Metal 3D printing is growing exponentially due to the benefits that it brings to not only 3D printing businesses, but hobbyists and consumers as well. But have you ever stopped to think about how it works?  While it may be a seemingly complex process to wrap your head around, the 3D printing video below shows that, in practice, it’s actually pretty straightforward.

With technological advances, 3D printing is becoming increasingly affordable. One of the most common types of 3D printing is Stereolithography, also known as SLA 3D printing. Although the name sounds complicated, the process itself can be explained quite simply. Here is a 3D printing video made by Formlabs (an SLA 3D printer manufacturer) that helps explain:

Watch the video below to learn more about the benefits of the Twinstant Mobile full body 3D scanning solution for 3D printed figurines, 3D portraits, 3D selfies, AR and VR.

The Consumer Electronics Show is the world's largest technology show each year and this year we joined forces with Kodak year to bring a full body 3D scanner to the show to 3D scan people for 3D printed figurines.  We received a spectacular response at the event as you can see in the pictures and case study below.

When people put together their business plans for setting up a 3D portrait business they will usually decide to either locate in a studio, setup in a mall, or take their full body 3D scanner to events. In this post we are going to focus on setting up in a mall and what you can do to give yourself the highest chance of success.

Hybrid 3D scanning systems work by combining photogrammetry and structured light methods. This is the technology that Twindom uses on it's full body 3D scanners used to make 3D portraits.

In order to keep a 3D printed figurine looking like brand new it's important to keep it in an environment where it won't be damaged. 3D printed figurines are meant for display purposes only. While it is fine to pass them around at gatherings occasionally, they really should stay on a shelf, your fireplace mantle, or in a glass display case (bell jars work very well). When you're deciding where to display them you will want to avoid:

One of the most popular types of events for people in the 3D printed figurine industry are comic conventions. If you're trying to decide what your first event should be, comic conventions can be a great place to start because of the large crowds they can draw. Ideally you want to target comic cons that have over +5,000 people and take place of over 1-2 days. In this post we will go over what a sample comic con could look like in terms of number of people 3D scanned and revenue for you as 3D printed figurine business owner.

Starting a 3D figurine business can be really difficult especially when most customers have never heard of the concept. You will want to make sure you have a full body 3D scanner that produces good quality 3D portraits, have a reliable way to handle 3D printing fulfillment of the 3D figurines and a well though out business strategy. You can find more information about the first two in other sections of this blog. After surveying many different 3D portrait businesses, here is what they ranked as most important things to focus on: