For Mike Dorries, however, paper and ink mean 3D printing.
Dorries is manager of the Advanced Output Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Until recently, plastic has been the predominant 3D printing material used at SAIC. But plastic 3D printing is expensive, with models costing SAIC students up to $12 per cubic inch. Plastic models have another drawback: they’re generally restricted to a single color (usually white) or basic colors in blocks. That doesn’t cut it, especially in art school, where visual appeal and creative freedom are paramount.
Dorries, always on the lookout for more capabilities at lower cost, recently found a way to get multicolor output as bold, detailed and nuanced as a document printer, for a surprisingly low operating cost.
1 comment:
I feel that 3d printing is vastly under utilized tool but is not the godsend answer that many think it is. I do enjoy the development of colored printing but I still feel that is not the best route to take the tool. If our technicians or designers were to develop 3d drafting skills it would present an opportunity to print, mold, and cast multiples of props out of more desirable material. The plastic and materials that they are currently producing including this paper based option are great but I feel they are most versatility in the rapid prototyping world where they are going to print the object to be able to test the theory of the object and then properly fabricate the item either by traditional methods or more extensive metal based printing processes. This does not work for our industry where for our props mostly we know (relatively) what we want the item to look like or end up looking like and need a way to quickly create that item and replicate it and aggressively handle the item.
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