A 3D studio was established at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Brno University of Technology in 2007. It is the first 3D studio founded at an art college and only the second one in Europe which has FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) and 3D optical digitizing technologies at hand. Such methods can be applied in fine art to facilitate technological procedures and accelerate the implementation of more demanding projects. At present, the studio has includes an ATOS I 3D scanner with which physical models can be transferred into digital form and can be further processed by computer-aided methods. The virtualized models can be further refined and modified in a special program, after which they can be transferred back into real, physical models using a 3D printer.
The 3D printer works under the FDM method, the basis of which is melting and gradual applying of the material in very thin layers. The physical model is gradually created from the base and is formed vertically. Such a method enables the artist to create very complex structures. The printing of a 3D model can take even several hours and the length of the process depends of the complexity and size of the particular model. Non-toxic ABS material is used for the construction of the model. Models which would be otherwise absolutely non-realizable can be created only with 3D printers. Our studio is equipped with two such printers: a Dimension SST 768 and a ZPrinter 450.