What can I use to cast a mold from stone without hurting the stone?

3d scanner to 3d printer image

disciple

I'm new to this, but does anyone know what medium I would use to make a mold from a stone. In other words, There is an old building with a beautiful design sculpted in to it. I want to copy this design. I know there is a material out there that I can press against the original design and make a mold of it and then cast the design in plaster. I just don't know what material I would use to do this without hurting the stone.... Help!!!

Answer
I think the sculpey or any clay will work. If you use normal clay, any residue left will dissolve in the next rain, just don't use brown clay on light stone... if you use water based clay you would have to cast your plaster into the mold while the clay is still wet.
As the clay won't be very stable just on its own, you should consider making a mother mold on top of that. That is a hard shell, which just gives support to the soft part of your mold so it doesn't deform. It depends on the size of what you want to copy if you need it. You could make the mothermold from plaster bandages, but don't put plaster directly on the stone.
Before you start, consider carefully the shape of what you want to copy and where undercuts are and where you have to put in parting lines. What technique you use for mold making really depends on the exact shape of what you want to copy. If the structure is something complicated, you may want to practice how to make molds from more simple structures first so you are aware what causes problems and get some experience in how to solve them.

Another completely contact free method is if you happen to be at a university where they have a 3D laser scanning camera you can borrow, you could use the 3D laser scanner then make a model of your structure in the computer from the scans. That you could print out using a 3D printer. that way you can scale the model to any size (though anything large will be expensive to print)

What specific items (equipment, software, etc.) will I need to start a graphic design business?

ammy2000

I know of a few general items like computer and scanner but what I'm really looking for are specifics such as:

* Recommended hardware brands and models,
* Details for computer (processor speed, RAM, etc.)
* Details for scanner (pixels x pixels)
* Will I need something like a PDA
* Recommended software
* Any thing I missed above

Answer
Graphic Design is a very wide major, it depends what you're good at , but you'll defiantly need:

Hardware: http://www.apple.com
Apple Macintosh is strongly recommended, because it's specially designed for Graphic Designers and it's PERFECT..
High resolution Scanner
High resolution Printer
PDA is not really important unless you want to be organized i can't live without it really, and i use it to show my customers some samples of logos, visit cards, and stuff.

Processor speed: G5 is the best specially for these days.
RAMs minimum you need 2GB
Screen at least 19 (depends on your products) if for TV production use 23

Softwares:
You MUST have adobe Photoshop.. you will need this software for anything.

For Logos, posters, envelopes, letterhead, personal cards..etc. you'll need:
-Adobe photoshop
-Adobe illustrator

For Web Design:
- Micromedia Flash (for Animated sites)
- Dream Weaver (for HTML sites)

For Visual Effects:
- After Effects (it's the best)

For Editing: (you can choose one of those):
- Avid
- Edius
- Final Cut Pro (recommended)

For 3D architecture:
- 3Ds Max

For TV 3D Characters Creation:
- Maya
- Soft Image XSI

For 2D Cartoons:
- Soft Image ToonBoom

If you need more Help, Please do not hesitate to Mail me..
I would be glad to help..

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