Post by Henchmen4Hire on Aug 3, 2018 19:35:37 GMT -5
For all the customizers and collectors out there, would you be interested in a 3D scanning and printing service? I'm currently chatting with someone about getting a scanner to provide this service to the action figure community, but it's too big an expense to buy on a whim.
What are some of the benefits of this service?
•Any head can be upsized or downscaled. Those big Jakks heads could finally be used on Mattel bodies, and vice versa.
•Accessories can be created from anything! He could scan a TV or a bottle or a backpack or shoes, and make them accessories for any figure.
•If you have custom sculpts you want to duplicate, he could do it for you. I'm planning on sculpting some luchador heads to be scanned since no toy company seems interested in making them.
I'm sure there are tons of other uses, but the point is, do you think there's enough of a demand in the custom community to justify buying a 3D scanner? Would you regularly buy from him or use this scanning service? Heads would be printed with resin for great looking results with minimal clean up on your part.
Please ask this on all the forums and sites you visit, we need to gauge how much interest there is.
Last Edit: Aug 7, 2018 15:14:40 GMT -5 by Henchmen4Hire
Post by satmornwrestling on Aug 4, 2018 16:20:00 GMT -5
Personally think it’s a fantastic idea! If you priced reasonable, in the long run you would be very successful. Some custom guys go for gold and just loose profit in the long term. More customers equals more money in the long run!
Post by Henchmen4Hire on Aug 4, 2018 18:36:06 GMT -5
Pricewise, printed heads would be about $5 to $10 a pop depending on the scale and size. For example, a bald Stone Cold head might be $5, but if you wanted him with a giant afro it would be like $8.
The scanning service would cost more though, that's up to the guy to figure out what's reasonable because there is setup time and post process work to be done to get a good scan and mesh file for printing. For reference, professional scanning shops charge about $125 per item to scan something this small. We would have to charge A LOT less to make it attractive to customizers.
They have been doing it for years to make third party add ons for Transformers and they seem to do a good trade. Would be interesting to see what it could achieve as far as wrestling figures go. Especially for resizing Jakks heads.
They have been doing it for years to make third party add ons for Transformers and they seem to do a good trade. Would be interesting to see what it could achieve as far as wrestling figures go. Especially for resizing Jakks heads.
Oh yeah, I've seen those sellers offering replacement parts for TFs, and new hands and stuff. Prices are kinda nutty though, like $14 for a little dagger is too much I think, but I guess that's just because of Shapeways wanting a cut.
Existing ones could be scanned, personally I'm hoping someone makes a Lucha Underground belt model. Maybe there's a modeller out there willing to make models of the plates, we could print those and people could glue them to a strip of leather themselves. Printing all the plates for a belt would cost about the same as a head.
Last Edit: Aug 5, 2018 1:24:08 GMT -5 by Henchmen4Hire
Post by "The Gothic Superstar" Ronin on Aug 5, 2018 15:38:04 GMT -5
this could be great. makes me want to hold back on doing some of my customs lol why should i make the effort to sculpt when i can buy a head already made
Absolutely!! That would be amazing. Question, though. What sort of material would be used for the printing... I've only seen those 3-D printed minatures where they use that plastic that looks vaguely faded out and spongey. Would your material be able to be smoothed out/solid enough to be painted to match the figure bodies texture and color-wise?
Absolutely!! That would be amazing. Question, though. What sort of material would be used for the printing... I've only seen those 3-D printed minatures where they use that plastic that looks vaguely faded out and spongey. Would your material be able to be smoothed out/solid enough to be painted to match the figure bodies texture and color-wise?
Oh right, forgot to add, he has a printer that uses filament and another that uses resin for high res prints. He would be using the resin printer for all this stuff to keep it looking good, because we all know how rough filament printed items can be. I'm sure there are different colored resins but it's up to him to decide if it's cost effective to buy many colors. (resin can be like 50 bucks for a little bottle, yikes.)
I'd be down to see where this goes and be interested in trying to get some good likeness scans of Owen Hart for example.
Now that would be interesting to have an actual Owen scan available.
Exactly. I love all the customs I see of Owen, don't get me wrong, but having a scan of ACTUALLY him would be great. Cause ni matter what jead is used, i can always tell itd either zack ryder, or heath slater, or whoever is picked by the customizer. Heck, even the ADA head that was sculpted years ago is good, but nothing near what an actual scan would be.
For all the customizers and collectors out there, would you be interested in a 3D scanning and printing service? I'm currently chatting with someone about getting a scanner to provide this service to the action figure community, but it's too big an expense to buy on a whim.
What are some of the benefits of this service?
•Any head can be upsized or downscaled. Those big Jakks heads could finally be used on Mattel bodies, and vice versa.
•Accessories can be created from anything! He could scan a TV or a bottle or a backpack or shoes, and make them accessories for any figure.
•If you have custom sculpts you want to duplicate, he could do it for you. I'm planning on sculpting some luchador heads to be scanned since no toy company seems interested in making them.
I'm sure there are tons of other uses, but the point is, do you think there's enough of a demand in the custom community to justify buying a 3D scanner? Would you regularly buy from him or use this scanning service? Heads would be printed with resin for great looking results with minimal clean up on your part.
Please ask this on all the forums and sites you visit, we need to gauge how much interest there is.
Is there any way to use the Hasbro Series 12 photos of the prototype heads and create 3D heads of those? Like those websites where you upload a pic or two of yourself and they make a figure of you..?
Is there any way to use the Hasbro Series 12 photos of the prototype heads and create 3D heads of those? Like those websites where you upload a pic or two of yourself and they make a figure of you..?
I asked a similar question to that to some developers of photogrametry software. (Photogrammetry is the process of taking photographs to create a 3D model with them.)
The heads those custom figure sites use are generic, they're mostly featureless blank heads on which they print your photos. They don't have sculpted wrinkles or eyelids or anything. In other words, they don't use your pictures to make a model, instead they use your pictures as a template for painting/face printing onto their pre-made models.
There are sites that do make models with photogrammetry, but it requires high quality photos with controlled lighting and at multiple orbiting angles (like 60 photos minimum), so you have to go to their studio and have them do it. And even then they'll probably just 3D scan you with a laser instead. It's laughably expensive.
We've tried getting good results with photogrammetry, but despite reassurances by the software developers that it's possible to get amazing high-poly models, the models we generated with our photographs don't have much detail. They can have "okay" detail, but any customizer will think they're crap. So, a 3D scanner is the best solution for now.
Last Edit: Aug 11, 2018 18:18:21 GMT -5 by Henchmen4Hire