Counterfeiting ancient Chinese Armour using 3D-printing technology

摘要

3D-printing (3DP) technology has become widespread over the past few years and has been applied in a number of areas, including the industrial design of tools and moulds, fashion design, and film and television production. Manufacturing products using 3DP has advantages: it accelerates the design process and lowers production time and costs. However, despite the fact that the use of 3DP in creating props and appliances for films and television is well-known, few papers have effectively studied this phenomenon. To this end, in this paper we describe our own experience to recreate ancient Chinese armour using 3DP for movies and discuss how our methods may be applied to the broader field. We use a Chinese army combat uniform, as an example, presenting in-detail the steps to designing, manufacturing, and processing this costume. We then analyse the advantages and disadvantages of 3DP and specific printers. As the use of 3DP in complex design is an emerging topic, we hope that this research will provide designers with information about the use, benefits, and challenges of 3DP in the design process.