1/6 scale: How much of the design is digital?

This is something I have been curious for a while about. Do companies like Hot Toys or Three Zero use CAD files from Movie CG in any part of their modeling or mold making process? I am thinking about the Iron Man movies or Chappie, and the figures produced from them. I would imagine wireframe models with correct dimensions/proportions would be much easier to work with than making models from screengrabs.

I also wonder about figures like Grand Moff Tarkin and since his face was so heavily rendered in Rogue 1, could they have started with something digital as a basis of design?

Surely, once the mold goes to paint it is all analogue, but I am really curious about the process of creating these super detailed collectibles. Anybody have any insight?

I have no idea but it's something I'd be interested to know. My Hot Toys Chitauri figures are so spot-on to the CGI models that I'm 99% certain they had to have been created from CAD files for at least the base of the design. In fact the original HT prototype heavily resembled the CG model.

Original CG model on the left, HT proto on the right:



Of course I could be wrong.

I can only speak from personal experience, but I never had a licensor give us digital files to create a sculpt from.

I worked on a number of video game licenses, and while they may have given us turnarounds from their modeling software, they never just gave us files that we could print from. If it was that easy, why even have a licensee? They could just send the files to China themselves.