Hi djdna,
I’ve never used one, and they’re certainly not cheap, but yeah, you can get a 3D scanner (several different types infact I believe) which will turn a real sculpt into a 3D Mesh for you to then work with digitally.
Likewise you can get 3D printers so you can turn a 3D mesh into a ‘real’ model, but again these aren’t cheap.
wow thats great 
what about hiring one?? is that possible aswell, ie: pay a smaller fee to scan something you have made in, then take the digital model home on a DVD-r or something??
because obviously i dont really want to spend £1000s on a machine for doing that if i can help it hehe
I know there are a few sites where you can send meshes off to have them turned into models, so there are probably a few places where you can do the opposite too, I’m afraid I’ve never looked into it, if you do find some places though, post them here, it would be cool to know where did it if I ever needed to.
ive found a few sites that offer quotes on 3D scans etc, however they look expensive and require details before giving any pricing info… so i wont be lookign further into it for now…
this is all ive found in terms of 3D scanner rental tho…
says $400 for 2 weeks here, but thats a good price imo!!
if i was to organised a load of models and scan them all in 2 weeks it would be well worth it
i think i need to improve my modelling skills first tho, for editing/polishing’s sake tho as i still dont know if i will be able to get my head round things more complexed than zbrush (ie: maya & 3dsmax etc) though i seriously hope i will 
Check out this site for 3d scanning. They do a great job and are reasonable in cost. (I’ve worked with them before.) They also just got a super high rez 3d printer! Super cool.
I also highly recommend super sculpey for conceptual sculpting seeing how it is uber forgiving, maleable, bakes well, and even looks cool.
If your looking for something more of in the way of just a quick sculpt that you dont care about too much then oil based clay is the way to go, so a roma plastalina.
buy coil wire both thick and thin, so you can have proportional joints/limbs and have the thin wire to help tie the big pieces together, and always have aluminum foil to fatten up the mass areas.
not sure if this has been posted, but check all of the tutorials from Peter Konig on conceptart.org, he’s the man to copy with sculpey
Hey, is there a way to extract all my faces into separate objects? Or do I have to go in, one face at a time and extract them, one by one? Im using Maya 2009 btw.
Thanks guys.
Wrong forum topic, this topic is for analog sculpting, like clay, sculpey, etc. Try the Maya forum for Maya-specific questions, you’re more likely to get a useful answer there.
OH! lol wooops! haha sorry bout that…how do i extract faces on my clay sculptures??? 
jk. I actually figured it out, thanks so much.
I highly recommend you go here: John Brown is the leading sculptor for dvd’s on sculpture.
http://www.figuresandfocus.com/
and here: for garage kits and sculptors all kinds of advie on materails etc.
that’s how I learned how to sculpt my maquettes.
Gnomon has a new dvd showing how the Shifflet Brothers do their work as well. They work in Scuply Firm
www.paperpilot.com If you wish to see my sculpts. No spam intended
what’s up go to pixologic and view their Zbrush learn videos section, and sculpt like the real thing, I guess you have to buy a DVD tutorial or join digitaltutors dot com.
Well learning the tool is a great part of it but what really matters is your understanding of form and that I can testify only comes from a great deal of observation and I’d say most importantly drawing. I believe that most of the things that any online place will teach you about a tool can easily be learned with the documentation provided.
Hello Hookflash,
You like to sculpt model through clay then don’t bother for this. you can take help of YouTube to learn clay modeling. There are many video and blogs which can help you to learn clay modeling.
Best of luck Dear !!!
As a college student, would it be better to look into taking classes at school or to take the youtube/other video route?