There has been a trend in imagery, especially in film and photography, which relies heavily on computer generated graphics. As with most trends, it occurred as a result of breakthroughs in technology. Luckily, a relatively new technology, 3D printing, has created a new trend in graphics and imagery that is at once a simulation and more real than anything offered by software. At printablescenery.com, a branch under its parent company Catalyst Creative, there are spectacular prints of model fantasy imagery.
Born out of an interest in tabletop gaming, Printable Scenery began making 28 mm fantasy scenery. What would usually take a copious amount of time meticulously creating and correcting models at this high level of detail has become much easier thanks to 3D Printing. There are two requests undertaken by Printable Scenery and each presents its own set of challenges. Some models are for animation and others are for printing. With sometimes no more than one side of an edifice, Printable Scenery will have to “fill-in” the model with painstaking attention to detail and little room for failed conjecture. Yet with 3D Printing, the process can handle adjustments easier than older methods of model production.
Brick patterns offer a concise example. Creating brick patterns that do not tile or repeat can take a while to model as opposed to animations, where applying a tile-able texture is much easier. This all becomes more painful when changes are requested, thus making locking down concept designs an absolute necessity. Changing the size of bricks in a texture is one thing, re-sculpting an entire building is another beast. Yet the result is often worth the extra attention to detail and modeling as Mathew Barker testifies, “There has to be a physical prototyping process for each model, which makes things pretty costly and stressful at times, but the results are always overwhelming if the prints are good and the hard work pays off!”
