welcome to the art and technology podcast at digital sculpting dot net. a fire side chat where innovation creativity, technology andscience meet. (bridgette)welcome back to the art and technology podcast we've been on a bit of sabbatical butwe're back with some fervor.
3d printing companies in los angeles, i'm your host bridgette mongeon. the resurgence in podcasting is due to anew book titled "3d technology in fine art and craft." today we begin the exciting adventureinterviewing many of the artists,
craftsmen, vendors and others who arefeatured in the book. our tag line for these podcasts hasalways been "a fireside chat" and in the upcomingpodcast you'll get to know some incredible guests featured in our book. artist and designershare their inspiration tips and tricks. we certainly can't putall the information in the book, but we do invite you to stay tuned and get toknow these individuals. in our future podcasts, today, however, the tables are turned, as not only do iinterview my first guest
but he interviews me about the new bookand what to expect in these coming months and what a great way to get started, we'llbe interviewing bob titsch from 3d printer world magazine editor at large welcome bob (bob) hi thanks for having me. (bridgette) i'm so excited to have you here. tell me a little bit about how long 3d .... it is an online magazineso how long it been in existence (bob) sure the web-zine has been in existence since i think that the february of last year
so it's only been about fourteen months. we started development a little for that 2012 once um.... weactually had been a exposed to the market. my brothermike who is an editor on our website, bought a 3d printer and started tinkering around with it and we have been in media and technology for many years, and once we got ahold of one we kind of said, "holy cow!" and i was right all the hype was really... startingto accelerate with the market and so... we decide to launch the the webzine online and ah... planned events also
surface market and help educate peopleabout um.. the utlity of 3d printing, whether it's ina professional or personal context: (bridgette) well, you know it seems to have a tremendous amount of information in iti mean whenever something new is coming out i we see it in that magazine so how often do you send outpublications? (bob) well actually has access to web-zine we have... what we we intend to do print publications and we don't... in the future we haven't done oneyet.
soo it's just strictly we just socialmedia wall every story do we publish onlinethere's certainly no google+ facebook twitter all rest, and where basically just invitingpeople to come. lots of people just check in on the site every now and then, orsometimes daily, just to see what the latest is. as far as issues go, will bedoing so print and electronic hybrids in the future that are special themed issues, but at this point it's just... you know...
we get about 50,000 unique visitorsper month. last month we had more than that, but that is probably the average and it's been growingconsiderably since we debuted about a year ago. (bridgette)and all other news is just up-to-date and it seems like a soon as i see it from somewhere else or before i see itfrom somewhere else it's coming out with ya'll so... it's really at it's great. so how does somebody find out about how they hook up with being able to get your informationfrom your
ezine (bob) well if they go to 3dprinterworld.com they can heck out the website andalso register. that is all that's required it together weekly newsletter as well as any sort of... content behind a firewall on the site is just give us their name and email. it is very simple. and then you know they can just check in or follow us on facebook what have you... also 3d printer world expo.com is our expo site which is actually being rebuilt
right now in the beginning of may and it will have information are various events, such as the one we are doing in seattle. expo and conference. of course you participatein our reginal conference which was awesome to have you there. we're doing...we're taking our show on the road to seattle as well as in burbank in january. we will be in seattle august 22nd 23rd and then we're going to do in burbankagain next year. we also have some other events that will be announced on thatparticular domain as well. ( bridgette) yes, thanks for
inviting me to speak there. it was really great. if youmiss the burbank conference it was a you know... i think.. i don't even even know how many people you had in attendance there. do you know do you have a tracking record? (bob) yea, there was over 3565 ithink. so yeah, we were really pleased withthe turnout. i think we had more 3d printers under one roof than has ever been officially in an event. and great engaged
people there to see printers ranging from three hundred dollars all the way up tothe many tens of hundreds of thousands and also some of the spectacles, of course you particiapted art gallery we're for really fortunate to have your participation with a 3d printed version of your tiger, which hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about in a little bit we have several other sculptures from various artists who use 3dprintingtechnology of course we had our architecture pavilion and our medical pavilion which
highlighted the various applications in those industries, which are quite exciting. (bridgette) so, whensomeone wants to go or thinking about going to one of these they just checkwith the website and then dole they can sign into anemail list for something that they sign up on an email list to find out more information ( bob)sure, absolutely just 3d printer.com or 3d printer world expo.com. we often you know the same announcement often you know are related to events will go on both sites . so if somebody justchecking whether serving out there they will see what the the latestannouncements are. such as hopefully
we're gonna talk you into participating again, in future events. ( bridgette) yea, i loved it. i really you know for me it was great because mybackground a little different in that i come from both both the fine art and the technologybackground. so i love being able to mix those and i'm not the only one because there were quite a few attendees came up to me afterwards and said i'm so glad thatyou're here and that you're representing this areaand so...
it was great, i really enjoyed it. there wasa lot of people and a tremendous amount of information. it seems like you had quite a few speakers there. so, everything was covered. ( bob) i think there was agreat vibe too. we want to show this sort of spectacle of aranger of a... uses in 3d printing and um... of course the artistic visions of people like yourself, and other artistthere. that they can be manifested in a physical format. as opposed to just digital. it is really exciting and we really did
enjoy the art gallery and and havingyou there to teach other who aspire to do these sorts of thing was really terrific. and other artists to. so, i think what really you know were convinced that a newgeneration of designers and creators & manufacturers is developing as a result thistechnology as you know the technology has been around for two -threedecades and used in a lot of different industries and manufacturerand so forth but when the personal printer startedto
get more attention. it really sort of fueled expansion and lots of businesses smallbusinesses out there lots of professionals are now only discovering how they canuse 3d printing to customize products, to create products. i mean we got stories of people...you know artiststhemselves, that are monetizing their work using 3d printing —you spoke tothat at the event. we have guys makingfishing lures using 3dprinting profiting as a result.
we had an entrepreneur that told his story about how how he used a printer that cost less than 1,000 bucks he was totally self-taught and he rana skateboard company he started making a wheel hubs for hisstate boards using... you know abs plastic 3d printer. at first he was justgonna prototype using it but then he started playing around with post ummm... post .... treatments or and madethem so sturdy that it was actually a product.
it is on his desktop ... it is on his credenza in his office and he would just run a cycle of prints and he would have nine new wheel hubs sitting there. a few hours later and they would actually ship those to customers, so... there's a lot that 3dprinting has to offer people are all be beginning now tounderstand their discover how they can use it to their benefit. so, it's really cool to be a part of it. (bridgette) i think...as my saying is always been, "you
don't know it you can do until you knowit you could do." and until you start to look at all thistechnology and figure out what it can do and then you can fit it into your ownworkflow... and that is the difficulty. but, i really liked what one of your keynotespeaker said there. she said, some people think it's just a press of abutton and it's not. there are a lot of diff different thingsthat you need to do to be able to get the product to comeyou know from 3d printing to be able to get it into a physical form and i think that'sone of the reasons why
i decide to write the book on 3dtechnology in fine art craft. it is because i was stumbling around trying to figure all of these things out. in asking the vendors please supply this,this, and this and they weren't so, a i figured, i have to write this downsomewhere and give everybody a step-by-step process. so that they can they can walkthrough it, you know? ( bob) oh yea, and it is really needed too. i mean, i think we're on the same page. in that um... content will really be the driver of thisevolution,
and right now, you know, ... it's not... if you don't know cad design or you don'tknow how how to design... using whatever software programs you know... you have to go out and get designs from other people. and so as, as the marketmatures you are going to see more people learning from books like yours for example, oryou teaching at conferences have to do it themselves, but also you are going to see people who already know how to do it
are going to be creating more and moredesigns that they are going to be able to sell. in many cases you know you can go to sites were they are given away for free and then you have items to print. but... what you are covering is soimportant to the market because the more that we can educate people howto utilize the various software and technologies that areavailable to them, the faster people will adopt 3dprinting and make it useful. (bridgette ) and in turn the more people use it thenthat the lower the cost is the prices in the vendors become... you know, just end up having moreto work with. which, when i first started
studying this years ago there wasn't you know... i mean, iremember seeing it in siggraph in there was just a few places thenshapeways came about and now you can get, you know, whateveryou want printed online or just about it whatever you want printed online throughsome of these companies i and i think that the other thing isthat some people realize or think that they need to have all sorts ofeducation in all sorts of things to be able to get something 3d-printed but they're... or the cost isgoing to be
you know over and above what they canafford and it is not. (bob) right! (bridgette) you can get free software, and which thebook talks about and you can... you know ....some of these programs and whatyou can print in your printing for pennies. it's really astronomical what can be done. (bob) yea, absolutely. well i want to ask...if it's ... may i ask you a few questions about some of your projects and the book? (bridgette) sure , this is a dual interview. nothing like interviewing an editor because they're going
to interview you back. that great! (bob) right, right. well it is hard to... without showing people what it was, it is hard to really get a sense of howmagnificent either your print was of the tiger. that was at the show, displayed in our artgallery, but i know that you know this is a significant project that you took on and the scale was just absolutely amazing, originally... and youactually used.... i don't really know how you did it, butyou turned that particular
piece into 3d printable model which wethen had printed locally at los angeles for our burbank show. if you could tell us just a little bitabout the tiger project, and also...the challengesor process of create a file you know from what was a sculpture you had done and the had 3d printed, that would be terrific. ( bridgette) well... you know the the sculpture was created for grambling state louisiana and it was actually a 15-foot tiger...
depending on what press release you read... (laugh) sometimes it's a 20-foot sometimes its a 15-foot... and anyway with the huge bronze tiger and icreated it in the computer using a variety of programs one of whichwould be zbrush would be the main program. and.... i've been using this process for a while now where i'musing the digital technologies and i pretty much started both withcreating the book and doing my studies and getting intothe research
of 3d printing because... after thirtyyears a sculpting i started to have hand problems. icouldn't hold a business card between my two fingers. and you know... i had great popeye forearms, but i had ruined my hands and had to have surgery on them and somy husband said, "you know you might try digital technology, it might be able to extend your, your life as an artist. i'm gladthat i have my hands, back but i'm also very glad that i have the 3dtechnology cuz i think it's really going to
extend my career, as i age. and i've heardother artists say the same thing as they get older i talk to a gentlemanwho has been using digital technology since he.... for a very long time i think he's in hisseventies and he's working with large metal pieces he said it's much easier to fabricate them using that 3d technology thanit is to you know... try to lifting and hoist and weld a piece metal together. so, i had thatsame
incidents and then with the gramblingtiger... this was one of the largest pieces it was created in z brush and then i hadi create in stl file and i sent it to a company that mills out. i have several companies. one which is across the border and another one is synappsys. theydo most my milling and foam. so, with the press of a button and muchcommunication back and forth they figured out what size to make thisand how to mill it out. and unlike 3d printing, which is anadditive process, cnc milling is a subtractiveprocess- so it takes away.
it carves away the foam and and sometimesthey leave a little bit of a gap in between there so... so they will mill it out at a little bit more than is necessary. ideally so i can add clay to it so iadded clay to this... so i put together these many, many pieces a foam and, now i'll tell you that thing was heavy in foam they did have an internalarmature that help me to put it together and then we put a wax over andthen a clay over it. and did the final detail and then wentthrough the traditional process a bronze
casting. and this process is all documented in thebook, but because they had a a 3d file we could then reduce it downto the 6 or 8 inches that ya'll reduced it down to forthe show in burbank. which is incredible because that is areally wonderful thing to be able to do. tohave the small piece in 3d-printed. i'm also going to now takethat piece and the school's want to have.... i do a lotof things for schools... and they want to havesmaller pieces that they can sell in the
gift shop umm.....i will probably take this and make it into a bas relief... which, forthose people who don't know, is kinda like a tiger a thats a flat piece.... of something coming out of the clay, instead of a totallythree-dimensional piece. and the reason for that is because i'llprobably make a keychain or something of that nature that they can sell in theirgift stores. so, there's a lot of different aspectsthat the technology will help me
in creating these things that i canmake money off of in the future. and its taking one piece of art and repurpose it for manydifferent things. ... and i'm really surprised imean the detail on the small print of the tiger was really great. (bob) oh yeahit was terrific. you talk a little bit about about your ailment with your hands and how this technology helps youif you could ell us a little bit about how you discovered
3d technology in the first place. was it aresult of looking for something because of ... you know, the condition of yourhands? or did you discover some other way how did you first get into it. ( bridgette) well you know my husband is a 3d guy and so i married into it, i guess.(laughter) and he has written several books on carrara and that type of thing, so it was his suggestion to get intothe technology when i was losing the use of my hands a course now it with the surgery and with themany many interns that i use
i can continue to sculpt but again butit i think it was with my husband'sinfluence in and then on having that happen to myhands that was the tooth pivotal things and then the other thingwas that because i wanted i was having trouble with my hands and ithought what if i can sculpt anymore what what happens if i've lost my career welli could teach but i had fish by my graduate studies i went back toschool and because i was already a master sculptor theywouldn't let me study sculpting
so i told them what can i design my ownprogram around 3d technology and incorporatingthe traditional studio and they said we'll certainly thatsounds like a great program so i that's what i did there probablycreated on at the first graduate studies in 3d technology andfiner i'll picking up fine art tree technology yourbook xx title3 technology fine art and craft terror yes on tell me a little bit about why a whyyou're writing this book and we will talk a little bit aboutconsular shit the
what inspired you to write the book ithink my own journey into the 3d technology because there were some things because iwas doing also i had to record all this for my thesis for school i e and i entire him 2007 had written an article arm in sculpturereview about cnc milling and and scanning on soi was kinda into it back in 2007 and then went through my thesis when i startedwhen i started to do my studies i
started to take note of some otherthings that were happening and i think that some other things thatwere happening within me were different from those people who are usually who are using computer graphics orcomputers and that um i had a very difficult i'm a e if for example when i go into mystudio and i sculpt and i i when i was working on a tiger there was a the part where the talecomes into the the lower part of the the body the back part in the body andit was in foam and so i carbon that foam
and i sam it from to get it just the wayi want and there was a point where i i actually went up to the peace walkedup to this huge tiger and put my hand on its lower back and started to feel it and i notice myeyes were closed and then i said okay i've got it correctso i've trained myself so much throughoutthe years a sculpting that i sculpt by touch and feel and that is amuch apart love what i'm doing as as as theas the sculpting part is looking at it so when you are then tell taking me inputting me into a computer
there's a whole nother world in thereand i've lost my ability to touch it i've lost a sense that is very powerfulfor me and it's also very interesting that idon't really feel ownership of a piece whether certain stages of the processusing digital technology that i will feel ownership apiece but it's usuallyafter i have it in my hand and i'm not the only artist to say thatso there are some psychological and socialthings that i had to deal with but there are also some perfectly legitimate things like dealingwith
it navigation in and a 3d program you know i'm i tell you what there wasone point where was working with the software program in the beginning and there was somethingwrong with my computer and if i press to certain but then i p and i kept on on my santi it flipped the wholesculpture upside down it and and i remember going up by hasbeen sent i don't care how often i scoped out steers this never happens in a traditional studio i've never had asculpture flip upside down
but there are advantages to working inthe computer as well on when you're working downstairs in astudio my studio is downstairs my office is upstairs when i'm working downstairsin the studio i have to crawl underthings in throughthings and i have to be like this acrobat on my you know on my back withyou it's just amazing what you have to do to try to get tosomething to be able to sculpted or flip sculpture upside down but in thecomputer i just hide some something and then i i work on and i andi can flip it upside down on the computer so there are advantages
to both and i think that's other thingsthat i've had to deal with in in weighing them but i think also asi progress there other things that i'm findingabout this technology that are very important and one thing'sis that have just written in the scanningchapter is arm the documentation love your work i at this point there aresome pieces that i create that i do not that the technology is not tothe point where it can create what i would want the waythat i would want it in the medium that i would want but ican guarantee you
that it will one day and therefore if i have 3d scans up my art my fine artwork i end up giving this as an inheritanceto my child who can then produce and reproduce andrepurpose my artwork in any way shape or form at this point her inheritance is i have the rights to poor you know 10grambling tigers as long as none of them are in louisiana and she has the rights todo that but
molds deteriorate you know so there aremany more aspects to the 3d technology than justwhich what you would see in a computer graphicsconference for us who are fine artists and using itas a craft and fine art but that may be anabsolutely tend to you is your sense to other by an artist a studio artists out therearm me how many are them or are you'refamiliar with the technology technology and are actually
taking that journey pierre de suspectlike you like you are or mean i guess good reasonyou're writing a book is just to help them got better understand that so i guesswhat your just the perfect your publishing a book is a shorterunder sure market and that perhaps they you know com there aren't very many fineartist working status like you're saying who are also doing things like scaring her there are other work and work in 3dup various offers and things like that so i guess i'm trying to
task is are you know what store need isout there among all your colleagues are people that a that fine artists such as yourself i thinkthere's more and more need i think that you're finding that the colleges are havinginterdisciplinary i'm programs so that they're merging thetechnologies with the art i am and 3d technology does go over manydifferent disciplines industrial design architecture on art a just did it medicine oversaw
as you know just by your conference andso these things are because it it is so interdisciplinary itgoes into lot these different fields i think your you're finding less boundaries between things these daysespecially in the arts nn art education i'm so ithink with an art education and steam incorporating science technologyengineering and math on is a very good placed to for this bookbecause each other tutorials and the things thatare in it helps teach the students to understand i'm so it's notjust for fine artist but also for those
graphic artist who have their work stuckin a computer don't really know how to get it out and if i get it out what do i do with itor whatever what are some of the other things that can happen with the art i'm in in the finer around i would say and i think other artists would agreethat cnc milling has been i'll out there much for muchlonger then the 3d printing and has been usedby artist for a longer time as well as otherthings like
and you know laser cutting and that typeof thing so i think that it's being used and there'smany more things out there and many more artists that are being are out there being using it thefoundries and this is a whole section in the bookand the foundry the lost wax method a bronze casting haschanged very little in hundreds and hundreds the years andnow yours going to be seeing i believeyou're going to see an infiltration up the 3d processes
so there's a whole section on thefoundry in the future and every area where 3d technology is infiltrating this process along theway and the results have it and summer theexploration experiments that people are doing with it which is really quite fascinating goodness you're youranswer was so much work secular terrorists anywhere personal questionfor i security measure a well let's talk a little bit aboutsomebody artwork its features are you
are you presenting in the book artworkfrom other artists or your own artwork or bold them ennio to your cell somerset for seniors foryou producers were really inspired and i'm just kinda curious what's order somea what sort of artwork your readers willfind in the dark when you got it i think that's a really great questionand i'm really excited to be only answer that question because i have found that there are there arepeople who have gone before me and and we're talking about who've beenaround for a while
and they've been using this technologyand have been following it and they have really been paving the wayfor many of us other artists who are coming along and 1i'd listen to their stories because they've had to deal with athere's you know is this really art is that manufacturing are you cheating on this isn't real you know those thosetype of things for a long time this type of art or artwas was created with 3d technology was never even allowed in the gallery her you know so there was as real a
click ish thing and that these peoplehave pushed through and so the art that is in the book isreally some fascinating and wonderful art from both very seasoned artists who've beendoing this for a really long time and i'm i'm hoping to see feature asection have those artists on particularly and then other artistswho were exploring and doing some incrediblestuff with the technologies they're creatingsome incredible artwork and the coolest part is thatmany of them share their tips and tricks
with cnc milling and 3d printing andscanning and pushing the limits and that's what i'm looking for those peoplewho are pushing the limits because the vatican if i can display how others are crossingthose boundaries pushing the limits a bit are about thetechnology can do then i think that sparks that creativeseed in every artist or every creative person it reads this to go %ah let me see how i can do this and i think that is one of the coolestput things about this technology is
in a lot of ways you are on the groundlevel and if you do something it is new and different i for example there's one artist who's doing somescanning and i in instead of because when you do 3dscanning you want everybody to sit perfectly still and scan their body but she allows the movement and then shetakes that she creates those and two bronzes and they become they look like something like anartifact that you would dig up from the ground because
that noise that most people wouldn'tlike in that art has become a part of the art and and it so it's very interesting tosee how everyone is using this to to come up with their own artwork another artist had a cancer an incentive arm as an artist might want to do she wantto explore further what her cancer would look like such actually took her scanand made art out her cancer out over tumor and bydoing this and showing as an art show
a physician walked up and said this thisart this can this 3d model is telling ussomething that we have never looked at before and here you go here's theinterdisciplinary thing and so now a group of doctors are actually exploring in reviewing her ski hands tospare her 3d models to see how that's why i you know care so it's just in it'sfascinating every turn i'm finding new artists and i'm so excited to beable to put them in and it
its leaders because i've been pitchingthis book to my publisher for five years saying this but is needed this but isneeded and and then just this past year three otherbooks similar to this book have come out cell i must be on the right track as otherpeople are doing it well we must be i gotta say it sounds itsounds like a great read so far he talked about i'll i the foundry in chapter sevenchapter standard work goes well that's about the thestructure the book or
various chapters what else is in therethat the meese examples you've given a set the artwork well we have the we have a scanningchapter we have a cnc milling chapter there's a 3d printing chapter i'm thereseveral tutorials that walk you through some processes that individuals can tryso that they can get their hands i'm into everything i'm and there's thefoundry of the future a there's something called a thisthere's a whole thing up about um those social and psychologicalthings that the artist to a traditional artist who are getting into it
have to deal with and then there's aprimer because to be perfectly honest and this may sound funny to those peoplewho have been in graphics but i didn't know what a polly was you know when i started out i don'tdoubt that but you know i i did noah face normal was or i had anartist recently that i work through this process so that she could a marcherartwork and i said you have enough memory she'si don't have i any idea how to figure out if i have enough memory in mycomputer in you know or what a graphics card
or what you know so there's a primary inthere for artists who don't know those things so that they can you know be led through that that whole math labyrinth up things that they needto know and then i think the thing is is thatthis book is is a on it's a handbook for those people whowant to realize their artwork in physical form so there's vendors listed their softwarelisted there's everything in there that if you needed
if you wanted to do these processes youhave everything at your fingertips you would have to be going in searchingon the internet for you know trying to figure out how to doit everything would be right there that sounds terrific when the worry and publisher won't be availablewell i told my publisher that i might be asked to come back to the 3d printingworld expel in burbank in february and january andurgent so that's our target date so we'll see it january 2015 at the 3dprinter world expo in burbank will have to a book signing make sure you make thedeadline for
i fast well i say will really lookforward to to seeing and reading it and telling ourstrivers about it as well because a a sounds like a fantastic book and willbe happy to let them know and that's what it sounded whetherit's at our show our website or app itself thanks and i hope that once we do havethis book out that you're going to start seeing lots of new art for your are chairs foryour conferences and now we've got some really specialpiece as planned
i'll but you can't really say right nowyou have to get the book but as really exciting piece that we'redoing that's pretty a push email pushing thetechnology pretty far and we're excited presenting its going to be a tutorial inthe book in and if all goes well it will be a piece in your art show come feb now desert yeah southport cash thanks so much for taking the timein thanks really personally begin to thank you and i am so when withwhen is the seattle conference august 22nd and 23rd at this year
yes at the hyatt bellevue said youexpect a whole different crowd at that one that you did then in burbank is it is it regional dir wethink you'll be similarly very similar have any are i heavy studios smoking and entertainment film industry %uh so a lotof water people balter air and and those kinds ofbusinesses an artist at work there independent artists elwayfrom vancouver tale to up stand up or i'm sure actually elasticat people from 21 different country so expect will have some more results
ins you know there's a certaininternational player to for the most part about the attendees are many attendees you for thenorthwest palm and your all kinda small businesses educators artist a than just you know general hobbyist soldand tech-savvy consumers did one learn moreup and the bourbon conference january but a quite right $3.30 per well thatwas it was a great event i and i encourage people to attend wellyou made it better sell it for you have
you we're looking for to help you again atyou again when the allah says i can also be can get thatthat that at are pc year here hinting at it that's readyby the show that would be adil and an excited about it creekside that's fine it was such a pleasuretalking to you thank you so much for taking the time all we look forward to seeing you futureevents thank you ok you have been listening to the artand technology podcast
you can find these podcasts a digitalsculpting dotnet or on itunes please check back with usnext time to hear some more for gas from the 3dtechnology and fine art and craft book build
