll be easier to work on them that way, then I was planning to use a two-part epoxy glue to stick them together before filling and smoothing the joins. I’ve seen people using liquid resin and UV light to set the resin as an adhesive, I may give that a little go, but will likely just glue them. This model will become the master that the moulds will be taken from for casting into resin. I’m also toying with the idea of making two moulds, one of each side of the horse (ie not gluing it down the middle, longways) and casting it as two separate pieces which would then be glued together for each cast, making hollow copies. I don’t have a roto-caster so, as I have hollowed her out for the printing I could take moulds of the hollowed parts (would need to fill in the legs but that’s no problem) and cheat the system a little bit.
Not feeling massively confident about this latest print, will report back later. Wish I knew why some prints adhere and some don’t with the clear stuff!
Which scanner was that? The tail seems to have suffered quite a bit of detail loss, which is odd, considering the face (eye in particular) seems okay. Or was that due to self-shadowing (and not enough scan angles)?
The scan was done by a company, not by me, I’m afraid I don’ know what scanner was used. Some detail was lost all round, here’s a picture of the untouched scanned data:
Actually looking at it now, some detail has been lost in the mane and tail since the scan. I spent some time resculpting the model using Sculptris (ZBrush’s free version) and this is a picture of it once I was done re-working it, I wonder if I smoothed the tail a bit when I was smoothing out the internal “hollow” part of the mesh:
I didn’t spend much time adding any more detail to the mane, tail or feathers (hair on the legs) as I didn’t think I’d get the detail from a 3D print and so left them to deal with after it was printed.
Talking of which, part seven (of the seven pieces I need for the full larger print) is giving me a headache - attempt number three is currently printing and is missing a big section. It only has an hour left, I’ll let it run just in case I can use the bit that has printed and then do one last try, then if that doesn’t work I’ll probably give up and just get on with getting it finished - time is money, as they say!
Ah, yeah, the original scan on mane, tail and feathers does seem a sharper.
No big deal, was just curious about what caused the difference in detail level.
You can probably reproject the original scan detail back in zbrush anyways.
Edit: Forgot to say - awesome sculpt! Very nice work. Especially considering how tiny it is! Quite impressed.
