Greedo - Best way to go from Zbrush sculpt to silicone mask?
The test actually went really smoothly. There was no issue with mechanical lock despite the print lines. What do you guys think about the material choice? Does it look like it would be good for the whole mask?
animator
Sr Member
Fantastic! I think that is a good consistency, but it's your mask, so what do you think? I really like the frills. How does the surface look? Do the print lines detract from the detail in the silicone skin? Silicone seems to pick up every detail!
I would suggest printing another mold section with one of the antennas and see if that can be pulled out or whether you will need a parting line. I expect it to be fine, but worth checking.
I would also tint/color the next silicone test. Getting the color right took me some practice. I use Silc Pig from Smooth-On, but there are other options. It just takes a small amount of color.
I plan to print my first test mold this weekend for a project. Seeing your success really gives me hope!
I would suggest printing another mold section with one of the antennas and see if that can be pulled out or whether you will need a parting line. I expect it to be fine, but worth checking.
I would also tint/color the next silicone test. Getting the color right took me some practice. I use Silc Pig from Smooth-On, but there are other options. It just takes a small amount of color.
I plan to print my first test mold this weekend for a project. Seeing your success really gives me hope!
This is actually really cool! I just found this thread; I am an experienced Zbrush user working on various versions of the Book from Hocus Pocus and I am trying to find a great way to make some huge life size molds for casting. I think I may try taking my model in to Zbrush and Boolean them in to some printable cases like you did here. I will keep following this and cant wait to see how this mask turns out!
mattmakesthings
New Member
This is a super cool project! I just started learning digital sculpting myself, so I'm excited to see how this turns out.
Yeah, you can definitely see the print lines in the silicone even though it doesn't come through in the video. It's pretty weird to see that 3D printed surface on something that wasn't printed. I'll try doing another test print of the antenna next like you said. Do you think I'll need a lot of Silc Pig to get the silicone to be fully opaque since Greedo's skin doesn't have any translucency in the movie? Is there a cheap filler pigment I can use to increase the opacity without wasting Silc Pig?
How'd your test mold turn out? Feel free to post progress in here unless you want to start a new thread.
Also, I'm starting to think that if I am going to try to cast this whole thing as one piece, I'm going to need to do even more sections for the mold just due to the size of the printed parts. Do you guys think the seams introduced by splitting the mold into more pieces would be a problem?
animator
Sr Member
I'm really impressed with your progress!
Silc Pig is REALLY strong and it doesn't take a lot. You don't want to use too much because it could cause an issue with the silicone curing (I was told). Pigment the silicone a bit to add a base color (which will make painting and getting it opaque easier), then paint the final cast to make it opaque. Again, you will get there quicker than you think. I have ruined translucency a number of times by mistake when painting silicone. Might be worth calling Smooth-On and asking if they have any advice for finishing silicone to mimic the latex look.
Silicone picks up pretty much all the detail with truly amazing fidelity, so any mold seam lines may show. Since I think you are printing the mold in resin, you could try engineering the seams in places you could lighting fill and sand when the mold is open. Again, I am a big fan of tests, so I would print 2 sections, glue them together, and run a small batch of silicone to see how it looks. Then clean up the seam line and run silicone again to compare the difference. I've had some seams just sort of disappear in the surface detail when I was lucky.
I'm in ZBrush now bumbling around trying to get a mold ready to print tomorrow or Tuesday. It will be PLA since I don't have a resin printer unfortunately.
Please post pictures of your next steps! Good luck!
Silc Pig is REALLY strong and it doesn't take a lot. You don't want to use too much because it could cause an issue with the silicone curing (I was told). Pigment the silicone a bit to add a base color (which will make painting and getting it opaque easier), then paint the final cast to make it opaque. Again, you will get there quicker than you think. I have ruined translucency a number of times by mistake when painting silicone. Might be worth calling Smooth-On and asking if they have any advice for finishing silicone to mimic the latex look.
Silicone picks up pretty much all the detail with truly amazing fidelity, so any mold seam lines may show. Since I think you are printing the mold in resin, you could try engineering the seams in places you could lighting fill and sand when the mold is open. Again, I am a big fan of tests, so I would print 2 sections, glue them together, and run a small batch of silicone to see how it looks. Then clean up the seam line and run silicone again to compare the difference. I've had some seams just sort of disappear in the surface detail when I was lucky.
I'm in ZBrush now bumbling around trying to get a mold ready to print tomorrow or Tuesday. It will be PLA since I don't have a resin printer unfortunately.
Please post pictures of your next steps! Good luck!
Minor update: I printed a mold of the ear as a single piece, to see if it's possible to demold it without damaging the pull. I'm gonna do that and the antenna test at the same time, so that's next on the printer. I'll be ordering the silc pig and a couple other things this Tuesday in case anything is discounted for Prime Day. Still printing everything in PLA because it's cheaper and there's no chance of cure inhibition like there is with resin printing.
EDIT:
I've been thinking about how to attach stuff to the mask, like the lenses and whatever animatronic system I end up using to manipulate the antennae and mouth. Since I can't easily glue stuff to silicone I had this idea of using silicone pegs protruding from the inside of the mask which act as mounting points for a little plastic frame that everything can be attached to:
Any obvious reasons this wouldn't work? I also considered sewing stuff to the mask in hard-to-see areas like between the spikes of the mohawk or behind the ears, but I'm not sure that's a good idea.
EDIT:
I've been thinking about how to attach stuff to the mask, like the lenses and whatever animatronic system I end up using to manipulate the antennae and mouth. Since I can't easily glue stuff to silicone I had this idea of using silicone pegs protruding from the inside of the mask which act as mounting points for a little plastic frame that everything can be attached to:
Any obvious reasons this wouldn't work? I also considered sewing stuff to the mask in hard-to-see areas like between the spikes of the mohawk or behind the ears, but I'm not sure that's a good idea.
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I think this could work, I would be curious about this. For my logic, I think tolerance of the pegs to plastic and what happens when it begins to get sweaty in there, if they would slip off. I would have to imagine the angle of the plugs is a variable as well, but it would be a great solution if it works.
How did the two color printed mold work for you? I have recently only printed parts and recast them in silicon molds so they could be made in resin. But if your printed mold worked...I could just boolian my project in zbrush to build a little printable mold.
I never actually ended up using it. I took a little break on the project, then I realized that mold wouldn't be a very good test of how the actual mold will be set up, and would be a waste of a lot of silicone. So I'm doing another small test, but with an SLA resin mold this time and a TPU core.
The reason for the TPU core is because I realized I had created some self-trapping geometry in the mold design to allow space for the servos in the antennae. Printing part of the core in TPU allows it to flex in and out of the cavity, but I don't know if it'll inhibit the silicone. Printing with TPU was surprisingly easy, and you can see in this little proof of concept how easily it springs back into shape after flexing.
Anyway, to answer your question, I was pretty happy with my first proof of concept for a 3D printed mold (the blue box). Zbrush's booleans have been my guardian angel on this project because they're so reliable, even with insanely complex geometry. I'd say go for it and post the results.
