Meeting of the Austin 3d Users Group
February 22, 2006
at CyberJocks

Presentation by Brian Levy of Collectors Showcase on Rapid Prototyping (or 3D Printing)

Brian showed the group the digital model of Captain Easy Company 506th, 101st Airborn which he created in Maya. He started modeling with nurbs and then as the last step converted it to to a mesh with over a million polys. A traditional sculptor can complete an pose like this in about a months time. Brian did the digital model in a couple of weeks and of course this allows new poses in minutes. In fact, he sets of a series of poses as keyframes so he can select the best pose for the production piece. He says the iterative process using the digital model is great, he can go back at any time and fix, or change anything that strikes his artistic fancy.

Brian posited that the building of digital models and then rapid prototyping them will be a big deal for the toy and model industry. The industry is changing and RP machines are just now coming of age. The Envision HR (for High Resolution) machine which he uses was designed for prototyping jewelry.

For twelve years Brian has been using Maya. He started on Silicon Graphics systems and worked in the game business.to develop his skills. He has developed a workflow pipeline that includes the prototype, then a cast in wax, clean up the strata marks and imperfections in the wax. Then another pour to produce two resin casts, one to be painted and one from which to build a mold. These are then shipped to the manufacturer who produces a limited run of three or four hundred finished figures. The Captain Easy is just over 12" high and sells for $155.00.

David Alder showed a five million poly Maya model of an 88mm WWII German Anti-Aircraft Cannon which he had just done for Collectors Showcase to be included in a new WWII diorama. It was a most impressive piece of work.

There followed an active question and answer session indicating a high level of interest amoung our group.

Attention: Collectors Showcase has a paid intership available for a qualified Maya modeler. Anyone interested should contact Brian Levy (thecollectorsshowcase@yahoo.com)