3d sculpting...?

Hey, I just joined here... so I had some questions... I am a sculptor/illustrator and i do not know much about 3d modeling... I am trying to learn Z brush, though thats slow process...

My question was is there a way of scanning in an actual sculpture, making it a 3d model then making copies of the model?

I've been wanting to make copies of my sculptures for awhile and didn't know where to go.. a friend of mine showed me this place, though I don't know if Shapeways can do all that... if not.. Does anyone know of a laser scanner type place to scan in my sculpture to make it a solid 3d model?

thanks alot,
Jason

Well in that case there are a few things you can do.

There are 3D scanners. At the moment the two most interesting ones seem to be the Z Scanner

https://www.zcorp.com/Products/3D-Scanners/spage.aspx

and NextEngine's 3D Scanner
https://www.nextengine.com/indexSecure.htm

These are currently rather expensive though. The NextEngine scanner costs $2400 for example and the Zcorp one is ten times more expensive.

I personally do not know of anyone that is offering this as a service. The best thing you could do in my opinion is either to take some serious time and get stuck in 3D modeling yourself or to hire someone to do the modeling for you.

You could for example try see if someone in the Shapeways community would want to work for you.

Joris

If you're patient enough you can try the "david laser scanner"

It's just a printout and (partially free) software.
to give it a try there's no need to pay anything.

All you have to have is a linelaser and a webcam.

If you practice a bit you'll receive some nice results.

see:
http://www.david-laserscanner.com/

'sid

Awesome! I'd never heard of that one

Roland makes some nice laser scanners, which aren't too expensive. I get excellent results with my LPX-600. I could scan your small to mid-sized sculptures if you could send them to me; it would cost about $100 per object, and you'd get STL files suitable for rapid prototyping. Or I could sell you a scanner and you could do it yourself...

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

@awerby
you've got mail

ooh excellent .. thank you for all this awesome information!!!

Ooh... i was wondering.. does anyone know how much detail a scanner can pick up in a sculpt? i tend to do more detailed sculptures.. though i may tone it down for a scan for prototyping...

here are some samples of what i do..

"zombie Balls"



and this Fat Creep




so i dunno .. i would liek to get prototypes of this kind of stuff.. hope something like the scanner would work

thanks!

Scanners cost a lot of money to use and or get time with. Your best met is to learn zbrush if you really want to pump things out. Which you can find tons of help on over the internet or through tutorial DVDS it a very intuitive software.

Or it seems that you are pretty familiar with the sculpting process. You could just got to your local art store and buy the supplies to make your own molds. Or send off your sculpts to a company that could change them into printable mediums.

By the way cool work.

Yeah, but if you really want to do 3D scanning Sid's comment about the David 3D scanner was probably right-on. If you have more time than money it seems like that's the way to go. I've been checking out their forum over the past few days. Some of the users are getting astounding results, easily comparable to handheld scanners that rely on inertial trackers and cost thousands of dollars.

Thanks to Andrew for scanning my sculpure! (see image for render)

I'm no render expert, but the bronze effect was created by overlaying two sculptures one yellow one green (it was an accident, but I like the effect a lot)

Within this thread somebody asked about a 3D scanning service bureau.

Direct Dimensions (www.directdimensions.com) is one of the oldest and largest 3D scanning services bureau. Founded in 1995 specifically for 3D scanning, digital modeling, and reverse engineering, we have performed 1000's of projects both large and small across all industries.

Our website contains an extensive graphical portfolio of projects, information about the technologies, products, softwares, methods, etc. It also has downloadable models in a variety of formats and many 3D models in a 3D interactive visualization format.

Much like Shapeways is making RP accessible to the mass consumer market, Direct Dimensions, through its soon to be released new brand, will be making 3D scanning widely available at affordable prices to the mass market. We have perfected the methods and services for 3D scanning - give us a try. And email info@dirdim.com for any information.

www.directdimensions.com
rapid solutions to 3D problems...

Sounds good,

How does it work?

How much would it cost and what would the costs depend on?