How They 3D Print Your WoW Character

WoW Insider had the chance to sit down with Ed Fries, the founder of the new and highly unique business FigurePrints. Fries is best known for his work at Microsoft on the original Xbox, but he hasn't been idle since he left the company in 2004. His newly launched service allows World of Warcraft players to 'print' their characters out as 3D sculptures. He and blogger Mike Schramm discuss the origins of the company, and the process used to make the figs: "At heart, it's basically an inkjet printer, which is pretty cool. It actually uses HP-11 inkjet printheads. But instead of printing on paper, it prints on a thin layer of plaster powder. So you have to imagine that there's a bay with a platform, and a spreader bar comes in and spreads a very thin layer of plaster powder, which has the consistency of flour. So it gets spread onto the platform, like a sheet of paper. And then the printheads come out, and they print right into that plaster. It sets the ink on top of it, and like paper it soaks into it-that plaster hardens."

Comments

How do they print them?

[night_flyer]

Probably like this...

Re:How do they print them?

[howlatthemoon]

They are certainly using a ZCorp printer. To the best of my knowledge, ZCorp still is the only manufacturer to make a multi-color 3D printer. These would be easy to print ( I run a zcorp machine). It is hard to judge the print volume from the photos, but it appears to be a pretty fair price considering the cost of the machine, materials and post processing time.