People assume it needs a scanner. It does not. Here is what actually happens between the photo you send and the figure that arrives — including the parts that go wrong.
1 · The photo
Everything starts with two or three photographs. Not a scan, not an appointment, not a studio — which is the reason a figure made this way can still be a surprise for the person it depicts.
What works: a sharp phone photo in daylight, face clearly visible, taken from roughly chest height. What does not work: a group shot from five metres away, heavy backlight, or a face half hidden behind sunglasses. There is a separate guide on what makes a good reference photo.
2 · The model
The figure is modelled by hand in 3D from your reference. Face, posture, clothing. This is where most of the time goes — not in the printing. Fabric is the hardest part: folds do not exist in a photograph the way they exist in reality, so they have to be inferred and then sculpted.
3 · The preview
Before anything touches the printer you get a rotatable 3D preview in your browser. Turn it around, look at it from every side, take your time. Three rounds of changes are included — the pose, the expression, a detail on the clothing.
This step is also why a personalised figure does not need a right of withdrawal: you have already seen exactly what you are getting.
4 · Printing
SLA resin at 0.025 mm layer height. Anything above 30 cm is printed in several parts and joined afterwards, with the seam sanded and filled so it disappears under paint.
5 · The hand work
Supports removed, surface sanded, primed, then painted. A full figure takes around sixteen hours at the bench. This is the part that cannot be automated and the reason the price is what it is.
6 · What can go wrong
Honestly: likenesses of children are harder than adults, because small faces carry their character in very fine proportions. Glasses reflect. Very dark hair against a dark background loses its silhouette. None of these are dealbreakers — they just mean more revision rounds, which is exactly what the three included rounds are for.
