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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dcarr, post: 2513861, member: 4781&quot;]All art is inspired by (is a copy of) something that came before it.</p><p>By your logic, because technology is used, photography (for example) can&#039;t be an art form. But it is. The tools do not really matter.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve covered this topic several times on various forums. It is not a secret.</p><p>After obtaining a degree in Mechanical Engineering, I spent many years working in the software industry. I spent a couple years writing my own sculpting program because there was nothing available that would do what I wanted. I use that program for all the dies that I produce.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are three different ways that I produce a digital &quot;sculpt&quot; for a die:</p><p><br /></p><p>1) I do a pencil sketch on paper, refine it, and then scan it into a digital image. I import that image into my sculpting program, converting image brightness into surface height. The result is a flat surface with small ridges where the pencil lines were. Using the sculpting techniques built into my program, the sculpture is filled out using techniques akin to hammering, scraping, and pushing digital &quot;clay&quot; around. This is not automatic. It still has to be done by hand, using the mouse and various tools to define the surface. The same skills needed to sculpt in plaster or clay are need to do free-form sculpting digitally. This is similar to what the US Mint and other modern world mints do today.</p><p><br /></p><p>2) I take a photograph using my camera and convert it to black &amp; white. I import that image into my sculpting program, converting image brightness into surface height. The result has the grayscale levels in the image transformed into surface height (darker = lower, brighter = higher). Significant additional sculpting is usually required to arrive at a suitable sculpt for a coin or medal. Text, rims, and other elements are then sculpted in as well.</p><p><br /></p><p>3) Using an optical probe, I can &quot;digitize&quot; an existing surface, such as a coin or medal. This requires some pretty expensive and hard-to-use equipment. I also had to write significant additional software specifically for this, since there was nothing available off-the-shelf that could do what I wanted. Once that digitization is complete, I can refine the sculpt in my program. Refinements typically include sculpting in a different date and/or other elements.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once the digital sculpt is ready, my program outputs millions of coordinate points to my CNC milling/engraving machine to guide the cutting bit to engrave a die.</p><p><br /></p><p>If this was easy, a lot more people would be doing it. But it isn&#039;t. And they aren&#039;t.</p><p>It took a LOT to get to the point where I am now. The amount of work was enormous. But now that I have everything in place, I can produce better dies much faster than anyone else.</p><p><br /></p><p>What have you accomplished, other than being envious of others&#039; skills and success ?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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