We think it will. And so do some of the participants discussing the idea at CGSociety.org, the Society of Digital Artists. A recent forum post by RobertoOrtiz, Forum Leader, asks:

I been wondering lately if the advent of cheap 3d scanners and advanced tools to handle scanned 3d data will allow for a renaissance of the old fashioned Model/Creature shop.

Of course if sculpting/ model building makes a comeback thanks to new 3d methods, it would be REALLY ironic, since ease of cg was the root cause for their original demise.

DIscussion ensued, and two points of view emerged:

I would rather stick my hands in a nice cool chunk of earthware anyday of the week than fool with "intersecting faces" and "keeping the topology clean".

It is much faster to alter a concept pic design in zbrush than in a real sculpture.So it is better for sculpting work even if you are working off someone else's drawing.

So it seems to us that one of the barriers to a 3D future is the ease of use of software. When large portions of users must resort to "cool chunks of earthware", there's clearly something wrong with our software.

Via CGSociety.org