Modeler Needed: Human Skull Project

Hello, I am an artist living in NYC and like so many artists, I am fascinated by the human skull.

Long before Damian Hirst made his diamond encrusted skull, I made pilgrimages to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at the Holy-Grail of all skulls. The skull below was made in 17th century Germany and was carved from ivory. The softness and detail is extraordinary. More importantly, the surface is irregular. Its edges are imperfect, just as a real human skull would look after it is dug up from a grave. It is a masterpiece. It is anatomically perfect and it has an emotional gravity that is captivating. (Fortunately, ivory is banned but I also want to make a skull of my own, hence 3D printing.) Check it out here: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/ 120023910?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=Ivory+skull&img=1#fulls creen

A bit futher down in quality from the perfect ivory carving at the Met are the porcelain skulls by Nymphenburg. I love the hand painted flowers and insects on them but, more importantly, I love the negative space in the jawbone, namely, the slightly opened mouth and missing teeth. As much as I love the Nymphenburg skulls, they are way too expensive and are a bit too pretty for me. They don't have the psychological weight that the ivory skull from the Met has.

What I would love to do is create my own ceramic human skull using 3D printing. I would like the skull to be around 4" in height and around 6" at its deepest diameter. I would like it to be anatomically perfect inside and out. No detail left out. I wonder if it is possible through 3D printing to match or even exceed the perfection of the ivory skull at the Met but also whittle away at the 3D model to a perfect imperfection. Ceramic would give the skull a visual richness and a heft that plastic does not have. Also, if a few skulls could be made, I could paint my own insect world on them.

Finally, I have included a Human Skull Anatomy Chart. It is quite exhaustive. I am sure a real human skull can be used to make the initial 3D model but any model would have to be as exacting as this chart. I would love to create a 3D skull that is indistingishable from a real human skull, only in mininature. I hope to get some interest from all of you. Thank you!

P.S. Upon further investigation of this site it looks as if ceramic 3D printing is not detailed enough. I would have to use Frosted Ultra Detail Plastic. Doh!

Hi,
did you condider to have a look at Turbosquid?
http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?keyword=skull&amp ;x=-925&y=-23

maybe you could find a skull you like and you can contact the artist to turn the skull into an stl.. or you can ask someone here to do that for after..

regards
Guido

Hi Guido,
Thank you for the reply. I am a total newbie to 3D design and this is my first posting regarding it. What is a STL? It seems as if I would need the 3D design first and then I can create the ceramic skull with Shapeways. Is this correct? Also, I did check out the 3D models on TurboSquid. Very interesting but I didn't see any of them designed at the level of replicating a real human skull. They are a bit too simplified. Maybe I missed something so please let me know if you see anything closer to what I'm looking for. Thanks again!

maybe you are right.. don't know... try to filter the search with "best rated" at the top of the page .. there are a couple of skulls that seem pretty good to me. ..

in order to 3d printing a model you need a file that is readable by a 3d printer . these files can be .obj file format and .stl file format. More than this , these file must have some specific requirements to be 3d printed correctly. Most of the files you can find at Turbosquid are not stl type , many are obj file .. but in both cases you might need someone that can check for you that the obj is clean and ready to be 3d printed ; or that can convert the original 3d file (which can .ma .3ds .fbx... etc etc) into a stl file format or a obj file format.

hope this help

Guido

Thanks Guido,
Well, upon further looking, this is the best skull I've found. I can't understand why it costs $2499 though! It is a little too perfect and it doesn't have the irregularities that the ivory skull at the Met has. For instance, the edges around the nose cavity are too linear and symmetrical, not what you would find if you found a real human skull buried for hundreds of years. I wonder if someone could take this model and tweak it; open up the mouth a bit, take out a few teeth and make every surface undulation of a real skull more visible? I was wondering if there were a way to contact this modeler. Thank you too for your help with the file formats. I want to do this project so badly but this is not a project for a beginner like me.

Upon further investigation, it looks too as if the Frosted Detail Plastic is better than ceramics. The Frosted Ultra Detail plastic looks especially promising. I could paint it too. Too bad the ceramic material can't replicate ultra-fine details.

Also, which file format does Shapeways use?

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/morelli-russi-skull-3d-o bj/580522

hello perfectist !
i can do it !
i'm a 3d modeler for over 15 years and have done many modelling for shapeways members .
i can model almost anything similarly based on references provided .
you may view my works at my website :

http://www.its-ming.com/servicegallery.html
http://www.its-ming.com/2000/html2000/portfolio2005/main.htm l

if interested, please email to my personal email add as i don't check this site mail often
email : ming@its-ming.com

thanks
ming

One thing you might want to consider is the material you will be using for the skull and the design rules because since you want it to be detailed and anatomically correct, at 4" in ceramic and hollow that might not give you the level of detail you want.

Wall thickness, or in this case skull thickness on an anatomically correct skull might be too thin at that size using ceramic.

PM sent.

So far, I have not found anyone to do this project. It looks as if the 3D model would be about $800, give or take. The problem with this is that I could pay for it and not get a 3D rendering that I would be happy with. For instance, a skull is imperfect. The eye socket on the left side of a real skull is not an exact mirror of the eye socket on the right. The entire skull is filled with irregularities and there is no guarantee that a modeler would pay that much attention to these imperfections. Even so, if the modeler did a perfect job, it would cost between $1,000 and $2,000 to have this modeled with the best ceramic technology. There still is no guarantee that the final product won't be crude. For this amount of money I could probably hire an artist to sculpt a human skull out of bone and do a better job. I was hoping I could find someone to do this project but so far, it has not happened. Anyone want to have a crack at it?

In 2013, is the technology still not here to compete with an 18th century hand carving?

Looks like you need a designer who specializes in anatomical modeling.

You might also see if you can get the raw data from a CAT scan.

A cat scan or if someone has a real human skull to map it out.

Yeah, that too. This way itll be more personal because its you. Hmm... I wonder if I can get information from an MRI I got recently since I have the CD.