FigurePrints: a statue of my Character?
By
Archiviste,
Posted on: 2011-07-15 08:03 in Player Questions
Did you notice that $30 was for the limited pre-made figs.
To do a Figurine was $130 and a Bust $70.
Not to say it wouldn't be a bad idea, but think of the legal hoops this company had to do to get Licensed permission from Activision/Blizzard for that. Do you honesty think NCSoft would be willing to license that?
Thank you for the time...
@Travlr (Main) / @Tymers Realm (Test) 
Not by this company (I don't know anything about them at all), but I had a couple of action figures made of my main, and I'm extremely happy with them. Like Tymers noted, however, don't expect it to be cheap -- I believe mine were about $125 a pop. 
Leader of Legion of Valor/Fallen Legion (Victory server)
http://legionofvalor.guildportal.com / http://fallenlegion.guildportal.com
StainedGlassScarlet - L50 Spines/Inv Scrapper | Badges: 1,396
Avatar detail taken from full-size piece by Douglas Shuler here
I have some family that used to be really really (really, really, really, really) into WoW, and I've seen the FigurePrints they had. They're actually really not very good. I mean, they're basically cut from a 3d printer--so they look kind of like they were carved from a block of soap by a chimp with a spoon, and then painted by kindergarteners.
I don't think I've ever seen a promotional photo that wasn't taken from a distance.
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
Quote:
Makes me want to rush right out and get one ! LOL
|
Originally Posted by DumpleBerry
I mean, they're basically cut from a 3d printer--so they look kind of like they were carved from a block of soap by a chimp with a spoon, and then painted by kindergarteners.
I don't think I've ever seen a promotional photo that wasn't taken from a distance. |
Virtue Server Forever !
Pure White Lightning - Level 50 Electric Brute
Purple Drop - work in progress Axe/Shield brute
Blue Icefall - Level 50 Ice Tank
@Blue Lava
The number of color and costume piece options available in this game are several orders of magnitude more than what they deal with in making characters for that other game. I doubt they're even capable of making things to the level of complexity most of the costumes in this game would require.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
Quote:
How about an yarn doll version of your favorite CoX character ?
|
Originally Posted by CalvinistGadfly
http://www.figureprints.com/wow/Default.aspx
um, how do we make this happen? I would totally and completely buy statues of my character in his various costumes -- especially at $30 a pop! |
Keep NCSoft from shutting down City of Heroes : http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
Quote:
Ha, you beat me to it, thanks Archiviste |
Originally Posted by Archiviste
How about an yarn doll version of your favorite CoX character ?
|
There's also a thread on the fan creations forum, if you're interested Gadfly. They're quite neat
FingerPrints? I don't think so.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
Ed Fries, founder of the company, was at Classic Gaming Expo last year, and I asked him if there was any consideration for supporting City of Heroes figures. Sadly, the short answer was that the player base was too small to be considered worthwhile from a business point of view. Here's to hoping that changes in the future.
Quote:
I see what you did there. |
Originally Posted by DarkGob
FingerPrints? I don't think so.
|
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXc119xbDic
Quote:
I can understand that reason on a certain basic economic level. But on the other hand it's sort of like he's saying, "The only way we can support a given MMO is if it's as big as WoW". Since there's not likely going to be another game (anytime soon) that'll be as big as WoW it almost seems like Mr. Fries is choosing to limit the potential to grow his own company into new markets. It's not like -every- game gets as big as WoW afterall.|
Originally Posted by Silurian
Ed Fries, founder of the company, was at Classic Gaming Expo last year, and I asked him if there was any consideration for supporting City of Heroes figures. Sadly, the short answer was that the player base was too small to be considered worthwhile from a business point of view. Here's to hoping that changes in the future.
|
If I were Mr. Fries I'd be looking into how to make -any- kind of figure regardless of what MMO it's from. *shrugs*
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
I imagine it's a lot of work writing the software that converts game info into a 3D model that looks good without manual intervention. Especially a game like ours that has tons of different costume pieces that can be mixed and matched, compared to that other game.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Quote:
haha I was desperately hoping someone would get that
|
Originally Posted by Gemesis
|
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
Quote:
Having a larger business is only beneficial if you make more money by doing it.
|
Originally Posted by Lothic
I can understand that reason on a certain basic economic level. But on the other hand it's sort of like he's saying, "The only way we can support a given MMO is if it's as big as WoW". Since there's not likely going to be another game (anytime soon) that'll be as big as WoW it almost seems like Mr. Fries is choosing to limit the potential to grow his own company into new markets. It's not like -every- game gets as big as WoW afterall.
If I were Mr. Fries I'd be looking into how to make -any- kind of figure regardless of what MMO it's from. *shrugs* |
Quote:
That would be the big reason. I seem to remember one of the red names (can't remember if it was theOcho, BABs, Positron, or a forward through one of them from the other artists) stating that how City of Heroes stores its costume data is largely incompatible with 3D printing.
|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
I imagine it's a lot of work writing the software that converts game info into a 3D model that looks good without manual intervention. Especially a game like ours that has tons of different costume pieces that can be mixed and matched, compared to that other game.
|
Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters
Quote:
Obviously. But small third-party businesses that totally rely on another single company for their existence aren't too smart either. What if Blizzard decided to start making their own figures like this? This FigurePrints outfit would be completely SOL.|
Originally Posted by rsclark
Having a larger business is only beneficial if you make more money by doing it.
|
Companies that don't bother to look for other business opportunities usually end up shooting themselves in the foot eventually. It just sounded to me like Mr. Fries was effectively happy to keep his business stagnated and marginalized.
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
Yes but excluding Asian MMOs, FTP or otherwise, Blizzard's population is probably as big as all the others combined. Now if it takes $X to develop the character conversion software for one game, you will ideally want a pretty good ROI which means either getting a large percentage of a smaller game population to use the service or a small percentage of a huge game population. The later is probably the better business plan.
However we do suffer from altitis more than other MMOs so if you count individual characters our character population may be higher than most but you still have to assume only a very small percentage will dole out $130 for something you will but under a bell jar in your study.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Well all I know is that 3D printing technology is getting better and cheaper all the time. It doesn't require "special MMO character conversion software" related to one specific game. Even the FigurePrints page itself says it just uses "snapshots" of the way characters appear online. It shouldn't ultimately matter which MMO has more players or not for something like this.
Now I'll readily admit it might still be hard for people to submit standardized pics that a generic 3D printer can use. But that's not a problem related to supporting one game or another. If FigurePrints could overcome the hurdle of getting their customers to sumbit properly scaled artwork they could directly support making any type of figure for any game.
Call me silly but if I were Mr. Fries that'd be something I'd be working on right now.
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
Quote:
Two points.|
Originally Posted by Lothic
It doesn't require "special MMO character conversion software" related to one specific game. Even the FigurePrints page itself says it just uses "snapshots" of the way characters appear online.
|
FigurePrints already has most (all?) of the 3D data it needs from Blizzard to recreate all the items/characters.
The "snapshots" are like City of Heroes' costume files.
Edit:
Ooh, this topic has been repeatedly mentioned since 2006.
Arcanaville at one point posted what the figures would probably look like:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
 |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I would assume the latter, but I'm honestly not sure. I'm actually less worried about my molecule-thin skirt, and still coming to grips with the fact that a surprising number of my characters are actually apparently walking around in little more than body paint, and not actual clothes.
There are some ramifications to 3d printing when your top is only airbrushed on. I wonder if there are any clothes that are just bump-mapped? |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I would try to continue to hypothetically pursue this project that I'm only theoretically working on, to try to resolve the hypothetical question of what barriers stand in the way of making this work all the way down to a hypothetical printed model, if I was working on this, which of course I'm not. And hypothetically speaking if I did do that I would hypothetically keep the devs in the loop on my highly inappropriate and unauthorized actions. That would hypothetically allow everyone to potentially benefit from this hypothetical activity, which I'm of course unable to actually do in reality.
Hypothetically speaking, if someone did figure out a way to make this work at least in theory, I wonder if under those hypothetical conditions Marketing would consider investing a small amount of hypothetical resources to create an avenue for hypothetical customers to purchase these hypothetical models, and if they would consider this a hypothetically valid use of marketing resources. It would be a shame if hypothetical customers willing to buy 3d printings of their characters were hypothetically forced to use hypothetically questionable means to accomplish that task. |
Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters
Quote:
Ah no. It's not that simple. Well simple if you are designing items using a 3D Cad system, standard output format and all, not so much converting a bunch of game geometry data and texture maps.
|
Originally Posted by Lothic
Well all I know is that 3D printing technology is getting better and cheaper all the time. It doesn't require "special MMO character conversion software" related to one specific game. Even the FigurePrints page itself says it just uses "snapshots" of the way characters appear online. It shouldn't ultimately matter which MMO has more players or not for something like this.
|
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Quote:
Well as you say people have be talking about this for a long time now. |
Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Two points.
FigurePrints already has most (all?) of the 3D data it needs from Blizzard to recreate all the items/characters. The "snapshots" are like City of Heroes' costume files. Edit: Ooh, this topic has been repeatedly mentioned since 2006. Arcanaville at one point posted what the figures would probably look like: She goes on to say in another post: And when she hedges what she is saying she does a good job at it: |
I never claimed that what they can do with generic 3D printing today is perfect. But I'm willing to make the reasonable educated guess that it won't really be too much longer before the technology will allow for good figures without the need for any proprietary game data. Again I'll just say that I was mostly reacting to Mr. Fries apparently shortsighted attitude on the matter.
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
Quote:
You do realize my post actually addressed this:|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Ah no. It's not that simple. Well simple if you are designing items using a 3D Cad system, standard output format and all, not so much converting a bunch of game geometry data and texture maps.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Lothic
Now I'll readily admit it might still be hard for people to submit standardized pics that a generic 3D printer can use. But that's not a problem related to supporting one game or another. If FigurePrints could overcome the hurdle of getting their customers to sumbit properly scaled artwork they could directly support making any type of figure for any game.
|
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
http://www.figureprints.com/wow/Default.aspx
um, how do we make this happen? I would totally and completely buy statues of my character in his various costumes -- especially at $30 a pop!