Will 3d printers soon take over painting as well?

[Bloggard]

@Sunburst - I'll have to re-read Freddy's post - I didn't get the impression he was postulating against the 'successful' take-over of 3D printing in the hobby sphere (both commercial and domestic), rather just sketching out a probable  / possible timeline and where it might reach a 'plateau' as far as most end-users are concerned?

But anyway - apologies, not seeking to create an argument where none exists.

Clearly the the technology is being developed / embraced at (effectively) break-neck speed, and even if its use in the hobby is nothing more than a convenient 'can-do, so why not?' off-shoot from its main commercial / industrial applications it's still hard not to see a situation where domestic use is common-place / the norm, with complete custom-control over 'colouring-in' / scale (important point this) / etc, etc., be it in 5yrs, 15 or ... sooner or later 

Presumably a major impediment (domestically anyway) in a purely technical sense is the relatively toxic nature of the procedure - although I believe that aspect is improving all the time both in terms of materials and 'containment' ?

[This is diametrically opposed to the Photography analogy, where Digital technologies did away with direct useage of toxic materials for most end-users (I used to work professionally in these areas in the 'film' days).]

and hard not to agree with Fitz's 'jaundiced' view of this whole development in relation to IT / Digital technology and AI in particular.
But of course that's only in principle, sadly: for most end-users it will simply (unthinkingly) mean more and 'easier' options.
I mean there's a reason why such as Facebook exists and is so widely used and the common denominator does seem to be human-nature (and we're all guilty of that!!).

[Freddy]

@Sunburst - I'll have to re-read Freddy's post - I didn't get the impression he was postulating against the 'successful' take-over of 3D printing in the hobby sphere (both commercial and domestic), rather just sketching out a probable  / possible timeline and where it might reach a 'plateau' as far as most end-users are concerned?

My point is about the coloured 3D relative swiftly (15-20 years) taking over a large part: 60-70-80-90% of the hobby, but never being able for a 100.0% takeover.

[Hobgoblin]

One thing I can easily imagine (perfectly doable now, I'd have thought) is a kind of halfway house whereby miniatures are printed with base colours on, so that the fun parts of painting can be carried out without the drudgery.

Imagine buying a 3D-printed miniature with options to select base colours for various areas, whether that's light tones for people who like "washing down" or dark colours for those who like layering up. Or mid-tones for those who aren't bothered about painting and just want the colours blocked in.

Wouldn't that be great?

[2010sunburst]

My point is about the coloured 3D relative swiftly (15-20 years) taking over a large part: 60-70-80-90% of the hobby, but never being able for a 100.0% takeover.

I think it will do exactly what you say, but possibly even more quickly.  The  required resolution has now been achieved, and the aims going forward for this tech will be to improve speed and convenience.  In the timeline you’ve outlined I think this technology could well supplant traditional injection moulding, leading to print on demand for a myriad of consumer junk items.  Orders being printed on demand makes a commercial sense, with no poorly selling items being held on shelves, and successful sellers not being subject to mould wear and replacement.  That is, I believe, the business model that will emerge.  As to the potential market for such tech, think toys and souvenirs for one aspect.

Those whose main hobby is gaming will embrace this wholeheartedly, and will drive the prepainted aspect of adoption.  On the other hand, those of us whose main hobby is assembling and painting figures may not.  It will become driven by commercial levers.  The one that makes the most money being the Victor. 

Personally I would love to eliminate the tedious clean up and assembly of plastics so I can get straight to painting, and a print interface that could give me the variety of plastics along with print as required with no clean up would be a great time saver.  Can’t see it coming any time soon, but I’ve been wrong before (many times)…..

[Freddy]

I think it will do exactly what you say, but possibly even more quickly.  The  required resolution has now been achieved, and the aims going forward for this tech will be to improve speed and convenience.  In the timeline you’ve outlined I think this technology could well supplant traditional injection moulding, leading to print on demand for a myriad of consumer junk items.  Orders being printed on demand makes a commercial sense, with no poorly selling items being held on shelves, and successful sellers not being subject to mould wear and replacement.  That is, I believe, the business model that will emerge.  As to the potential market for such tech, think toys and souvenirs for one aspect.

Those whose main hobby is gaming will embrace this wholeheartedly, and will drive the prepainted aspect of adoption.  On the other hand, those of us whose main hobby is assembling and painting figures may not.  It will become driven by commercial levers.  The one that makes the most money being the Victor. 

Yes, this is a possible future, but it will need some time still as "consumer junk items" (I love this term ) are varied and heavily regulated from the material point of view: types of plastics and paints used. It will take time to switch everthing into 3d prints, the current brittle material is OK for cosplay items but not too practical for everyday use.

Personally I would love to eliminate the tedious clean up and assembly of plastics so I can get straight to painting, and a print interface that could give me the variety of plastics along with print as required with no clean up would be a great time saver.  Can’t see it coming any time soon, but I’ve been wrong before (many times)…..

Also, for now the cleanup for 3d is worse than for plastics. This might change, but it will take time.

[YPU]

That's going to change very swiftly. I'm already seeing AI generated or assisted 3d modeling applications or add-ons, and that sort of thing has the potential to create a multitude of online HeroForge-like apps in a very short space of time.

I may be an old man shaking my fist at a cloud, but I have a jaundiced view of the onset of AI into every facet of life. I think it's going to be a similar situation as we had with the arrival of cheap DTP apps in the '80s and '90s, when almost overnight, trained layout design professionals were replaced commercially by masses of cheap amateurs with no idea of what they were doing, adding WordArt to everything.

There are a couple of big caveats there currently. The biggest "AI-driven 3d generators" Either put out entirely unusable meshes and UV mapping, or are discovered to actually not use AI at all but cheap labour in third-world countries under the guise of AI.
That may improve of course, but the flaws and issues of 2d AI "art" are very much worsened by adding that third dimension. The pool of available data to work from is much smaller, the methods of reaching results are much more varied (rendering and material types, styles etc) compared to images which in the end are always just a bunch of pixes next to each other. Having less data to draw from makes it more difficult to define styles and types as well. Even without the blatant IP theft of most/all AI companies, there exist hundreds of paintings in the pre-rafelite style available in the public domain. You can train an AI on that style. With 3d designs the databases are more scattered and much much less well indexed by style. And that's all 3d designs, 90% of that is for digital games. For miniatures specifically I sincerely doubt that there are enough files available in total to produce a functional AI model, not without drawing on those digital 3d models heavily.

Add to that the current impasse AI stuff has with making small adjustments and improvements, as the process is so murky that you can't elegantly stop halfway and adjust direction easily with even 2d to say, correct the number of fingers or direction a person is looking. 

That could all change rapidly, or it might not. Plenty of companies promising to have big breaktroughs in the next 5 years... but then there always are.

There is the flipside here that computers are good at doing texture and shading these days, using all sorts of clever tricks. I think you already see this on the hero forge figures, they aren't flat colours, there is modulation and shading in the folds and creases.



On the physical side of things I also wonder if we will see any breakthroughs with the 3d printers used for colored prints, or an alternative method. For comparison, non-colored resin printers were big industrial machines you needed a second mortgage for 20 years ago. The kind of product that doesnt even list its price on the seller's page, you make an appointment and somebody visits you to discuss options.
In 2012 Formlabs released their Form 1 printer for 2k. They actually delivered the next year and launched the 1+ a year later at 3,5k. This was still a fraction of the cost of the previous industrial machines, I had to fight hard to convince customers that my form machine could actually deliver miniature-quality prints back then!
Fast forward 10 years to today and I use a 200 euro MSLA/LSD printer which is easier to use than my old form machine, with cheaper materials and faster to boot.

Meanwhile, you could get coloured 3d prints 15 years ago. The quality was a bit rougher than what we have now, and even more expensive but the machines are still not household prices or use. Resin 3d printing can get messy but its doable for a hobbyist, easier than building RC aircraft I'd say. PolyJet colour 3d printers are still "request quote" prices from what I've seen. Their quality has improved, as has their speed but its small steps, not the amazing leaps resin has made. Again, that might change. Another method could come along, or somebody could figure out the trick to making cheap ones and get rich doing so. But it hasn't happened yet.




As a side note, there have been plenty of pre-painted miniature wargaming lines produced in the past. Sure not 3d printed, but many mass production plastic and in some cases quite good quality, but these lines have yet to prove their staying power as most go under in a couple of years, let alone claim a serious slice of the market. 3d printing has come a long way quickly, but when you look at the big names and numbers, it's far from overtaking plastic, pre-painted or not.

[Harry Faversham]

In my 'umble opinion the answer is no...
even a Galacticbrayn couldn't paint a toy sowjer, better than I can!!!
 

[vodkafan]

Haven't read any of the other replies, just replying to the original post...the simple answer is no! Because people like to paint.

[macsen wledig]

it'll come at one point in the future

[zemjw]

Haven't read any of the other replies, just replying to the original post...the simple answer is no! Because people like to paint.

I agree with that, and it won't be for everyone. Painting is my favourite part of the hobby (well, after buying new shinies), but I'm using contrast paints more and more because it lets me get through the basic grunts quicker. If I could buy those grunts pre-painted, would I

I can see it finding a place with boardgames - e.g. Zombicide with fully painted figures straight out of the box. The problem I see with that is how do you print that many figures in a way that doesn't cost a fortune?

[FramFramson]

I already had my pre-painted era back in the old days playing Mage Knight (remember that?) and even then I wanted to repaint all the heroes.

Eventually I ended up skipping the "painting the mass of grunts" problem by playing skirmish-size games. While there's still some appeal in getting filler grunts you don't have to work on, when playing larger games, the problem comes in when your heroes look so much better than the grunts that they cease to look like a cohesive force (MK never had that problem because everything was on those clix bases, but that's not a typical situation).

[macsen wledig]

sometimes I dont get enough time to paint and sometimes I do. What would be nice is an on tap service that generated pre painted stuff for a particular battle or event and you didnt have the time to do ity yourself

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

Haven't read any of the other replies, just replying to the original post...the simple answer is no! Because people like to paint.

For some of us painting is the real joy of the hobby, gaming is just the rationalization for buying more to paint.  Even huge number of grunt fillers is not a burden…it’s a pleasure—it rests the brain like peaceful meditation since you need not make any decisions about the paint scheme, that can be quite a pleasant ‘agony’ with your heroes and personality figs that you want to stand out.  I paint well in excess of tenfold the number of hours that I play.

I would look at 3d color printed pieces (even well done ones) as not much different than unpainted figs of any sort(which never get onto my gaming table. (Never really had any need to use unpainted filler figs, I patiently wait until i have the right numbers painted to field for the scenario.  I just play something else until I do).  Narcissism and a desire to challenge myself is such that I could not abide seeing mass-produced figs in front of me, no matter how good.

[Oldgamer]

Here are some of my pre coloured 3d prints via Reduced Aircraft Factory on Shapeways.

[fred]

Old gamer thanks for sharing those images - the colouring in looks great, and perhaps works even better on aircraft than on figures. Are you able to specify items like the numbers, so each plane is different?

What is disappointing on those is the quality of the 3d printing its self - it looks really rough - nothing like the smooth finish I see on the 3d prints my mate produces