How does sideshow create their sculpts? is it machine or hand?

[gagaliya]

I was discussing this with my friend the other day, despite how many sideshow statues we buy, have no idea how they are actually sculpted.

Do they design the sculpt completely on a computer, then 100% machine mass produced? or are they hand sculpted.

I mean the polystone statues, the mixed media accessories i know are just machine created parts.

thanks

 

[elar]

https://sculptortim.deviantart.com/

 

[twik25]

LOL, that guy's page is awesome! His tutorial was great!

To answer your question, I think that these are professional artists that sculpt the heads by hand. How do they do it? Lots of skill, most likely undergrad education, and LOTS and LOTS of practice.

 

[gagaliya]

i guess what i really want to ask is how do they mass produce those? lets say the AP is hand sculpted/computer created etc.. so now you have 1 AP done, how do you copy/mass produce them in the same fine details.

 

[elar]

Well - that can Silent Surfer know

 

[Cheungkinmen]

i guess what i really want to ask is how do they mass produce those? lets say the AP is hand sculpted/computer created etc.. so now you have 1 AP done, how do you copy/mass produce them in the same fine details.

Molds and casting material. It also depends on what are they casting, if it's vinyl they'll be using a rotocasting machine.

I used to have a link with pics of a chinese factory assembly line with sideshow statues, guess I lost it.

 

[Cheungkinmen]

Found something similar:

https://www.capcom-unity.com/jgonzo...op_culture_shocks_felicia_and_zangief_statues

As you can see it's the same process we all use, it's just in bigger scale.

 

[gagaliya]

Found something similar:

https://www.capcom-unity.com/jgonzo...op_culture_shocks_felicia_and_zangief_statues

As you can see it's the same process we all use, it's just in bigger scale.

wow thanks for this link, it's very interesting looks like a combination of mold casting and then hand sculpt for touch up, looks pretty low tech. My friend says they are all machine made/printed, i just dont see how that's possible with the details. Guess the answer is somewhere in the middle.

 

[Cheungkinmen]

wow thanks for this link, it's very interesting looks like a combination of mold casting and then hand sculpt for touch up, looks pretty low tech. My friend says they are all machine made/printed, i just dont see how that's possible with the details. Guess the answer is somewhere in the middle.

The figures on the link none are printed. MAYBE the prototype, that one could be the only one they print and send it for molding, if they sculpted the figure digitally with zbrush that is. You can see the molds on the pics and the pressure chamber, no way they are printed.

It is cheaper the way they do it on the pics. Printing 500+ statues would be nuts.

 

[darthviper107]

Well, I think all of the 1/6th and PF heads are hand sculpted, some of the statues and certain accessories are modeled in the computer, then printed as a prototype.

For mass production I'm not so sure. Normally things are injection molded, but that's usually when you do like 100,000 castings, not usually just for like 5,000 like Sideshow figures. Plus they would be able to do them very quickly so it wouldn't explain how it would take so much time to create the figures if they were done that way. I'm sure the bodies are though. Maybe the heads and statues are hand cast

 

[DHAVAL]

Found something similar:

https://www.capcom-unity.com/jgonzo...op_culture_shocks_felicia_and_zangief_statues

As you can see it's the same process we all use, it's just in bigger scale.

thats cool .......