The flexibility and speed of digital sculpting has an associated cost that sometimes surprises designers. Printing the sculpt can occasionally be perilously expensive.
There are a few variables to consider. The make and model of the printer itself can affect the cost. Lower resolution output is less expensive than high resolution output. The material that the printer uses to produce the model also affects the cost. The quality of finish and clean up also affects the cost. However, more than any other variable – it’s the SIZE of the sculpt that affects the cost.
A 4″ figure, not too big and not too small, can be expected to cost around $400. It can be more or less depending on resolution, finish, and material, but let’s say it’s $400.
The same figure, scaled up to 5″, can cost around $650. And scaled up to 6″, the cost might hit $800. Pump that figure up to 12″ and the cost might break $2000. Why? Because of volume. The price is affected by the volume, not the height, of the figure.
A 1″x1″x1″ cube is, requires simply 1 cubic inch of material to print. A 3″x3″x3″ cube requires 27 cubic inches of material to print. The 3″ cube might only be 3x as tall, but it’s 27x as massive.
So with the example of the figure, the 12″ figure is 8x as massive as the 6″ figure, and is therefore that much more expensive.
“Wait!” you might yell, “but the 12″ figure didn’t cost 8x as much as the 6″! Why?”
Because we don’t print solid figures. Shinbone shells the figures to reign in the overall cost of output. Shelling means to hollow out the figure so that far less material is required for output. Yes, it’s a little bit of extra work, but it’s worth it.
So, bottom line suggestions: go smaller, if you can. Print as high a quality output as you can find to save time and money recasting and cleaning up the figure. Shell the figure to reduce the volume of material required. It doesn’t matter if you want to make a vinyl toy or make a resin toy, the process of hollowing out the sculpt for printing doesn’t change.
If you’d like to make your own line of toys, we’d love to help you get the ball rolling.
It’s easy, just contact us by clicking this link.