MatthewAmey.com

View Original

Getting in sync with technology...

As some of you may know I've been digitally sculpting for a while now and within the past few years 3D print technology has finally reached a resolution that I can truly get behind.

In the beginning there were very few options for printing digitally created 3D objects. Desktop printers from companies like makerbot and formlabs are somewhat affordable but still too expensive for the everyday tinkerer, in my opinion. I have worked with an early iteration of the MakerBot and, with all of the normal troubleshooting of a new piece of equipment, I became frustrated and lost interest.

Luckily there are output service providers, such as shapeways.com and matter.io where I am able to upload my files to their servers, select which materials I want my pieces printed in, and within a few weeks I have my piece/pieces in hand and ready to be finished.

The resolution and detail available today, while not spectacular, is close enough that, with a little hand polishing on the metal pieces, it is difficult to see any artifacts from the printing process.

All of the jewelry pieces that are for sale in my store were created using ZBrush, a digital sculpting and modeling program used mostly for character and creature creation in movies and video games.

Here's a quick teaser of some new pieces I'm working on...