From 3D Scan to Moai (think Easter Island)

Here is a combination of several projects in one.  I started with my recent experiments with 3D laser scanning, and the portable rig I built. (Based on a design from the David 3D scanner web site.)

For more detailed picture of the setup and assembly see my YouTube video.

I was inspired to take a scan of my face and morph it into a Moai after seeing some of the Moai Madness going on in the lab (over at Open3DP).

Here is the initial scan of my face:

Using AccuTrans 3D to re-orient and scale (stretch lengthwise) gives this result:

The important thing to note here is that I tilted the surface up (notice the axis in the lower left corner).  This was for two things.  First it minimized stretching the underside of my nose and second it gives the final Moai the right shape.

MeshLab was then used to clean the edges:

Then back to AccuTrans 3D to extrude:

Back to MeshLab to smooth (Laplacian Smooth, several times in different areas until it looked nice and even):

Finally some "mesh aging and chipping" in MeshLab:

Here is a 3D print of the final model:

Reality, Blender, Video Clip, MeshLab, 3D Printer, Reality Agian

I just want to give an example of the doors that begin to open as we explore what it means to have 3D objects.  A while back I took a image of a Boy Scout patch

 and did a rendering of it in Blender (Open Source 3D tools, http://www.blender.org/)

This was animated as a opening to a video I did for the event.

 I realized that I should be able to export the model from Blender clean it up some and print it.
Here is the result of exporting the model and opening it in MeshLab (a free mesh editor, http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/)

I then took the .stl file the the lab and printed it using the Z-Corp printer and now have a real object again.

 

It is very cool to be able to take something real make it virtual (in this instance manually, but I am presently playing with scanners...) and then make it real again.  It won't be long before we have 3D copy machines.  You will have a compartment you place an object in and another compartment where the copy comes out...