man, I am in a similar boat. I'm not an artist in the traditional sense, but i am an enthusiast of art and design. I am trying to create an art toy brand and have learned 3d printing, 3d sculpting, airbrushing, resin casting in the past 18 months. i've been refining a figure design and now am at the stage where i am going to need to refine my process for handling batches of units instead of one at a time... its more work than i expected, though i expected it to be a lot
Don't worry too much about what makes a toy yours. It's honestly better to focus on your area of expertise and let others help you in the other processes. There's so much to do from sketching to production/manufacturing, sculpting, etc. At the end of the day, the idea started with you and it is your baby. My favorite art toy designer, Joe Ledbetter, has worked with many different brands to cover production and has worked with different people to cover sculpting. Does that mean those are not his toys/ideas? Not really. Keep up the good work and good luck in your endeavors!
Yeah, I dont have any problem with that. As with any craft, people usually have different ideas and perspectives. Usually those who haven even done anything yet in the field ;)
I understand the urge to do everything yourself. I've been sculpting and casting for about 3 years. I didn't want to farm anything out, and I find the most time consuming part of the job is getting the mold master finished. You can get a sculpt done fairly quick but once it's printed its never perfect and it's endless rounds of putty, prime, sand, repeat. Then a final coat of urethane paint for gloss, and maybe that has to be polished as well. It can take me a year or more to go from initial idea to a useable mold. But in the end there is a great sense of satisfaction having done it all yourself. And you do pick up a lot of new skills and knowledge along the way. I'm about to try a new technique where you print the part, make a mold, and cast it in carving wax, then finish it from there, and make the final mold from the wax master. Apparently this is how toy manufacturers used to do it. Only the original piece was sculpted of clay, not 3d printed. I've never worked with carving wax before so this will be interesting. I'm hoping it cuts down the finishing time.
Yes, thats the idea, to centralize the manufacturing process, but its just an idea. If you watch how the real Sofubi Makers works there are very few that make all by themselves. Nearly 0. Everyone needs experts to help them create everything.
Could you recommend a professional modeller ? I have my designs but I don’t know who to talk to. Maybe it’s not something you can share, if so I understand. I have subscribed and I’m excited to follow your journey. ❤
