How Rock Band Bandmates are Born
Rock Band lets you live out your musical fantasies on the video game screen or online. If immortality is your destiny, you can click on a button to transform your digital alter ego, or “avatar,” into a real-world figurine – a Rock Band “Bandmate.”
How it’s Done
3D printing, which creates a physical object from a 3D digital image much as an office printer creates documents from electronic text.
How it Works
- From within the game, the player creates their own customized avatar.
- The player visits rockband.com and selects their Bandmate and their desired pose.
- The player provides shipping information and payment.
- The model arrives at the player’s home.
- Friends, family and groupies swoon. Rivals quake.
The Technology
When the player orders a Bandmate, an electronic file is transmitted to a whole new kind of factory. Instead of making thousands of the same thing, this factory uses 3D printers from Z Corporation, Burlington, Mass., USA to make thousands of completely unique things, like Bandmates. The file goes to a fleet of Z Corporation 3D printers, where it is transformed into the custom figurine, packaged and shipped to the player. Player rocks on. Click here to see a video on how Bandmates are made.
The Nitty Gritty Technology
Z Corp. 3D printers use a powder-binder technology to create parts directly from digital data. First, the 3D Printer spreads a thin layer of powder. Second, an ink-jet print head prints a binder in the cross-section of the part being created. Next, a build piston drops down, making room for the next layer, and the process is repeated. See the video: http://www.zcorp.com/documents/114_450Video.wvx.
Size
Five to six inches tall.
Pricing
$69
The Players
- Harmonix, Tracie Snitker, Reverb Communications, tracie@reverbinc.com, +1 209 586 1495, ext. 104
- MTV Networks, Communications, jeff.castaneda@mtvstaff.com, +1 212 846 6774
- Z Corporation, Julie Reece, director of marketing communications, jreece@zcorp.com, +1 781 852 5058