Hand sculpted or computer designed - what's better?

[Byrthnoth]

I am agnostic about hand sculpting vs digital sculpting. Both are capable of producing great figures or very bad figures.

There are a lot of sculpting skills that are important independent of the specific medium (whether digital, green stuff, marble, wood, whatever), like knowledge of anatomy, understanding of drapery, and ability to create a convincing sense of movement. Also part of this is understanding how much or little to exaggerate detail and play with relative scale so that things look 'right' for a wargames figure. Tom Meier used to have a great blog that talked about all of this sort of stuff but it's long gone.

Then there are the skills specific to the sculpting medium, like knowing how to push a tool into the putty to get the effect you want, or how to use a given piece of software. These medium-specific skills are essential, but without the general knowledge above you won't be able to create great figures. But tools also do shape workflow and are a big part of what contribute to the specific 'look' of digitally sculpted figures as opposed to hand sculpted ones.

Finally, there's the level of understanding of the output medium, whether that's white metal, resin, hard plastic or 3D printed resin. Often this is stuff like paying attention to where the mould lines will run in a metal/resin figure, or location of supports in a 3D print. But at best you get things where taking advantage of the output medium and method of sculpting can really make something special. The GW nighthaunt figures (flying ghosts), for example, have a great sense of movement and make excellent use of negative space through the figures in a way that takes full advantage of the material properties of plastic and the ability to use software to configure how the different parts of the figure go together.

I think the business model associated with selling STL files may contribute to the reputation of sameness that is associated with digital sculpts. When you've committed to providing a certain number of sculpts per month to your subscribers, you need to keep output up. The incentives are slightly different for a business selling physical figures that can rely more on back catalogue sales.

[Luigi]

Secondly, digital files are often easy to pirate and get knocked off.  Not a problem for amateurs but a pro might not be so happy.

This is actually a very good point regarding STL files and 3D printed miniatures, and it's definitely something that will affect the playerbase. Both positively and negatively.

[ced1106]

>  We're almost there, google "AI generated 3D objects". I give them 5 years till they start flooding the miniature market.

I'm on Kickstarter. We passed flooding long ago -- and non-AI digital sculpts have exploded! :O

I think a random generator would do the job of creating a custom miniature. Same idea as a random generator for a computer character game (eg. The Sims), where you can randomly generate a character than tweak it on your own. Select some fixed parameters (eg. dwarven crossbowmen, minimal supports) and let the program randomly generate the details.


> Secondly, digital files are often easy to pirate and get knocked off. 

Yeah, that. IIRC, Some companies do not release digital files of their miniatures. Other companies will release digital files to market their product (eg. Mantic, which even has a digital file subscription program). Still, there are scanners that will convert to digital. Reaper Miniatures used that on one of their major dragons, though they did not release digital files.


> The main virtue of digital sculpting comes from speed of alteration.

That and custom miniatures are more easily made digitally -- including by yourself. HeroForge lets you make your own miniatures and has an entire reddit board for you to show off: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeroForgeMinis/


> Not a problem for amateurs but a pro might not be so happy.

Speaking of which, it's yet another technology in which the end consumer can skip the pro entirely. Again, Hero Forge.

[eilif]

No surprise that hand sculpted models win big in the poll.

For the most part I agree, especially for individual figs for Skirmish games.  However as someone who likes spectacle and sci-fi and fantasy, I can't deny that it's digital sculpting combined with plastic manufacturing that has resulted in many of my favorite kits of the last few years.

[Peithetairos]

I think both can work fine and fail horribly.

The ebst there is to me hand-sculpted: Westfalia Miniatures, all the Boris Woloszyn stuff https://www.instagram.com/boris_woloszyn/

With digital stuff I really like Loot Studios offerings: https://lootstudios.com/

That said, the Boris sculpts just have that certain something you get from handling an actual physical object while sculpting. I think textures, pose etc. are just better if you sculpt traditionally. Maybe humans are more used to this than the interface mouse, screen.

[nightpainter]

I personally like hand sculpted miniatures. Digitally sculpted is amazing. But depending on the miniature, it can be a bit overwhelming to paint because of all the little detail on the miniature. I just find hand sculpted easier to paint. I agree about hand sculpted miniatures to have a charm about them. Those old miniatures are the big reason why I get drawn to the games.