3D scan and print of President Obama

Smithsonian Displays 3D Portrait of President Obama

The first presidential portraits created from 3-D scan data are now on display in the Smithsonian Castle. The portraits of President Barack Obama were created based on data collected by a Smithsonian-led team of 3-D digital imaging specialists and include a digital and 3-D printed bust and life mask. A new video released today by the White House details the behind-the-scenes process of scanning, creating and printing the historic portraits. The portraits will be on view in the Commons gallery of the Castle starting today, Dec. 2, through Dec. 31. The portraits were previously displayed at the White House Maker Faire June 18.

3D Print of President Obama

The Smithsonian-led team scanned the President earlier this year using two distinct 3-D documentation processes. Experts from the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies used their Light Stage face scanner to document the President’s face from ear to ear in high resolution. Next, a Smithsonian team used handheld 3-D scanners and traditional single-lens reflex cameras to record peripheral 3-D data to create an accurate bust.

The data captured was post-processed by 3-D graphics experts at the software company Autodesk to create final high-resolution models. The life mask and bust were then printed using 3D Systems’ Selective Laser Sintering printers.

The data and the printed models are part of the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The Portrait Gallery’s collection has multiple images of every U.S. president, and these portraits will support the current and future collection of works the museum has to represent Obama.

The life-mask scan of Obama joins only three other presidential life masks in the Portrait Gallery’s collection: one of George Washington created by Jean-Antoine Houdon and two of Abraham Lincoln created by Leonard Wells Volk (1860) and Clark Mills (1865). The Washington and Lincoln life masks were created using traditional plaster-casting methods. The Lincoln life masks are currently available to explore and download on the Smithsonian’s X 3D website.

The video below shows an Artec Eva being used to capture a 3D portrait of President Barack Obama along with Mobile Light Stage – in essence, eight high-end DSLRs and 50 light sources mounted in a futuristic-looking quarter-circle of aluminum scaffolding. During a facial scan, the cameras capture 10 photographs each under different lighting conditions for a total of 80 photographs. All of this happened in a single second. Afterwards, sophisticated algorithms processed this data into high-resolution 3D models. The Light Stage captured the President’s facial features from ear to ear, similar to the 1860 Lincoln life mask.

About Smithsonian X 3D

The Smithsonian publicly launched its 3-D scanning and imaging program Smithsonian X 3D in 2013 to make museum collections and scientific specimens more widely available for use and study. The Smithsonian X 3D Collection features objects from the Smithsonian that highlight different applications of 3-D capture and printing, as well as digital delivery methods for 3-D data in research, education and conservation. Objects include the Wright Flyer, a model of the remnants of supernova Cassiopeia A, a fossil whale and a sixth-century Buddha statue. The public can explore all these objects online through a free custom-built, plug-in browser and download the data for their own use in modeling programs or to print using a 3-D printer.

Autodesk-Meshmixer-Launch-2

Make a 3D Printed Kit with Meshmixer 2.7

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Meshmixer 2.7 was released today full of new tools for 3D printing. Here I use the new version of the app to create a 3D printed kit of parts that can be printed in one job and assembled together pin connectors.

To do this I used several of the new features to make this a fast and painless process. I dug up a 123D Catch capture I took of a bronze sculpture of John Muir. I found it in my dentists office, it turns out my dentist sculpted it. I thought I’d make my own take on it by slicing it up and connecting it back together so it can be interactive, swiveling the pieces around the pin connectors.

I made use of the new pin connectors solid parts that are included in the release (in the miscellaneous bin). I also used the powerful Layout/Packing tool to layout parts on the print bed as a kit of parts to print in one print job. Also, the addition of the Orthographic view is incredibly helpful when creating the kit and laying it out within the print volume of my Replicator 2X. An instructable is in progress with a how-to for a 3D printed kit such as this.

 

This new release has some other nice updates. Check em out below:

– New Layout/Packing Tool under Analysis for 3D print bed layout

– New Deviation Tool for visualizing max distance between two objects (ie original & reduced version)

– New Clearance Tool for visualizing min distance between two objects (ie to verify tolerances)

– Under Analysis menu, requires selection of two objects)

– Reduce Tool now supports reducing to triangle count, (approximate) maximum deviation

– Support Generation improvements

– Better DLP/SLA preset

– Can now draw horizontal bars in support generator

– Ctrl-click now deletes all support segments above click point

– Shift-ctrl-click to only delete clicked segment

– Solid Part dropping now has built-in option to boolean add/subtract

– Can set operation-type preference during Convert To Solid Part

– Can set option to preserve physical dimensions during Convert To Solid Part

– New Snapping options in Measure tool

– Can now turn on Print Bed rendering in Modeling view (under View menu)

– Must enter Print View to change/configure printer

– Improved support for low-end graphics cards

For your kit of parts, try out the new pin connectors included in the Misc. parts library. One is a negative (boolean subtract it when dropping the part). The other you can drop on the print bed for printing by itself. It fits into the negative hole. You can also author your own parts and they will drop at a fixed scale (so they fit!).

Let us know what kind of kits you create…maybe we can add in your connectors in a future release. (There’s a free 3d print and t-shirt involved). Let us know at meshmixer@autodesk.com.

Have fun!!