Examine the scans of Adam's Y-Wing molds here: www.lumafield.com/article/recovering-star-wars-history-with-adam-savage Check out Lumafield's scan of the month exploring 3D printing here: www.scanofthemonth.com/scans/3d-printing
@@Daniel-Strain Because the mold needs to be a single piece for dimensional stability. The two halves support each other. A better solution is to fill the mold with a contrast agent. This is already done in some industries. I've seen iodine infused gelatin suggested. You could also dust the inside with a high-density powder to increase contrast. Or paint on a powder infused soft-wax.
Thanks for letting us scan these molds, Adam! What a cool piece of Star Wars history. It's amazing how much the prototyping and development process has changed since the early 2000s with the spread of 3D printing.
Why not use a contrast agent? You could dust the inside with powdered high-density metal. Or make a paste with it using something water soluble (gelatin?). Or, as others have commented, used gelatin with another x-ray blocking additive like iodine that can then be washed out.
I've said it before, and I will happily say it again and again and again. The world needs an Adam Savage museum or showcase. Adam is just so filled to the brim with knowledge that needs to be taught and experienced by any upcoming generations.
@@TvTink Just seems like low quality troll bait. But you really believe that Adam doesn't possess any skills or knowledge that could be interesting to pass onto other people? Sound very close-minded...
@@TeddyBerry I would say there’s a plethora of people out there with Adam’s knowledge and many that know much of it better. The main thing though is that Adam is both willing to share and very effective at communicating it. I’m just this video for example the Lumafield rep is much more knowledgeable about the processes he used but Adam is really good at asking the right questions and translating it into something more understandable. In a sense this channel though is exactly what you’re asking for and as long as these videos exist there is an incredible archive of the things Adam knows and is learning.
Watching two professionals in different fields collaborate like this really gets me hyped. I'm certain that the pair of them forgot about the camera after the first couple of questions to each other. You big nerds. I freaking love you all.
@@tested Not at all. Thank you for continually raising the bar on yourselves and this kind of content. You're a continual service to not only entertainment, but makers around the world. Thanks to everyone at Tested for being such a huge inspiration. 💚
Holy shit, after looking up the exact toy, this was my Star Wars toy growing up. I loved the pull out engine and droid. I can’t believe it was sculpted by Adam, who was also one of my favorite personalities growing up.
I've worked with molds of dinosaur bones in a museum of which the originals weren't accessible anymore. But the molds were old and very brittle. This is such a clever way to apply CT scanning and reuse the molds!
I used to make those! I worked as a moldmaker and wax-prepper for a year. After the place closed down there was a charity sale and I got my hands on some museum grade stuff. Replicas of ancient egyptian and japanese art as well as a pterodactyl fossil replica. They were so good that it even fools experts.
This kind of video is exactly why I love Tested. The combination of technique & historical process education, paired with the modern tech of CT scanning and 3D printing, is beautifully eye opening to how humans learn/design/build and share information.
So, I used to do this (the CT work). It's tremendously cool, and here's some further technical explanation for anyone who wants it: If you notice, he puts the mold inside the uCT at an angle. The reason for this is that rather than a medical CT (which uses a fan-beam and scans a 2D stack), micro-CT's use a cone-beam(CBCT). When you use a cone beam, the X-rays actually have to travel through marginally more air the farther away from the center of the cone you are, which can introduce geometric artifact in cylindrical or symmetric samples because the image processing algorithm does not know the path the x-rays took to the detector panel, only that they arrived with a certain energy. To avoid this, you tilt those samples so that there aren't "invisible" regions that the X-rays have to travel through.
as an action fleet collector myself, it's amazing to see this unreleased piece being archived in such a detailed way! especially one sculpted by yourself!
Savage conserving his "this sucks" feeling for the replica is obvious.ä and shows what a fine person he is and how new tech has a way to go still to catch up.
I love how this isn't as much of an interview as it is a conversation. Both these men revere the other for their skills, and they each ask questions, comment, explain processes and thought processes, and are actively interested and both learning from the other. They have skill sets that are complimentary, but divergent, and it's beautiful for me to watch these two opposing minds bridge the gaps for one another.
I have this toy - it was so cool to discover WHO was making these things, years later. I always wondered, as a kid, about how the details were studied, how accurate they were to the ships in the movies, etc.
So cool! As a former kit-bashing modelmaker of Star Wars vehicles for my own mini-movies, I love Adam's insights and enthusiasm as a modelmaker. Thank you Adam for revealing more tricks of the trade!
And you can do the reverse-most 3D print slicers have a mold function that will invert the model being printed, and then after some finishing work you can cast the object in whatever you'd like. Or, you can print the model itself and make a ceramic mold of that, melt away the plastic, and then cast in metal. 3D printing really has revolutionized the maker space, far more than just being able to recreate knick-knacks in PLA.
At about 7:46 you're talking about the densities of the silicone, and now I'm really curious what a fresh casting would look like, and how it would differ from this casting... devoid the various passage of time and entropy.
the fact that he keeps a Mythbusters sign on the wall makes me happy to have been around for those days! and this model making process has changed so much over the past 2 decades that its hard to believe that it went from custom silicon molds to 3D printing so fast
I had a Galoob Y-Wing when I was younger. It was probably my favorite toy growing up, and it was lost during a move from one house to another. It's awesome to know you had a hand in making it.
This was a fantastic video, so well explained and I loved the rapport between Adam and Jon was so engaging and full of infectious enthusiasm! Not long ago I had to bring an old mould out of retirement and sacrifice it for one last casting, definitely gave me pause
Adam you need to get studios to take the molds and have them scanned. I would love to see foam latex items that have been lost to time and remade with scans from the old molds.
I still haven't finished the video but I wanted to exclaim how cool this is! Thank you for sharing - I haven't learned to 3D model, and only just started to teach myself casting with some help from a friend in AU who worked on Ep 2 and 3.... this is so cool to see. The wrap around pour is genius!
I find myself looking at my model kit molds, thinking about how they go about creating the gates, yet filling everything, and how it has to seperate into 2+ pieces. It's always interesting to see the compromises that have to be made after thinking about how things are made. Especially with model kits where certain molds are designed to be reusued by multiple SKUs. Gunpla!
Didn't expect a physics lesson today. Always grateful when the Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements enters the chat! The resolution and the subtlety of the scans was amazing! I would have liked to hear more about why the scanned images have different colors and aren't monochrome.
Fab Video, on my current project i’ve actually gone back to hand sculpting/ texturing the sculpt, moulding & resin casting, after relying on 3d printing for past 4yrs or so, i got to the point of where i got fed up on waiting of people 3d modelling, time for prints to arrive, just to find they wouldn’t work or were broken or wrong etc i’ve really enjoyed the little parts i’m working on, using the old methods. right now.
Thank you for that video! I'm an old- school mold maker, too and seeing your molds for the Y Wing is great! I used a straight blade when I cut the silicone, making V shapes. I always wanted to build for movies.
NPR had a new spot today called Weekly Dose of Wonder, saying that experiencing wonder is good for mental health. I saw that wonder in Adam as he was explained how 3d scanning and printing are used in the dental industry.
It's awesome to see Adam discovering something that I work with in my lab! Micro CT is such an amazing technology for both basic science and engineering.
I'm just realizing that friends and family of Adam Savage could potentially, on a birthday or at Christmas, receive a one of a kind Star Wars toy or replica that's film quality and really special. I don't know if he's ever done that or not but it's cool to just think about!
That was amazing. For the record the Y-Wing is one of my favourite Star Wars ships and I have one of your Galoob Y-Wings, proudly on my shelf. Thanks Adam!
Thanks. I always liked the Star Wars Galoob Action Fleet line for the scale/detail/features and sturdiness. After seeing this video, I appreciate them more.
This is just incredible and I really hope that we see this tech used ASAP in preservation efforts. We as a society are far to casual about loosing things that play such a huge part of our culture and this could really make quite an impact in the preservation field.
That was really cool! One question though Adam, Since you still have an Original casting from that mold, that has not been taken apart from its sprue, could you not use that as a "New master" to make a new mold from?
This was such an interesting conversation. Adam should definitely pursue this and have Jon back... two great communicators and thinkers just checking out scans of cool stuff... I'd watch
I was a TSA baggage scanner way back in 2002. Even then we had CT scanners (at least at the SLC airport). Top-down 2D Xrays were used at the checkpoints for carry-on, but larger baggage went through the CT scanner before it went into the belly of the aircraft.
I had to look up esoteric!... and I agree as a machinist approaching 40 years of experience in automation and injection molding fields, I feel esoteric. This "esoteric" methodology would be a great one day build. nothing to detailed so as to be timely but starting from a block of raw material, including the shrinkage issues and parting line determinations, materials used and sources for. etc... and if you have already done so, please point me to that video I agree with the guy below, Adam Savage with his generosities of methodologies, deserves a museum of sorts. Ya think UA-cam videos are museumish of sorts??
I recall the first time I played with silicone RTV and resin for replicating model parts, which was 1994-95. Indeed the molds did have a bit of a use life and shelf life. Now some might ask why not just scan the resin part and not the mold. As I understand it, there is about a 1 to 2% shrinkage rate of the casted part versus the original. So scanning the mold instead of a casting from it would preserve as close to full size as possible. As far as dentistry goes, two crowns in my mouth were created thanks to 3D topographic scans of the teeth capped, both before the grinding and after. That ensured a perfect fit of the temporary crown while the permanent one was being made. Not cheap, but cool to see and do. Thanks Adam!
wow! just imagine how many "lost forever, we just can't make any more casts from this" molds of... well, all kinds of things.... that could be restored if this became quite widely known.
There's a bit of effort involved in orthodontic aligners between the impression to the 3d print of your next set of teeth, in that they have to take the CT scanned point cloud, identify individual teeth, and separate them out of the entire model so that each individual tooth can move to it's final destination, sometimes over a few hundred steps.
Some of the most difficult things in making a complicated object to make a mould out of is how to allow allow the air inside to move out as the resin moves in and not create bubbles. I made a studio scale y-wing decades ago, but would be very hesitant to even try to cast mould of it. I wish I had the time and space to scratch build.
Is there any way we can have the STLs? Or will Adam use them as masters for new molds? I am MAD for Y wings and having an Adam Savage one would be the pinnacle I could reach tbh (I could never get a studio one lol)😊
Just FWIW, since it's not really necessary at this point for these molds.... but I find my old, fragile molds can still cast well with a generous coating of Mann EaseRealease 205. It's not super greasy and doesn't affect the finish much at all, but molds release parts so much better with it. I've used that with some of my ancient molds that, if I flexed them enough, would literally shear in half... and gotten several nice parts out of them. And actually I use it on my fresh molds as well. Great stuff! I mean, for those of us without a friend with an industrial CT scanner ;)
Very interesting. I just saw my doctors office had one of these small CT scanners. According to them, the shots that they need to take would take about 30 seconds. It was amazing and seeing this is really impressive.
My first thought on body noise is, certainly you can't make a model from the silicone but you could just pop them open and scan the halves. The only difficulty then is matching the two scans together. Jumps the scanning through the material problem, and maybe works with it for more detail?
You could also use a "contrast agent" like you would in a medical scan. If you dusted the inside of the mold with a high-density powder it would be MUCH easier to scan.
I wonder if the flexibility of the mold would be an issue, given how floppy the halves are on their own. Could be why they kept the halves together and kept it wrapped in foam core
You can definitely see the genesis between the prototype that Adam made to the final Action Fleet (Pretty sure it'd be action fleet, scale is right, and that canopy is pretty much the final look of it) It's just a bit more bulky on the final model because they had to cut out sections for play, such as the R4 unit, screw holes, cockpit, the pop out engine section and the landing gear.
I can see that with artists who were part of the original field of model making for the industry, like Adam Savage, that as they age and then pass away, the art will go from an esoteric art to an fully extinct, but because of how simple it really is it could actually be revived by anyone who wants to do it in the old way. But honestly, apart from the originals made by these artists like Adam Savage, will always be precious because of what it represents and who the men were who made them, and the skill they had, but ultimately the 3D printing way is the next evolutionary step in that field, so it is better because then the artistry goes not from the mind to the hands but from the mind to the computer that replaces the hands in a more precise and efficient way. So for all of us people out there who want to move with the field and stay current with the next evolution of the model making field, needs to become skilled with using the CAD programs that allow a person to create a model in it's entirety, from scratch, without having to go out and buy all kinds of kits from the models stores so they can use the little greeblies from the kits to create their model. This most definitely makes the industry a lot more efficient, less expensive and less time consuming. Because an artist who has any kind of free time can create a database of all kinds of extra models from his own imagination and keep them in escrow for when he might need them for future model building jobs. I have recently take the first steps to move into this field but have not yet mastered any CAD program to be able to create my own models yet, but I have bought several artist's work for 3D printing so I can print and build them to satisfy that need to create things with my hands! Thanks so much for showing this to us Adam. I am so happy that you are documenting all of your work because eventually we all must go the way of all the earth and pass from this world to the next and I think that as you document all of your work from the past you are, in essence, ensuring that your art does not die with you, like so many artist have done before. the one thing that will ensure your art remains alive is you passing on your knowledge, skills and excitement/drive to keep this knowledge of yours alive well past your life span. You have inspired me so much and it makes me happy to no end to know that you are doing this to so many others as well. your passion is part of your artistic skill and it is evident in everything you do on your Channel. None of this will be lost! I wish more of the men you worked with would do the same. I wish that men like George Lucas would also do this to keep the passion alive and to show to subsequent generations how it is accomplished and how it can be done for those who want to take up the torch and carry on the work you and so many others began in the 1970's!
This is so cool. I've made these molds before from a hand modeled master and yes they are really only good for so many casts. That being said even the master modeled object pending on it's material is only good to make so many molds from it. I now also have moved to 3d modeling and have both a FDM and Resin printer at home. This is a fantastic way to revive old model molds if you no longer have a master anymore. And on the flip side we have the lidar to make a model of masters. Once in the computer you can clean things up and modify. I love it!!!
As someone who very recently made 3D prints of STLs he extracted from his own abdominal CT scan, I'm laughing my ass off that that's the method which was used to scan the molds. 😂 With all the available methods of 3D scanning I never would've guessed, but it's such an obvious choice!
As a Cat scan tech... I wonder what the voxel fidelity is.... This is stuff I do everyday. but with the human body... this so fun.... btw think of these 3d scans like a stack of transparent paper... the photo is printed on each sheet x and Y. then those sheets are stacked to form the z axis or height.
Every vid featuring those scanners is amazing, very interesting to see :) I did some mold making back 20 or so years ago, then putting a model into silicone, now im experimenting with doing the "reverse" using 3d printing. I have the model i want to get out and designing the two mold halves with half the model sticking out of each, pouring gates, vents, keys and an outline/mold box integrated, hoping i can just pouring silicone into those in order to get finished mold halves that in theory should line up. Im hoping it works because if it does ill have cut down some of the messy, fiddly and time consuming part of the mold making process a bit Doing it in 3d, printing, pouring in silicone, wating a bit and it should be ready for mold release and casting, in pewter for this experiment.
Duuuude I got the Y wing and my brother got the snow speeder one christmas growing up. This Y wing is super recognizable! Also this method of object scanning is crazy detailed & awesome
This is a great for me as both someone who does quite a bit of (SFX) work with silicone and moulds. But also in the early noughts as a software engineer worked for Dutch company that makes MRI/CT viewer software and stations, where I developed a few algorithms to enhance (denoise be stacking)certain areas to spot tiny blood clots or beginning growths. This is also why I transitioned rather simply into vfx because I have a background in computer graphics. But frankly there’s no substitute for hand crafting imo.
Looking at this makes me think that this is where they got the idea for the Cantwell class Arrestor cruiser, in Andor. It had been designed for Solo, but the "radar dishes" totally remind me of the flashing on this model.
For medical imaging, patients are often given a drink or an IV of something that will pool diferentially in the part of thhe body being CT scanned, something called a contrast dye. I wonder if there is something similar that could be used for scanning silicone like this..
(16:48) I think Adam is talking about Viceroy Nute Gunray and his aide Rune Haako's shuttle. It's maybe the Sheathipede-class? I don't know. Anyway, just thought I'd save someone else some time figuring this one out. I'd SO love to hang out with Adam and geek out someday. 😎🤘☮️
Examine the scans of Adam's Y-Wing molds here: www.lumafield.com/article/recovering-star-wars-history-with-adam-savage
Check out Lumafield's scan of the month exploring 3D printing here: www.scanofthemonth.com/scans/3d-printing
Too combat the density issue, why not scan an opened mold?
@@Daniel-Strain Because the mold needs to be a single piece for dimensional stability. The two halves support each other.
A better solution is to fill the mold with a contrast agent.
This is already done in some industries. I've seen iodine infused gelatin suggested.
You could also dust the inside with a high-density powder to increase contrast. Or paint on a powder infused soft-wax.
if i fit yes indeed.
Adam have you ever seen the videos from ec Henry. Trying to recreate old star wars back ground ships?
I’m watching how he whorls the program without a mouse!!
Thanks for letting us scan these molds, Adam! What a cool piece of Star Wars history. It's amazing how much the prototyping and development process has changed since the early 2000s with the spread of 3D printing.
There would be a nice list of moulds people would love to scan again
So cool you guys are doing vids together. We're loving this stuff.
This was really really interesting to watch! thanks to both Lumafield and Tested for putting this together. Great partnership
Why not use a contrast agent?
You could dust the inside with powdered high-density metal. Or make a paste with it using something water soluble (gelatin?).
Or, as others have commented, used gelatin with another x-ray blocking additive like iodine that can then be washed out.
So amazing! 3D scanning is slowly taking its place into violin making and restauration. This would also make another interresting topic.
I've said it before, and I will happily say it again and again and again. The world needs an Adam Savage museum or showcase. Adam is just so filled to the brim with knowledge that needs to be taught and experienced by any upcoming generations.
It's just his personality that's interesting
@@TvTink Just seems like low quality troll bait. But you really believe that Adam doesn't possess any skills or knowledge that could be interesting to pass onto other people? Sound very close-minded...
@@TeddyBerry I would say there’s a plethora of people out there with Adam’s knowledge and many that know much of it better.
The main thing though is that Adam is both willing to share and very effective at communicating it.
I’m just this video for example the Lumafield rep is much more knowledgeable about the processes he used but Adam is really good at asking the right questions and translating it into something more understandable.
In a sense this channel though is exactly what you’re asking for and as long as these videos exist there is an incredible archive of the things Adam knows and is learning.
@@TeddyBerry yet you haven't named any
@@TeddyBerry and someone disagreeing with you doesn't automatically make them a troll
Watching two professionals in different fields collaborate like this really gets me hyped. I'm certain that the pair of them forgot about the camera after the first couple of questions to each other.
You big nerds. I freaking love you all.
Thank you for this comment. We really appreciate your taking the time!
@@tested Not at all. Thank you for continually raising the bar on yourselves and this kind of content.
You're a continual service to not only entertainment, but makers around the world. Thanks to everyone at Tested for being such a huge inspiration. 💚
Holy shit, after looking up the exact toy, this was my Star Wars toy growing up. I loved the pull out engine and droid. I can’t believe it was sculpted by Adam, who was also one of my favorite personalities growing up.
Can you share the model number or info? I would absolutely love to own one of these, knowing exactly who made it
I've worked with molds of dinosaur bones in a museum of which the originals weren't accessible anymore. But the molds were old and very brittle. This is such a clever way to apply CT scanning and reuse the molds!
Thanks! We'd love to try scanning a dinosaur bone.
@@lumafield Ammonite/nautilus fossils with all the chambers inside would be pretty cool. Probably a lot easier to get a hold of.
I used to make those! I worked as a moldmaker and wax-prepper for a year. After the place closed down there was a charity sale and I got my hands on some museum grade stuff. Replicas of ancient egyptian and japanese art as well as a pterodactyl fossil replica. They were so good that it even fools experts.
All I remember was the smell 😅
@@lumafield I love that y'all are just some nerds in a lab, playing with cool tech :D
Jon is a great communicator not only of his own craft, but also asking interesting questions of Adam too. Such an enjoyable video - many thanks!
You're very kind; we'll pass along your comment!
I love how they are both educating each other in their respective fields. This was a cool look into history :)
This kind of video is exactly why I love Tested. The combination of technique & historical process education, paired with the modern tech of CT scanning and 3D printing, is beautifully eye opening to how humans learn/design/build and share information.
So, I used to do this (the CT work). It's tremendously cool, and here's some further technical explanation for anyone who wants it:
If you notice, he puts the mold inside the uCT at an angle. The reason for this is that rather than a medical CT (which uses a fan-beam and scans a 2D stack), micro-CT's use a cone-beam(CBCT). When you use a cone beam, the X-rays actually have to travel through marginally more air the farther away from the center of the cone you are, which can introduce geometric artifact in cylindrical or symmetric samples because the image processing algorithm does not know the path the x-rays took to the detector panel, only that they arrived with a certain energy. To avoid this, you tilt those samples so that there aren't "invisible" regions that the X-rays have to travel through.
as an action fleet collector myself, it's amazing to see this unreleased piece being archived in such a detailed way! especially one sculpted by yourself!
That's wild. The Action Fleet Y-wing is to this day one of my favorite star wars toys. Thanks, Adam!
I'm a Paleontologist, and we use this same technology to image fossils (or parts of fossils) that we can't safely extract from the surrounding rock!
This video made a left turn about 5 minutes in and I would have never expected it. So cool!
Savage conserving his "this sucks" feeling for the replica is obvious.ä and shows what a fine person he is and how new tech has a way to go still to catch up.
I love how this isn't as much of an interview as it is a conversation. Both these men revere the other for their skills, and they each ask questions, comment, explain processes and thought processes, and are actively interested and both learning from the other. They have skill sets that are complimentary, but divergent, and it's beautiful for me to watch these two opposing minds bridge the gaps for one another.
I have this toy - it was so cool to discover WHO was making these things, years later. I always wondered, as a kid, about how the details were studied, how accurate they were to the ships in the movies, etc.
Do you have a link to a photo of it? I can't seem to find it on Google.
So cool! As a former kit-bashing modelmaker of Star Wars vehicles for my own mini-movies, I love Adam's insights and enthusiasm as a modelmaker. Thank you Adam for revealing more tricks of the trade!
Sounds like Adam just gave them an Absorbent amount of new work!!! GJ ADAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s so enjoyable watching two knowledgeable people learning from each other. This is the way.
It's always fun to learn from Adam!
Wow. The ability to make new positives off of a scan of an otherwise-too-old original mold. Incredible.
This is just superb. They can essentially print the empty space in the centre of a mould. 🤯
And you can do the reverse-most 3D print slicers have a mold function that will invert the model being printed, and then after some finishing work you can cast the object in whatever you'd like. Or, you can print the model itself and make a ceramic mold of that, melt away the plastic, and then cast in metal. 3D printing really has revolutionized the maker space, far more than just being able to recreate knick-knacks in PLA.
At about 7:46 you're talking about the densities of the silicone, and now I'm really curious what a fresh casting would look like, and how it would differ from this casting... devoid the various passage of time and entropy.
the fact that he keeps a Mythbusters sign on the wall makes me happy to have been around for those days! and this model making process has changed so much over the past 2 decades that its hard to believe that it went from custom silicon molds to 3D printing so fast
I had a Galoob Y-Wing when I was younger. It was probably my favorite toy growing up, and it was lost during a move from one house to another.
It's awesome to know you had a hand in making it.
This was a fantastic video, so well explained and I loved the rapport between Adam and Jon was so engaging and full of infectious enthusiasm! Not long ago I had to bring an old mould out of retirement and sacrifice it for one last casting, definitely gave me pause
Adam you need to get studios to take the molds and have them scanned. I would love to see foam latex items that have been lost to time and remade with scans from the old molds.
I had this Y-wing when I was a kid and it was one of my favourite toys. I still have it for my daughter when she's a bit older.
I had that Galoob Y-Wing when I was a kid! I always loved looking at all the greebles and details on it. Had no idea Adam was a part of that toy!
I still haven't finished the video but I wanted to exclaim how cool this is! Thank you for sharing - I haven't learned to 3D model, and only just started to teach myself casting with some help from a friend in AU who worked on Ep 2 and 3.... this is so cool to see. The wrap around pour is genius!
seeing two professionals in their fields talking shop is a marvelous thing.
Adam is so humble. He downplays how brilliant he is not to intimidate. ❤
I find myself looking at my model kit molds, thinking about how they go about creating the gates, yet filling everything, and how it has to seperate into 2+ pieces. It's always interesting to see the compromises that have to be made after thinking about how things are made. Especially with model kits where certain molds are designed to be reusued by multiple SKUs. Gunpla!
Didn't expect a physics lesson today. Always grateful when the Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements enters the chat!
The resolution and the subtlety of the scans was amazing! I would have liked to hear more about why the scanned images have different colors and aren't monochrome.
Fab Video, on my current project i’ve actually gone back to hand sculpting/ texturing the sculpt, moulding & resin casting, after relying on 3d printing for past 4yrs or so, i got to the point of where i got fed up on waiting of people 3d modelling, time for prints to arrive, just to find they wouldn’t work or were broken or wrong etc i’ve really enjoyed the little parts i’m working on, using the old methods. right now.
Thank you for that video! I'm an old- school mold maker, too and seeing your molds for the Y Wing is great! I used a straight blade when I cut the silicone, making V shapes. I always wanted to build for movies.
This is absolutely insane, I'm blown away by this technology.
Great show and tell interview, and I love that the guest asked really interesting questions to Adam too.
NPR had a new spot today called Weekly Dose of Wonder, saying that experiencing wonder is good for mental health. I saw that wonder in Adam as he was explained how 3d scanning and printing are used in the dental industry.
It's awesome to see Adam discovering something that I work with in my lab! Micro CT is such an amazing technology for both basic science and engineering.
I could listen to these two talk for hours
Love checking this stuff out. The Y-wing is my favorite Star Wars ship so getting to see this was really neat.
I'm just realizing that friends and family of Adam Savage could potentially, on a birthday or at Christmas, receive a one of a kind Star Wars toy or replica that's film quality and really special. I don't know if he's ever done that or not but it's cool to just think about!
REALLY interesting topic and I love to hear you talking about it spontaneously with someone.
That was amazing. For the record the Y-Wing is one of my favourite Star Wars ships and I have one of your Galoob Y-Wings, proudly on my shelf. Thanks Adam!
They didn't use his prototypes
Thanks. I always liked the Star Wars Galoob Action Fleet line for the scale/detail/features and sturdiness. After seeing this video, I appreciate them more.
This is just incredible and I really hope that we see this tech used ASAP in preservation efforts. We as a society are far to casual about loosing things that play such a huge part of our culture and this could really make quite an impact in the preservation field.
This was awesome to see. Especially because the Y-Wing is my favorite ship from Star Wars
This is exciting as it takes preservation to a whole new level!
I love how Jon seems just as excited as Adam
Fascinating to see the inside of the the mold when it's closed up
It’s kind of tripping me out that Adam Savage made the Y-Wing I’ve had since I was a kid. I love it.
That was really cool!
One question though Adam, Since you still have an Original casting from that mold, that has not been taken apart from its sprue, could you not use that as a "New master" to make a new mold from?
I second this
I kept thinking this the whole way, just recast it 🤷♂️
It's always a joy to se Adam get excited over technology or art.
This was such an interesting conversation. Adam should definitely pursue this and have Jon back... two great communicators and thinkers just checking out scans of cool stuff... I'd watch
"scanned from the void" magic.
these Lumafield videos are always great.
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying them.
I owned one of these as a kid! Wild to think that something I used to play with came from something that came out of this very mold!
You missed the bit where he explained his moulds were never produced
I was a TSA baggage scanner way back in 2002. Even then we had CT scanners (at least at the SLC airport). Top-down 2D Xrays were used at the checkpoints for carry-on, but larger baggage went through the CT scanner before it went into the belly of the aircraft.
I had to look up esoteric!... and I agree as a machinist approaching 40 years of experience in automation and injection molding fields, I feel esoteric. This "esoteric" methodology would be a great one day build. nothing to detailed so as to be timely but starting from a block of raw material, including the shrinkage issues and parting line determinations, materials used and sources for. etc... and if you have already done so, please point me to that video
I agree with the guy below, Adam Savage with his generosities of methodologies, deserves a museum of sorts. Ya think UA-cam videos are museumish of sorts??
I recall the first time I played with silicone RTV and resin for replicating model parts, which was 1994-95. Indeed the molds did have a bit of a use life and shelf life.
Now some might ask why not just scan the resin part and not the mold. As I understand it, there is about a 1 to 2% shrinkage rate of the casted part versus the original. So scanning the mold instead of a casting from it would preserve as close to full size as possible.
As far as dentistry goes, two crowns in my mouth were created thanks to 3D topographic scans of the teeth capped, both before the grinding and after. That ensured a perfect fit of the temporary crown while the permanent one was being made. Not cheap, but cool to see and do.
Thanks Adam!
wow! just imagine how many "lost forever, we just can't make any more casts from this" molds of... well, all kinds of things.... that could be restored if this became quite widely known.
So cool. I love seeing how tech is changing the world.
Loving these collaborations with Lumafield!
Thank you! We’re having a whole lot of fun with them!
Wow, Jon is so well spoken and knowledgeable. Great video, incredibly engaging
There's a bit of effort involved in orthodontic aligners between the impression to the 3d print of your next set of teeth, in that they have to take the CT scanned point cloud, identify individual teeth, and separate them out of the entire model so that each individual tooth can move to it's final destination, sometimes over a few hundred steps.
That’s way to cool. Think of Al those molds from so many props and models that could be brought back to life if you had access to them
WOW Adam I print 3D so lots of fun here in my workshop in Stoke on Trent but that method of scanning then converting to STL is fabtastic
So many possibilities with this tech! And the opportunities to hybridize old model-making with new tech could be interesting, too.
Some of the most difficult things in making a complicated object to make a mould out of is how to allow allow the air inside to move out as the resin moves in and not create bubbles. I made a studio scale y-wing decades ago, but would be very hesitant to even try to cast mould of it. I wish I had the time and space to scratch build.
Is there any way we can have the STLs? Or will Adam use them as masters for new molds? I am MAD for Y wings and having an Adam Savage one would be the pinnacle I could reach tbh (I could never get a studio one lol)😊
The copyright will be with Galoob!
Just FWIW, since it's not really necessary at this point for these molds.... but I find my old, fragile molds can still cast well with a generous coating of Mann EaseRealease 205. It's not super greasy and doesn't affect the finish much at all, but molds release parts so much better with it. I've used that with some of my ancient molds that, if I flexed them enough, would literally shear in half... and gotten several nice parts out of them. And actually I use it on my fresh molds as well. Great stuff! I mean, for those of us without a friend with an industrial CT scanner ;)
Very interesting. I just saw my doctors office had one of these small CT scanners. According to them, the shots that they need to take would take about 30 seconds. It was amazing and seeing this is really impressive.
My first thought on body noise is, certainly you can't make a model from the silicone but you could just pop them open and scan the halves. The only difficulty then is matching the two scans together. Jumps the scanning through the material problem, and maybe works with it for more detail?
You're right--that would probably be the best way to get a high-quality model; we wanted to challenge ourselves this time!
You could also use a "contrast agent" like you would in a medical scan.
If you dusted the inside of the mold with a high-density powder it would be MUCH easier to scan.
I wonder if the flexibility of the mold would be an issue, given how floppy the halves are on their own. Could be why they kept the halves together and kept it wrapped in foam core
Loved this episode. Excellent explanations of what happened, and love to see your models. Now I want to 3D print your Y wing.
You can definitely see the genesis between the prototype that Adam made to the final Action Fleet (Pretty sure it'd be action fleet, scale is right, and that canopy is pretty much the final look of it) It's just a bit more bulky on the final model because they had to cut out sections for play, such as the R4 unit, screw holes, cockpit, the pop out engine section and the landing gear.
Ah the action fleet Y wing. I loved this toy as a kid! Thanks for making it
I can see that with artists who were part of the original field of model making for the industry, like Adam Savage, that as they age and then pass away, the art will go from an esoteric art to an fully extinct, but because of how simple it really is it could actually be revived by anyone who wants to do it in the old way. But honestly, apart from the originals made by these artists like Adam Savage, will always be precious because of what it represents and who the men were who made them, and the skill they had, but ultimately the 3D printing way is the next evolutionary step in that field, so it is better because then the artistry goes not from the mind to the hands but from the mind to the computer that replaces the hands in a more precise and efficient way. So for all of us people out there who want to move with the field and stay current with the next evolution of the model making field, needs to become skilled with using the CAD programs that allow a person to create a model in it's entirety, from scratch, without having to go out and buy all kinds of kits from the models stores so they can use the little greeblies from the kits to create their model. This most definitely makes the industry a lot more efficient, less expensive and less time consuming. Because an artist who has any kind of free time can create a database of all kinds of extra models from his own imagination and keep them in escrow for when he might need them for future model building jobs. I have recently take the first steps to move into this field but have not yet mastered any CAD program to be able to create my own models yet, but I have bought several artist's work for 3D printing so I can print and build them to satisfy that need to create things with my hands! Thanks so much for showing this to us Adam. I am so happy that you are documenting all of your work because eventually we all must go the way of all the earth and pass from this world to the next and I think that as you document all of your work from the past you are, in essence, ensuring that your art does not die with you, like so many artist have done before. the one thing that will ensure your art remains alive is you passing on your knowledge, skills and excitement/drive to keep this knowledge of yours alive well past your life span. You have inspired me so much and it makes me happy to no end to know that you are doing this to so many others as well. your passion is part of your artistic skill and it is evident in everything you do on your Channel. None of this will be lost! I wish more of the men you worked with would do the same. I wish that men like George Lucas would also do this to keep the passion alive and to show to subsequent generations how it is accomplished and how it can be done for those who want to take up the torch and carry on the work you and so many others began in the 1970's!
This is so cool. I've made these molds before from a hand modeled master and yes they are really only good for so many casts. That being said even the master modeled object pending on it's material is only good to make so many molds from it. I now also have moved to 3d modeling and have both a FDM and Resin printer at home. This is a fantastic way to revive old model molds if you no longer have a master anymore. And on the flip side we have the lidar to make a model of masters. Once in the computer you can clean things up and modify. I love it!!!
Helsinki (finland) already uses the CT lugage scanners, and Canada will in a few years. they are so cool!
It would be so cool if they preserved molds from movies and other things this way and then shared the files online for purchase!
4:00 -ish Modern mold release sprays aren't good enough to overcome slight stickiness of old silicone molds?
As someone who very recently made 3D prints of STLs he extracted from his own abdominal CT scan, I'm laughing my ass off that that's the method which was used to scan the molds. 😂 With all the available methods of 3D scanning I never would've guessed, but it's such an obvious choice!
My mind is boggled. Way too much fun.
As a Cat scan tech... I wonder what the voxel fidelity is.... This is stuff I do everyday. but with the human body... this so fun.... btw think of these 3d scans like a stack of transparent paper... the photo is printed on each sheet x and Y. then those sheets are stacked to form the z axis or height.
For molds that separate into two halves, you could try scanning the internal surface with a high-resolution 3d scanner like one of Creality's.
Wow, I love learning about things like this.
Every vid featuring those scanners is amazing, very interesting to see :)
I did some mold making back 20 or so years ago, then putting a model into silicone, now im experimenting with doing the "reverse" using 3d printing.
I have the model i want to get out and designing the two mold halves with half the model sticking out of each, pouring gates, vents, keys and an outline/mold box integrated, hoping i can just pouring silicone into those in order to get finished mold halves that in theory should line up.
Im hoping it works because if it does ill have cut down some of the messy, fiddly and time consuming part of the mold making process a bit
Doing it in 3d, printing, pouring in silicone, wating a bit and it should be ready for mold release and casting, in pewter for this experiment.
Duuuude I got the Y wing and my brother got the snow speeder one christmas growing up. This Y wing is super recognizable!
Also this method of object scanning is crazy detailed & awesome
Wondering if you would get better result by scanning the mold or scanning the "master" that came out of the mold?
This was absolutely fascinating!
Excellent job ❤
This is a great for me as both someone who does quite a bit of (SFX) work with silicone and moulds. But also in the early noughts as a software engineer worked for Dutch company that makes MRI/CT viewer software and stations, where I developed a few algorithms to enhance (denoise be stacking)certain areas to spot tiny blood clots or beginning growths.
This is also why I transitioned rather simply into vfx because I have a background in computer graphics. But frankly there’s no substitute for hand crafting imo.
Looking at this makes me think that this is where they got the idea for the Cantwell class Arrestor cruiser, in Andor. It had been designed for Solo, but the "radar dishes" totally remind me of the flashing on this model.
This is so cool! I actually owned the Action Fleet Y-wing that was based on that mold as a kid.
The action fleet models weren't true scale like Adams shown here. He says his prototypes were never used and this y wing here was just for him
That shock of white hair looks great on you, Adam! Somehow distinguished and comical at the same time. Love it
For medical imaging, patients are often given a drink or an IV of something that will pool diferentially in the part of thhe body being CT scanned, something called a contrast dye. I wonder if there is something similar that could be used for scanning silicone like this..
Found this very entertaining and enjoyable to watch
That added noise I feel like could also be used as a feature. Thinking about having an older and corroded/pitted fighter in a diorama for example.
(16:48) I think Adam is talking about Viceroy Nute Gunray and his aide Rune Haako's shuttle. It's maybe the Sheathipede-class? I don't know. Anyway, just thought I'd save someone else some time figuring this one out. I'd SO love to hang out with Adam and geek out someday. 😎🤘☮️