The Bobble Head Project:
I decided to document my process as I try to create a bobble head toy of my friend and co-worker, Nick. Recently I purchased a Replicator 3D printer and I wanted to put it to good use.
*I am not a professional writer/blogger, so I hope I can explain things clearly.
Here's a step by step of my process...
Step 1. Obtain a 3D scan of Nick's Head:
There are quite a few options for getting 3D scans of real world objects. A popular way is to use the Microsoft Kinect hardware and some nifty software called ReconstructMe. Unfortunately, I don't have a good enough video-card to support this method. There is a much less expensive method (free actually) using a digital camera and Autodesk's free software called 123D catch.
Using 123D Catch is pretty straightforward. You need to take a lot of photos of your subject from multiple angles. The 123Dcatch site has decent instructions and there are plenty of good youtube videos out there as well. This was my first attempt at using the software, and I think I could have taken much better images. But it was my first attempt so I went with what I had. I set up an account through the software and uploaded my images which took a while, but eventually it generated a fully textured 3d model of my subject. My image had some pretty serious gaps in the topology, but luckily it was more in the back of the head where accuracy is less important.
Screencap of the generated model. It calculates my camera's position based on the different angles of the subject and the background. Pretty cool!
Fly-around video of the textured model generated by 123D catch. Note the gaps under the chin and on the back of the head.
Stay Tuned for Step 2. Model clean-up!
