Rastiapinsky 3D Games

There is a city of Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Until 1929, the city was part of the Nizhny Novgorod province and was called Rastiapino. Today, the Young Sculptor studio is located there, in which children, under the guidance of mentor and artistic director Vladimir Kornev, create small ceramic sculptures — "Rastiapinsky amusements". These toys humorously depict the inhabitants of the city, historical characters, architecture and household items of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and just funny little animals.

Recently, the RangeVision Smart 3D printer and 3D scanner appeared in the studio, and now, in addition to clay modeling, children are taught modern technologies and the basics of production here. The guys have never had such opportunities before! In addition, the production process has become simpler and faster. We want to talk a little bit about how this used to happen and how it is happening now, so that the practical benefits of introducing 3D technologies become obvious.

Previously, in order to make a beautiful clay toy, it was necessary to mold it out of plasticine, and only then to make it out of clay. Therefore, first the master (most often a child who studies in the studio) makes a figurine out of plasticine. Next, a plaster mold is removed from this plasticine model, which is then poured with liquid clay (slip). At the end, a ready-made clay toy appears for painting. There was a problem here: how can I save a plasticine model to remove the next few plaster molds? After all, plasticine is soft and short-lived.

The solution to this problem was to use a plastic model printed on a 3D printer. Now it’s enough to scan a plasticine figurine to get its three-dimensional STL model on a computer, and then print it on a 3D printer. "RangeVision helped us find the most affordable 3D scanner model with high detail. This scanner was perfect for our purposes," the studio head shared his impressions.

Next, we will describe the process of creating Rastiapin souvenirs, which became possible with the RangeVision Smart 3D scanner.

An exact 3D model of the figurine appears on the computer. It can be edited in the 3D modeling program "Blender", which is very popular with experts from all over the world involved in 3D sculpture modeling. "Now the studio’s students can do it too. The Blender is an extremely precise and convenient tool that is more advanced than the stack sculptor’s tool, which has been familiar for centuries. But it is useless for our purposes without the RangeVision Smart 3D scanner," says Vladimir.

At the moment when the 3D model has acquired its finished appearance after editing, it is sent to a 3D printer for printing.

The next stage is the production of a plaster mold. The printed figure is immersed in a special mixture (it can be purchased at any hardware store), which freezes after 10 minutes.

It turns out that this is a reusable plaster mold.

Now we can make dozens of figures by pouring liquid clay into the mold.

The clay figurine is ready!

After firing in the oven, the master will begin painting.

Using the RangeVision Smart 3D scanner, 3D printer and Blender software, a new, fast method of creating ceramic miniatures in the studio has become possible. Now you can create not only single figures, but also a series of toys — this is important for souvenir making. Moreover, young sculptors have a great chance to master modern 3D modeling, printing and animation programs in practice (they even made the first trial cartoon).

Due to the fact that the RangeVision Smart 3D scanner allows you to obtain color 3D models, the rest of the toys available in the studio’s assets have also been converted to 3D format, which provides ample opportunities for creativity. Thus, the high quality of detail and color transfer made it possible to print an exact copy of the miniature on a 3D printer on the other side of the Earth — in Lebanon.

It turns out that 3D printing and 3D scanning bring the production of souvenirs to a new level: now the replication of models has become fast, accurate, and technologically advanced. Less routine means more creativity! Speaking of creativity, the studio has its own small theater, where the main characters are all the same "Rastiapin's fun", and the main characters are talented students.

Theater in the studio "Young Sculptor"The Young Sculptor Studio expresses its deep gratitude to RangeVision for the amazing opportunity to engage in creative work at a new high-tech level.
"Without you, we would have remained in the 19th century!"