ZBrush for Digital 3-D Printing - ZBrush Creature Design: Creating Dynamic Concept Imagery for Film and Games - page 707

Image courtesy of Gentle Giant Studios.
Applications for 3-D Printing
In this section, we will look at the various applications of 3-D printing in the entertainment, art, and man-
ufacturing industries. When I refer to 3-D printing, I am talking about stereolithography as opposed to 3-D
milling. The combination of ZBrush and 3-D print technology has opened huge new vistas to artists working
in this medium. Not only can we use ZBrush to print maquettes as a powerful concept-design tool, but the
same technology extends into prop manufacture and even fine art and collectible production based on your
digital sculpture.
3-D Printing for Digital Maquettes
Here we can see some examples of how a concept design can be taken into the physical realm by printing
a 3-D model from the ZBrush data ( Figure 11-9 ) . Many times directors will respond better to seeing and
holding a representation of the character in their hands. Filmmakers are highly visual people so they will
often like to be able to see a character under real lighting conditions even if it is in miniature.
Figure 11-9: This figure shows a sculpture of Senator Tumblestone, made and printed by Jelmer Boskma.
Image from www.jelmerboskma.com
Being able to produce concept maquettes like this has been hugely beneficial beyond just getting design
approvals. Once a maquette is approved, it allows other departments to have the figure for reference. The
3-D print can even be painted to illustrate possible skin texture variations.