If a fully automated painting machine exsisted would you use it?

[Gridlock]

(Not sure if this is the right place to put it, so i am counting on the moderators to put it in the right place)
This is a hypothetical question

Let’s say some time in the near future some painting company comes out with a machine capable of painting a miniature on Crystal Brush level.
All you would have to do is put the miniature inside the machine, select what colors you want to go where on the miniature and the machine does the rest.
Half an hour later at the most the miniature is finished and the machine will be ready for the next one.

My question is would you use such a machine or would you prefer to paint your miniatures with your brushes and airbrushes, even though it will take much longer to finish then if you had used the machine?

[Charon]

Depends.
Half an hour per Model menas that those 10 Bloodletters would take 5 hours to complete. I get good results in less time. Add in the amout of time it would take to exactly tell the machine what color mix you want to put where you wont save a lot of time anyways and you still have to know where to highlight, where to shade, which color to use, where to blend... so basically... you would need as much skill as you would painting it anyways.

[Morgrim]

I'd use it for the broad areas and basecoating and do the rest myself. Detailing and freehand are the fun bits; putting down 3 thin layers of teal to get a nice smooth base is not.

[Wolfshade]

I would, it would get me on top of my grey hordes!
I wish I enjoyed painting, but I am not good at it. I think that the issue is that because I don't like it I don't do it often so don't get the practice needed to get my levels up nor invest in the materials I would need instead trying to make do with what old paints and brushes I have. I guess that falls into a vicious circle as those poor materials give me a poor finish which discourages me so I don't do it for a while/

tl;dr Yes!

[YorkNecromancer]

No. I honestly don't get why people don't like painting and I never will.

Of course, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with not liking painting; you hate it, great. But painting for me is like, 35% of the fun of the hobby. (Converting is 55% and what's left over is for theoryhammer/gaming.)

[Cactus]

I'd use it on my "throw away" armies that I'm not sentimentally attached to.

My Khorne daemonkin? Sure.
My Praetorian IG? Nope, I'm taking care of those myself.

I'd much prefer someone invent a paint stripping machine.

[Charon]

There is a whole lot of people who hate painting. I would even argue that there are a lot more people who hate it or just do it because they feel they have to than people who really enjoy it. Especially if their paintjob looks ****ty in the end and they feel they wasted hours for a mini that now looks worse than the unpainted plastic was.
I see a lot of people with grey or only basecoated armies. Passionate painters are just a tiny fraction I guess.
On the other hand everyone enjoys playing with a well painted army.

[odinsgrandson]

Well... I feel like this is more complex than it sounds.

Creating something artistic using a machine still requires artistic input. Often, when technology improves, people start talking about how "there's no need for talent or skill anymore, you just have the machine do it."

The truth is, now that we have digital sculpting and 3d printing, people still need capable sculptors- and there's still a pretty big gap between people who are new, and the best in the industry. Styles are still prominent (you can tell a Bobby Jackson mini from a Julie Guthrie mini).

So, I think I would use it- but it would just be another way for Me to paint the miniatures.

[Wolfshade]

Presumably you would be able to get it paint in different styles, so say I loved how you paint, I don't know say the LoD then I could make it ape it, or you could licence your scheme?

[Thornblood]

I love painting. But still...

SIGN ME UP FOR PAINT MACHINE!!!!

What I love about painting are the characters. Unique things. Not repetitive rank and file. I would paint the sergeant/nob/leader type and work out the squads markings/theme from there. Then the machine paints the other 9-29 rank and file. Happiness!

Also, is there was an intuitive program where I could choose in real detail how each model is painted that would be great. If I can scan in my own artwork that I may have painted big and then have its shrunk down to be put on models, even better.

big unique tanks? I'll go for base coating with the machine and then I do details myself.

[odinsgrandson]

Presumably you would be able to get it paint in different styles, so say I loved how you paint, I don't know say the LoD then I could make it ape it, or you could licence your scheme?

Well, that's the thing.

If a machine has a button on it that says "make the shirt green" then it will do a shirt that's green and call it good. If you want to have green with blue shadows and slightly orange highlights, there might be settings for that as well. And if you want a hint of purple or magenta to break things up, that'll need to be a setting change as well. And how much contrast do you need?

Also, there's lighting to consider. Maybe you want top down light in yellow, or maybe you'd like a blue light at a 45 degree angle from one side, with an orange light coming from the other side.

And we haven't even started on changing the texture and contrast between the different areas (skin, fabric, metal, concrete etc).

These are all decisions that you'd need to make if you were going to use this machine, and those kind of choices are a large part of what separates out the Crystal Brush winners from other great paintjobs.

So- even with a terrific machine, an artist is still needed.

I'd use a machine like this, and still make artistic decisions (maybe even corrections after the fact).

Now, if we go with the magical machine that makes choices for you, I don't think I'd like it, but I also wouldn't be confident in its results.