Rooted Hair: Future of the Hobby?
- Thread starter Bucky Underbelly
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Re: Rooted Hair: Future of the Hobby?
Exactly!
That's pretty much what I meant when I asked the question at the top of the thread. Assuming realistic rooted/glued/synthetic hair can be done reliably well at the factory ... is that the inevitable future?
And if so, what other frontiers are left to be conquered?
New techniques to hide articulation? Better scale tailoring? My personal hope is for everybody to be able to turn out HT quality realistic paint techniques. Maybe something that can be done at least partially by machine instead of by hand? (Will 3D printers have an even bigger impact?)
Where do we go from here? In five years, will we be looking back at some of the terrific figures being released right now and find them as underwhelming as we find some of the old Sideshow or early HT figures?
Exactly!
That's pretty much what I meant when I asked the question at the top of the thread. Assuming realistic rooted/glued/synthetic hair can be done reliably well at the factory ... is that the inevitable future?
And if so, what other frontiers are left to be conquered?
New techniques to hide articulation? Better scale tailoring? My personal hope is for everybody to be able to turn out HT quality realistic paint techniques. Maybe something that can be done at least partially by machine instead of by hand? (Will 3D printers have an even bigger impact?)
Where do we go from here? In five years, will we be looking back at some of the terrific figures being released right now and find them as underwhelming as we find some of the old Sideshow or early HT figures?
Szklanooka
Just a little freaky
I think hand painting may be replaced with printers soon, because if you can take a picture of Robert Downey Jr for example and just print it so much faster with 100% likeness, why bother painting? But here comes the uncanny valley... I can't decide if it is freaking awesome or freaking creepy. Probably both.
Source
Wow. If they could do it cheaply enough, that could seriously be a game-changer ...
A spooky, spooky game-changer.
A spooky, spooky game-changer.
TheObsoleteMan
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That is ****ing creepy. I definitely wouldn't want something like that staring back at me from a shelf.
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These likenesses are insane. I remember seeing an article on this, so I know the service has been around for a couple of years at least but mostly as a novelty. I wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of a short-run digitally printed and painted service pop up in the next year or two. Just keep an eye on ebay and something will show up--somebody with work out a deal with one of these printers to produce a couple of hundred hyper realistic 1:6 heads as a way to test the market. If it takes off more will follow. However it will be a while before you get actors sitting down to be 3D scanned due to the need to maintain control of their likenesses, once there are high end 3D files floating around the genie will be out of the bottle and they can show up anywhere. Similarly there are licensing issues with studios and other license holders. So you are still going to be relying on digital artists for that part. But certainly high end printers with paint capabilities are going to be able to produce uncanny results. For the time being it probably won't be practical, precise or fast enough for HT and other producers who have large runs of thousands/tens of thousands of pieces, but it's only a matter of time.
Regarding realistic hair, I've started to see a few "haired" heads show up on ebay. I'd pick up Daryl if I had a figure to use it on. If the head sculpts for Thor and Loki were better I'd definitely pick those up. I'm sure we will see more and more pre-haired heads showing up with better sculpts, but both of those are off. Maybe a manual hair swap would yield good results though at least for Thor.
However I think the mohair technique looks more realistic than the synthetic rooted hair. I've been waiting for someone to come up with a relatively inexpensive hairing service, or alternatively we might see someone just taking a hundred or so HT knockoffs, hiring an expensive shop to rehair them, and then offering on the bay for $75-$100 a pop. I think that's about the sweet spot for pricing.
franpincho
Super Freak
Sorry, but if those three sculpts are what some people believe to be the "future" of this hobby, then count me the **** out.
Hideous, just horrible. God damn it.
Hideous, just horrible. God damn it.
Their faces look like masks.
Yeah, the sculpts on those three bootleg heads are pretty terrible. But they were posted as examples of the kind of hairing that's showing up now, not as examples of great sculpts. I don't think anybody is suggesting that "terrible likenesses" should be the future of the hobby! 
Separate issue from the hair question - digital scanning technology has been around for ages and it's only getting better. It's also been used in collectibles for at least a decade. Probably more. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't digitally scanning actors faces for special effects what Gentle Giant's main business was before they got into collectibles? I thought they started in special effects and expanded into collectibles. In fact, if I'm remembering this correctly, wasn't the fact that they were using scans from the real actors for their busts their big selling point for years? (Please, somebody correct me if I'm mis-remembering that!)
In any case, my guess is that, like the movie industry itself, the future of the hobby may be entirely digital.
We're already seeing more and more artists at companies (and among customizers here on the boards) moving away from clay and toward digital sculpting. And we're seeing the same thing with 3D printing of masters. As the prices of 3D printers continue to decrease and their sophistication continue to increase, might we start to see an end to molding and casting?
As the photos that Szklanooka posted show, 3D printers can also print in very intricate color. I wonder ... as the prices come down on these machines, will we eventually get to a point where the heads are printed directly -- fully painted -- without ever going through the molding process?
Seems to me we might get to a point relatively soon where the actor gets scanned ... they import that data file into a modeling program or something like Photoshop to tweak the details and get all the colors right ... and then send the file to the dozens of 3D color printers they have waiting on the factory floor. An hour later ... 1000 heads, fully painted and ready to go.
Maybe?
Separate issue from the hair question - digital scanning technology has been around for ages and it's only getting better. It's also been used in collectibles for at least a decade. Probably more. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't digitally scanning actors faces for special effects what Gentle Giant's main business was before they got into collectibles? I thought they started in special effects and expanded into collectibles. In fact, if I'm remembering this correctly, wasn't the fact that they were using scans from the real actors for their busts their big selling point for years? (Please, somebody correct me if I'm mis-remembering that!)
In any case, my guess is that, like the movie industry itself, the future of the hobby may be entirely digital.
We're already seeing more and more artists at companies (and among customizers here on the boards) moving away from clay and toward digital sculpting. And we're seeing the same thing with 3D printing of masters. As the prices of 3D printers continue to decrease and their sophistication continue to increase, might we start to see an end to molding and casting?
As the photos that Szklanooka posted show, 3D printers can also print in very intricate color. I wonder ... as the prices come down on these machines, will we eventually get to a point where the heads are printed directly -- fully painted -- without ever going through the molding process?
Seems to me we might get to a point relatively soon where the actor gets scanned ... they import that data file into a modeling program or something like Photoshop to tweak the details and get all the colors right ... and then send the file to the dozens of 3D color printers they have waiting on the factory floor. An hour later ... 1000 heads, fully painted and ready to go.
Maybe?
zexion_armando
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Daryl looks like a middle aged house wife.
I don't mind rooted hair, so long as its done well. Look at Cap 2 Widow. While I hate the hair so damn much cause its an awful look, its still a good rooted hair style, and looks nice on the figure.
The Ripley figure needs some work to look less like a birds nest and more like hair, but its the only way to translate that style of hair lol.
But as tech gets better and better at making it, no doubt the bar will be raised on what is acceptable for rooted hair. Same goes for sculpted hair.
I don't mind rooted hair, so long as its done well. Look at Cap 2 Widow. While I hate the hair so damn much cause its an awful look, its still a good rooted hair style, and looks nice on the figure.
The Ripley figure needs some work to look less like a birds nest and more like hair, but its the only way to translate that style of hair lol.
But as tech gets better and better at making it, no doubt the bar will be raised on what is acceptable for rooted hair. Same goes for sculpted hair.
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Yes Thor and Loki are terrible sculpts. Not so certain about Daryl. If the hair was cut and styled it might look pretty good.
The fact is producers are obviously looking at rooted solutions along with other upgrades. You're never going to please all the people, so it really comes down to buy what appeals to the collector. To me the rooted hair on Black Widow looks much better than the sculpted hair on Abigail from Blade Trinity. I've also become more selective about what passes for an acceptable likeness. A few years ago 1:6 was a passing curiosity. It was only when I started seeing figures with more detail and far better likenesses that I hopped in. Nowadays 1:6 probably accounts for 1/2 my collecting budget if not more. As the trend towards higher quality figures with better likenesses more realism continues I think it's going to bring in more collectors. When you look at what HT is (hopefully) pulling off with Chewbacca and Ripley, they are no doubt looking to raise the bar.
The fact is producers are obviously looking at rooted solutions along with other upgrades. You're never going to please all the people, so it really comes down to buy what appeals to the collector. To me the rooted hair on Black Widow looks much better than the sculpted hair on Abigail from Blade Trinity. I've also become more selective about what passes for an acceptable likeness. A few years ago 1:6 was a passing curiosity. It was only when I started seeing figures with more detail and far better likenesses that I hopped in. Nowadays 1:6 probably accounts for 1/2 my collecting budget if not more. As the trend towards higher quality figures with better likenesses more realism continues I think it's going to bring in more collectors. When you look at what HT is (hopefully) pulling off with Chewbacca and Ripley, they are no doubt looking to raise the bar.
Give me a break.
VintijDroidGutzz
Super Freak
This thread is horrible.
Just horrible.
Just horrible.
franpincho
Super Freak
Yeah. It is.
The day i want to buy a Barbie doll I'll know where to find them.
Leave my collectibles alone, we don't need that ugly ass ****.
The day i want to buy a Barbie doll I'll know where to find them.
Leave my collectibles alone, we don't need that ugly ass ****.
Yeah, the sculpts on those three bootleg heads are pretty terrible. But they were posted as examples of the kind of hairing that's showing up now, not as examples of great sculpts. I don't think anybody is suggesting that "terrible likenesses" should be the future of the hobby!
The hair is no small part of what makes them look horrible. The hairlines are ridiculous. It looks like they have removeable faces and their actual face will be underneath.
Way to completely negate the ''bad@$$'' expression of the sculpt.
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