ZBrush to Brass Cast – Making Of

I want to share some details of my work in the field I am very passionate of. This is about turning ZBrush sculptures into real objects through the process of metal casting. Throughout the last few years, I made several commissioned work of this kind. However, my main desire is get original art that I make produced. Therefore, I decided to cast in brass one of designs that I created some time ago and recently updated. Brass alongside with bronze remains one of the most popular metals for sculptures. Metal casting of any sculpture is a complex and collaborative endeavor. Especially, if we act slightly outside the established way of sculpture production and add to it ZBrush and 3D printing. Fortunately, I already had established contacts with a local foundry that helped me with this project a lot.
There are several ways to 3D print and cast your designs, including castable wax resins. Thanks to previous projects, I already had experience and established way of turning ZBrush sculptures into metal pieces. The production path was the following:
1) I sculpted the desired design in ZBrush. In fact, expanded one of the already existed designs created with casting opportunity in mind.
2) I prepared the file for 3D printing and printed it using SLA printer that I had at home. The scale of the print was 9 x 5.5 x 11cm. The print was made in two parts.
3) Two parts of the print were used to create silicone molds that allowed the foundry to get wax models of the print.
4) The wax models went through the lost wax casting process and cleanup at the foundry.
5) The cleaned and finalized cast was covered with patina.
Finally, the thing is ready. The goal of mine is to create the entire series of original sculptures designed in ZBrush and cast in metal. A lot of preparation work is already done.
I am open for new projects and collabs. If you want to design and produce a real life object, DM me or write me an email: digitalsculpts@yandex.ru