BUS 6300H

When I first started in this course, I was looking forward to learn more about entrepreneurship. Then, I am introduced to the 3D printing, a brand new technology that I have had absolutely no idea. I am worried that I might not be able to come up with a business plan with this new technology. On top of that, we had to join a competition in which all CUNY students will compete it. It was quite pressuring at first. But then, I found that the SmartPitch competition actually helped me to develop my business plan. All the milestones are great checking points to make sure if I’m on the right track. And then, our professor brought us to some fun excursions to 3D printing office in the city. Besides that, we also constantly update our blog with posts regarding the 3D printing industry. In the process, we all had fun and learned a lot about 3D printing. Besides 3D printing, I have also learned other valuable skills like making my own video for the first milestone. After that, we got the chance to develop our own executive summary and present our business plan. That is what entrepreneurs actually do, so in the end, I’m glad that I have been exposed to the 3D printing and the skill of entrepreneurship.

My blog expertise posts have been surrounding around the 3D sculpture, which is my business idea for SmartPitch. In the beginning, my intention for this new series of post is to aid me in the development of my business plan. I had no idea on what 3D printing really is except for the experience we had during our excursion to MadMuseum, NRI and FatCat. Yet, we were only able to see something on the surface, like the machines and the end product. Many questions were left unanswered. It is through the blog expert that I have found my answer.

To summarize my expert blog post, I have listed some takeaway points that I have learned from each blog post.

Blog Post 1: 3D sculpture made of 2D paper

From my first blog post, I learned that creativity can open up to many possibilities. In this case, the 3D sculpture was not created from a 3D printer. Instead, he smartly combined 3D scanning technology and 2D printing to create an unique artistic work.

Blog Post 2: Goya of Modern Sculptures

My second post is also my favorite post. I like how the artist try to convey message through his sculptures. Besides being an epitome of dark art, these sculptures are truly inspiring and reflect some real world issues. The little Picasso inside my heart wished that I could create cool sculptures like these with the help of 3D software but then in fact I’m not Picasso and still, I’m a business student.

Blog Post 3: 3D ice sculpture

This blog explores some interesting function of a sculpture and usage of unexpected materials. In the video, we learned that even ice blocks can be used as a material for 3D printing. And the purpose of the sculpture is even more bizarre, the ice sculpture is eventually designed into a Japanese citadel that goes into your glass of whiskey. Maybe this is not the most practical idea, but it definitely inspires ideas to explore into other materials and functions.

Blog Post 4: Introduction to 3D Modeling software

At this point, I am interested in the more technical parts of 3D sculpture. Before that, I thought the 3D printing process is easy and simple because I always see the 3D printer printing objects automatically and I thought the hardest part in 3D printing is waiting for it to finish. Well, I’m wrong because I didn’t see the 3D modeling process. Without 3D modeling, the scanned data is usually flawed and will cause serious printing problem. I used to think anyone can 3D print anything they want, but the video of the 3D modeling process proved me wrong. It is complicated, time consuming, and super skill-intensive that layman like me will have to hire a specialist to do the design and editing.

Blog Post 5: From Virtual to Reality

In my last blog post, I explored into the original business idea that I have abandoned, the 3D printed toy industry. This blog also confirmed my belief that the 3D printing business is harder than it seems. I thought the 3D printing process will be the end of the production steps. Then I realized there are 10 or more steps after the actual printing. This blog also taught me about the details of the post-production steps like molding, assembling and painting, which are often unmentioned otherwise.

In the future, I would like to discover more of these hidden difficulties/ challenges that I will face so I will be more prepared if I were to get myself into the 3D sculpture business. This blog post definitely serves myself more than anyone but I do think my reader can benefit somehow from it. For instance, they will learn the possibilities of 3D printing and aware of the challenges that are usually hidden but revealed, partially, here. My next work will probably be the pricing and cost of the whole process.

Thank you for following my blog this far. This post will mark the end of our journey to the 3D Sculpture world. Today, I would like to show the actual process of creating a 3D sculpture from a CG character. ( On a side note, this is actually the first business idea that I came up with, the toy industry)

Well, this picture is so deceiving that it might make you think the end product is created by one magic button, or one step away. Actually, this page title can be misleading to, it should be from virtual … to modeling to preparing the tools to molding to (actual) printing to adding details to … ( I will save you the details but you get it)

My focus today is the post production after the 3D printing. According to the creator of this figure, the printing is the third out of fifteen steps before this work is finished. At step 3, it looks something like this —>

After that, the creator did a lot of editting work like adding more details, polishing the sculpture, painting the sculpture. It is also seems to me that not everything can be printed as one whole piece. Maybe unless you hired an engineer who can design the 3D model so that all parts will fit and be  functional. In the case of the creator, he printed separate parts of the figure and assembled them. Another important challenge he faced in transforming the virtual data to a real 3D sculpture is the gravity in reality. Some of the parts keep falling off, like the out-of-proportion feather/wing on the helmet, and cause the whole model to lose balance because of this worldly burden that is absent in a digital world.

My final takeaway point is that like many things in this world, things might seems easier and simpler that they actually are. It is not until you get your hand dirty and dive deeper into the matter before you realize it. And once you found it, there is always more to it. And the only way to discover more of it is to dive even deeper.

Reference: http://www.instructables.com/id/From-3D-to-Reality-Making-a-Resin-Sculpture-from/?ALLSTEPS

So far, we have been exploring things about 3D scanning (if you have been following my blogs, the first expert post is about 3D scanning) and 3D printing ( transformation of an ice block into a citadel that fits in your glass of whiskey). It might suggest to you that the whole 3D printing process is a piece of cake. All you have to do is to take some pictures, upload that to a computer, and *Tada!*, next thing you know is the 3D printer begins its work at a snail’s pace. What an easy task this is, I should get a 3D printer and start working on my own project right away! Of course not, if these are the only three steps you are doing, 99.9% of the times that the end-product printed by the machine after waiting for like hours, if not days will look something like this.

One important step that is missing is called 3D modeling, a crucial step to transform the raw data from the scanned object to a printable, flawless model. Some of the software are :ZBrush, Mudbox, Photoscan Standard, Photoshop CS6, 3DSMax, Maya, Modo, Lightwave or Blender.

The two videos below is a tutorial on some basic procedure to edit a raw scanned data. For 3D Sculpture, this process is like the chiseling of the sculpture with a mouse instead of a chisel. And better yet, if you made a mistake, you can always Ctrl+Z your step and redo it. There are some other amazing features shown with the modeling software. For  example, you can hide a part of your sculpture so you can work on parts that are otherwise covered or hindered by the hidden part. I think the video can explain itself better. Be aware though, these videos are an hour long each, after some speeding up, just to show you how difficult and frustrating it is to do some real editing work on a 3D project. Disclaimer : The video features some mild nudity, purely designed for educational purposes and falls within YouTube’s Policy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88sWEHYeU6w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0vlA1ZiD9Q

Reference: http://www.triplegangers.com/index.php/blog/cat/tutorials/post/tutorial-series-part03-01/

In the first blog expert post, I have introduced to you paper sculpture with 3D scanning. Today, I am astonished myself to see the material being used to make a 3D sculpture in the recent Suntory Whisky ads.

Materials like plastics, photopolymers, and metals are some common ingredients used for 3D printing. Known for creativity, the Japanese put an ice block on the 3D printer to create perhaps the most extravagant rock for their whiskey. In the video, we can see the familiar 3D printer we have seen during the NRI field trip, but there is a twist to the printer: the nozzle is replaced by a drill and the sands-like materials are replaced by an ice block freshly cut , to match the grandiose theme, using a chainsaw. We can also see the drilling process is controlled by a 3D modelling software and the design is shown as a traditional Japanese citadel. At the end, it is just a breathtakingly beautiful scene when the whiskey is poured on the ice citadel.

As impractical and wasteful as it seems, this is nonetheless a creative idea to use a 3D printer to produce an ice sculpture. If ice can be used as the material for 3D printer, then there are many other possibilities in the future of 3D printing. Common things like water or air might be the next!

Reference: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/stunning-3d-ice-sculpture-small-3483420

One of the most common needs of human is that people want to be emotionally contented which is one of the reason why we want to keep our memories. When we grew older, we can look at our photos and videos that make us recall those precious memories and remind us of how we used to be. A common way to capture these moments is by making a portrait, including painting, sculpture, photograph and video. The main problem with painting and photograph is that they are two-dimensional. Unlike sculpture, you can’t touch them, and people like to touch things! However, traditional sculpture is too time intensive, expensive and requires high skillsets. That is why only the rich and the famous have sculptures of themselves. My solution is to introduce a new form of portrait, 3D sculpturing. With the new 3D technology, we can create 3D sculpturing rather easily. Using 3D scanning, we capture the contour of the human and send the 3D data to computer. Then, we can edit the data and “chisel” the sculpture digitally with a 3D app. This technique is easier and free of human error, faster than the traditional method which takes months or even years, and many technical impossibilities can be overridden.

This post is not for the faint of heart, but if you are inclined to art, especially of those dark and gothic, you will be mesmerized by what I am going to show you. Choi Xoo Ang, the South Korean artist has created some of the most disturbing yet artistically brilliant sculptures. Like Francisco Goya, the young female artist is a dark master. She is known for her haunting works and hyper-realistic sculptures. Her works also reflect real world issues in Korea.

This is one of my favorite works by Choi. I purposely zoomed out the picture so this will be what it looks like from distance. From distance, it looks like a pair of wings to me, however, I have already sensed an uneasiness feeling creeping into my heart.  When you come closer, this is what it looks like. 

Yes, this is a pair of wings made of … flying hands!!! Of course it is only a sculpture, but Choi made it so realistic that one might think those are real hands if they see it somewhere else.

After the magnificent wings, I think one wouldn’t be surprised if the next set of picture is consisted of human heads, a whole bunch of hanging human heads. These heads have different expression on each faces. And these expressions are so lively that it seems like the heads are alive and they are having a gathering of some sort. One of the tiny head is even biting the left ear of another head, who is wincing at the surprising bite.

This is a sculpture of a young woman with a stitched back. The ribbon also shows that this woman is a gift, but to whom? To man, to husband, to this wealthy businessman, or to that esteemed politician who is undetermined  to whom he should assign the next big project?

Last but not least, three women, that have a big mouth with no eyes and no arms, gossiping and arguing. What does that mean? With a big mouth, they can speak for ten days nonstop behind others back. But without eyes, they cant possibly discern right from wrong because they can only hear about the rumors. Without arms, there will be no action expected from them other than the endless gossiping and arguing.

Now, I’m thinking if my 3D sculpture project can be artistic too? Is it appropriate to be artistic, will people buy the product if its too “artistic”? Can it afford to be artistic, how much will it cost to create a spectacular sculpture like these? If possible, I would definitely recruit the help from Choi to design the sculptures, as long as she keep away her talent for darkness when working on the customer’s sculpture. I think most customers do not wish to see their heads hanging on the ceiling or their hands flying on the wall.

Images from : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/choi-xoo-ang_n_3934707.html

I am always amazed by the creativity of humans. Most people think sculpture can only be created using hard, solid materials like marble, metal, plastic and clay. Who could have thought of using paper other than the Dutch genius artist Bert Simon, who is famous for making  hyper-realistic sculptures using paper and a special software developed to map the human face.

Sculptures made from papers

The secret behind these paper sculptures is, of course, the paper itself. So, how is the paper made?

The answer is 3D scanning. He first maps his subjects’ faces using sophisticated tracking technology and feeds the data into a computer. Then using some special software he constructs the subject’s contour and then prints a flattened 3D illustration on a paper.

Like assembling Transformers or Gundam toys, he cuts the pictures, folds it and glues it into a 3D shape.

It is interesting that people come up with innovative ways to create inspirational artworks. This post will be the beginning of a journey to discover and explore novel and exciting news regarding 3D sculpture and arts. I hope my readers will enjoy these eye-opening moments. Personally, I also wish that I can find inspiration and new idea for my venture project.

Reference: http://inhabitat.com/dutch-artist-bert-simon-creates-hyper-realistic-human-sculptures-using-paper/bert-simon-human-paper-sculptures-1/

In the world of IT, if the late 20th century was defined as the computing era, and the beginning of the 21st century is the reign of smartphones and internet, my bold prediction is that the next few decades will be remembered as the 3D printing era. These technologies have striking similarities. They are extremely versatile and have wide application in many sectors. Their greatest strength is that they can be combined and applied to other industry. Very much like a carbon atom, we can find them in the air we breathe and the food we eat.

3D printing, as we have learned from the book “Fabricated”, have so much potential in different sectors. Industry that benefits from the 3D printing technology includes the medical, construction, customized manufacturing, designs, education and etc. Bioprinting, the combination of 3D printing and medical industry, made printing body parts possible in the future. In the case of the old woman with oral cancer, 3D printing saved her life by replacing a titanium, 3D printed bone into her jaw. When we applied manufacturing to 3D printing, we discovered the possibility of mass-customization. The high customization cost associated with the traditional manufacturing process was negated because 3D printer can print customized object as effective as the non-customized. 3D printing also make it easier to create complex object which is impossible using the traditional method.

The potential of 3D printing is unlimited considering the existing technology that can ‘react’ with 3D printing. What we have discovered today is only the tip of an iceberg. The current stage of 3D printing is similar to the gigantic computer in the 60’s. Back then, not only that a computer was exceedingly rare, the machine itself was slow and its card programming system can only process one task at a time. It was not until the invention of a time-sharing system, where multiple terminals are built and linked to the mainframe by a telephone line, that all the previous limitations were removed and the computing technology expanded exponentially.

What I am concerned with 3D printing is the missing of that key “time-sharing system” which is vital to the computing history. Today, 3D printer is very much like the old computer, rare, slow and limited by only one or two materials. We have seen the implementation of 3D printing in manufacturing, construction, medical and education industry. However, it is still fairly uncommon to the general consumers. Unlike computer and smartphone, 3D printer lacks the ability to connect and bring its users closer to each other, yet.

The first phase of IT is to control and manipulate data, while the second phase is to share and connect, then the third phase, marked by the invention of 3D printing, will be to synthesize and fabricate.