Preparing sculpts for 3d printing

In this tutorial, I will be showing you the process of preparing my digital sculptures for 3D printing. We will go over splitting the figure into keyable parts while keeping in mind two important aspects: getting a clean print and ease of paint.

I will go over different workflows in preparing your 3d files for prototype and production. I will go over the differences of workflows when working with different materials like resin, vinyl, PVC.

We will start by analysing the figure that we are going to be splitting and preparing for 3d printing

I have broken this up into 21 easy-to-watch videos (5 to 20 min each), I don't have any speed-up videos, all videos are recorded in real-time, and I try to be as transparent as possible with the tools and methods that I'm showing.

I am using ZBrush in this course but the techniques that you learn in these videos can be applied on any type of digital sculpting software that you feel comfortable with, I am teaching you a workflow on how to get the best parts for your figures and toys.

Some topics that are covered in the preparing for 3d printing course

• Dynamesh
• Subtools
• Merging Subtools
• Append
• Subtool Master
• Live Boolean
• Dynamic Subdivisions
• Digital Calipers and resizing your figures to the exact size
• Keying for prototype and production

Laying out all the parts that make out the figure, will help us visualise the parts that need to merged or split.

Then, we will start by merging and cleaning the parts to prepare them for the boolean process. Making sure all parts will fit perfectly.

This course covers every aspect of the process of preparing your digital sculpts and exporting them into clean STL files ready for prototype and production.