Den of Geek:

I was wondering how new technologies have affected your work over the years. To what extent have new techniques like 3D sculpting and fused deposition modelling taken over from some aspects of traditional sculpting? Have you noticed a big shift?

Tom Woodruff Jr.:

I agree that it’s definitely moving in that direction, though no, I haven’t noticed a big shift. It’s like anything – the newness of it is completely intriguing, but the practicality of it has not matched the interest in it just yet. For us, there’s still something about getting hands on clay, in terms of sculpting. But I’ve seen beautiful things, absolutely beautiful sculptures in z-brush, and with the idea that yeah, you can take all of that data and you can have it output or you can have it cut or reproduced in some kind of a tangible form…

I know there have been some successful applications of that. I think a good portion of Iron Man was done that way. I think it’s great; it’s a great time-saving device, because our pre-production schedules are getting shorter and shorter. But I know that it comes at a great cost right now. For us it’s…I can’t say it’s not in our comfort zone, because we love the technology, but it’s just not within our experience yet to be able to make that kind of a jump, especially with some of the great sculptors we’ve had in here that have been able to turn out maquettes in just an afternoon or a day, and have that kind of flexibility in terms of the size and reproduction capabilities.

Entire interview here.