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Using Zbrush with 3D Printers to Create Physical Sculptures

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#1

Check out a couple of Instructables I have written that use Zbrush to create digital sculptures. The first outlines my graduation project where I use Zbrush, a Dimension ABS printer and a few other tools to create skins for animatronic creatures. I know that the quality of the sculpt is not the best, but the focus was on completing the process rather than creating an exceptional sculpture. http://www.instructables.com/id/Digital_Sculpting_3D_Printing_and_Animatronics/

The second goes into a little more detail on how to prepare a Zbrush sculpture for 3D printing. http://www.instructables.com/id/3D_Printing_Digital_Sculptures/

Please let me know what you think! Thanks!

#2

Let’s say you wanted to take a ZBrush model of a bust and make Halloween masks out of it. Couldn’t you create a mold right within Zbrush that would be two halves of a block with the model reversed out of it so that you could pour the liquid latex into it and then pull the two halves apart to get it out of the mold?

#3

Absolutely. The point of my project was that once you have the sculpture created, you could then create a mold, core or sculpture digitally. I have been working with laser scanning faces and creating digital makeup that can be printed and molded. Zbrush is a great tool for designing latex masks or any other physical prop you can imagine!

#4

I just haven’t found anyone actually producing any yet.

#5

A good idea that works.

Thanks.

Any additional details are welcomed.

I am particularly interested in a workflow that converts .ZTL files into .STL files.

~S.~

#6

I load the ZTL and draw it. Drop it to the canvas and then export the ZTL as an OBJ file using the export button in the tool pallet. The OBJ can be imported into any number of 3D modeling software packages and converted into an STL. I use Rhino most of the time, but Silo others will work. I also scale the file in Rhino since it is much easier to size the file the the appropriate dimensions. Once scaled, export as an STL.

#7

Interesting. I first used this technology back in the mid-eighties at ILM when ‘Stereo Lithography’ (.STL) was an obscure science. At that time, a laser was used to raise 3D objects from a bath of urethane resin guided by the data in a computer file.

~S.~

#8

I am really encouraged to find new ways to use the technology. The more I learn about how they have been and are being used, the more potential I see in rapid prototyping in general. The dream is to one day design an entire robot (or animatronic puppet) digitally and then send each piece to a different printer based on the output material. Or, send the complete file to a printer that is capable of printing in multiple materials and let it print the entire machine at once. As they become standard fixtures in design/fabrication studios they will become less expensive to use. Please do not hesitate to ask for any more details or info!