hi all,

It seems to me that I once read about a few companies that you could email a Poser file to, and they could use a machine to make a figurine of it, out of several types of vinyl or plastic.  

Does anybody know any more about this and/or the name of a firm that does it? (I've looked and can't find much)

Thanks!

hmm...there are some places that do this. I've seen a thread here about a year ago or more on this subject. Might check the Bryce forum, I think that's where I saw it, and there's beaucoup fewer posts to sort through.

There are many places that do it, but quite a number of issues as well.

Yer talking about $300-$700 for a 6-8 inch tall figure. Ive seen priced up to $1500 for a 12" figure. The processes have improved so the quality of the produced items is pretty good now, depending on the method of reproduction, and the material they use.

Everything has to be closed geometry on the object done.. in other words things like transmapped hair won't work. Thge term they use is "watertight".

Since most clothing is single sided polygons, that also means you can't have clothing reproduced. Some props will work, others will not.

Also, by your content useage agreements, you cannot redistribute meshes at all. So no commercial items can be given to any rapid prototyper. No Daz, no poser base figures, ect.

There was a company that advertised with DAZ or Renderosity a few years ago during Christmas.  IIRC, they would accept scenes exported as .obj files.  DAZ seemed to support this at the time and, according to some posts I remember which were discussing "2nd skins" and other things produced with topology tools, DAZ has "relaxed" some of their stance as long as it isn't the original mesh.  Confirmation on something like that, of course, is always necessary to be sure.

The costs for that service, IIRC, ranged from $50 or so on up for an exported .obj being laser-etched into acrylic/glass.  But, for rapid-prototype tooling, the cost could be more.  Not too long ago there was a thread around here with some links to people providing that service.  IIRC, people were using it to reproduce their MMORPG/Superhero characters in statue form.  It didn't seem outrageously expensive for what it was although resolution is King as far as price goes.

You'll notice after a lot of complaining that Daz got really quiet about that. since 90% of the products at Daz are copyrighted by participating PAs, there's not a whle lot that you could use for rapid prototyping at all.

Also, if you check main forum at zbrush central, there are some excellent threads with rapid prototyping costs. That's where I quoted my prices above from.

Matter of fact, here's that link:

I think he does has something you sign though acknowledging you are the copyright holder of the object though.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=65634

Things like nails, eyelashes and eyeballs will not work, as they're normally separate geometry; the inside of the eye socket and mouth will not work either.  I can't see how any Poser figure can be run through this kind of process.

Quote - You'll notice after a lot of complaining that Daz got really quiet about that. since 90% of the products at Daz are copyrighted by participating PAs, there's not a whle lot that you could use for rapid prototyping at all.

Also, if you check main forum at zbrush central, there are some excellent threads with rapid prototyping costs. That's where I quoted my prices above from.

Matter of fact, here's that link:

I think he does has something you sign though acknowledging you are the copyright holder of the object though.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=65634

Acknowledged.

My quote was just from remembering the economy of the laser etching service which is related to yet, much different, than RPt'ing.    The interesting thing was that, at the time, DAZ was fairly open about the use of whole scene .obj in such an endeavor since it would deviate from the original mesh and wouldn't be used to directly reproduce a 3D model as the end result.  IIRC, it was something along the lines of acquiring a third-party to perform a personal service (like getting someone to make you a custom morph or something) where the enforcement of the original EULA was still in place... or something like that.  Lots of twisty logic spinning around it.

It's similar to the "topology" tools argument where a mesh can be practically duplicated.  But, with the advent of second skin generators, some of the "oomph" has been sliced out of stringent protection of the sacrosanct mesh.  IMO, it's a shadowy realm when using an automated process or even an exacting process to duplicate even the contours as the "intent" there is obviously to copy the topology of the mesh thus the goal is producing a derivative work.

One of those things that would be neat to ask DAZ et al about.