One of the reasons I wanted to get a 3D printer was so that I could print busts of people I knew. I’ve done a little experimenting, and so far so good. Here are a few samples of the first two I worked with.
I had one of the guys at my office spin around in a chair to capture the mesh on the left. A scan took less than two minutes and the results were pretty decent. (I’m using a makeshift 3D scanner made from an ASUS Xtion Pro Live motion capture camera.) I ran the meshes through NetFabb and a few other pieces of software for cutting and processing to wind up with that smooth looking model in the middle. I then printed it with my Vision 3D printers, painted with some Bronze paint, and the results were pretty sweet.
Scanning children is an entirely different issue. I tried scanning my daughter Zelda, but frequent movements made this process difficult. (I really need a better and faster scanning solution.) I grabbed my mesh (left), smoothed it through several pieces of software and got a printable model. (The model lost some detail for sure during the process, and didn’t have much to begin with.) I’ve printed this model several times, and after some printer adjustments, I noticed that one of them printed much taller than the others I’ve tried. It was later that I found out that I added a piece of code that set the steps per mm of the extruder based on the wrong size threaded rod. So, everything I printed was taller and funky at times. I made quick work of the tall model though, with the mouse ears on the last photo. Ha!
