About Spore™ Sculptures
Spore, the incredible new game from EA’s Maxis studio and gaming luminary, Will Wright, allows players to create creatures, tribes and ultimately interplanetary civilizations. The Spore universe is amazingly rich and gives players an enormous range of creativity tools to make creatures, vehicles, buildings, UFOs and many other things, in 3D. With ZPrints technology, all this creativity can now jump from the virtual Spore world, to your physical world. Your creature becomes a Spore Sculpture. Not mass produced, individually created from your avatar.
How it’s Done
3D printing, which creates a physical object from a 3D digital image the same way an office printer creates documents from electronic text.
How it Works
- From within the game, the player creates their own customized creature.
- From the spore.com or sporesculptor.com web sites, the player clicks on a ZPrint button.
- The player uploads their creature file.
- The player provides shipping information and payment.
- The Spore Sculpture ships to the player’s home.
- Friends, family and local zoologists marvel at the creativity.
The Technology
When the player orders a Spore Sculpture, they upload an electronic file that is converted into a file that can be 3D printed. The file is printed on one of the printers in a large fleet of Z Corporation 3D printers, where it is transformed into the physical world. Then the Spore Sculpture is shipped to the player.
The Nitty Gritty Technology
Z Corporation 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, mixing color as it does. Next, a build piston drops down, making room for the next layer, and the process is repeated. After printing, the Spore Sculpture is cleaned off, given a quick dip in a resin bath, packaged and shipped.
Pricing
Approximately $49.50 USD. Sculpture size will vary according to the size of the creature.
The Players
- Electronic Arts/Spore, Amanda Taggart, PR Manager, +1 510 428 4698, ataggart@ea.com
- Z Corporation, Julie Reece, Director of Marketing Communications, +1 781 852 5058, jreece@zcorp.com