Printing

I recently had a 3d print made, but I didn't realize I was viewing my model at a 0 degree perspective. When it printed it looked quite a bit different than I was expecting. Is there anyway to change the model easily to print out so it looks like the 0 degree appearance?

Do you have images to compare?

Yes, I'll send a picture to you.

I want the print to look like the mask on the left, but it loads and printed looking like the one on the right. What can be done?

Probably depends on what software you use - normally I would expect any program to store the object coordinates without any perspective distortion applied to them (your 0 degrees FOW, or "orthographic projection"). Somehow yours seems to export with any visual distortions from the current screen view applied to the actual object coordinates - I'd hazard a guess that there is an option somewhere to switch this off. Which software, which file format ?

I thing there is no difference. The FOW is not Part of the model. So it do not effect for the Printing Process.
But remeber you Eye has a FOW (perspective view). So you never see a real object like the Orthographic view (0 degrees). This is only a technical view, used for technical/engineering drawing or blueprints. In reality you never get this kind off view.
All thy view models are only models, which *try* to catch the reality, even the FOW models.

Yeah, it shouldn't matter. I can't think of any software that would do this. What software are you using?

Here is a photo of a print I got. As you can see, it looks like the mask on the right. I had someone finish this out for me, so I don't know what software was used. I can find out though. The file itself is an .obj.

Is that ceramic? It could be something else then. You should measure the print and compare to the model to be sure.

Yeah, what I think Stannum is getting at is, if it was printed in ceramic they might have propped up the green print so that it could be properly fired, but they may have propped it up too high in the center causing the sides to sag down.

I now understand your question though, I think. Taking a second look It now appears to me that Zbrush was used to create this being that it looks like it was mainly created using the extract command. If so, I can tell you that the view angle as set in the draw palette has no effect on the file output size. This would be true for just about any software out there. But that's not what you're asking, you're asking, what view settings would best match a real life as printed view. My answer is, you'd first need to state the software, cuz each would be different, and then there might be a slight possibility that someone would know a good setting for that software. Or, you can find the setting yourself by trial and error. Finding out yourself would get expensive for prints of that size. If it were me I'd acquire a FDM (Known as FFF for the open source versions) printer so I could do cheap prints at this size if I were going with the finding out myself route. Also, wireframe mesh models can be drastically cheaper to print in large sizes.

Normally, in real time computer graphics is a Perspective View with an FOW from 45° used. So this is close to reality.

3ds max was used.

Right, being ceramic could mean it distorted in the oven.

Now that topic arises (again?): Which apps take into account the window and even the monitor dimensions? Should they or is OK to keep the same value no matter what? 45 can be right for full screen (16:9? 16:10? 4:3?), but if the view is only half because window was resized or panels were opened, angle used should change so it still looks the same, like floating behind the screen surface, shouldn't it?

There is really no standard for FOV, and I believe you should design for what you actually intend the shape to be. When modeling, I am constantly changing zoom, angle, and often FOV (usually with a full scene), so we can't use the models appearance at any one view as an absolute reference. The same applies in real life. Hold the model farther away from your eye and it will occupy a smaller angular section of your vision- a smaller field of view. Problem solved!

If you actually want to distort the model to compensate though, 3DSMax's bend modifier or Meshlab's cylindrical unwrappig would both accomplish this, however the settings would need extensive tuning and would have to be done for both x and y axes.

The idea of "right FOV" and even "smart app changes FOV as needed" is to match reality, make the system behave like if there was an item floating in space. You could still move it farther away or rescale, but it would look more correct relative to its own parts and not distort poorly if window size changes, as it seems to happen in many programs. Just like you can work with color managed systems, so it looks more like it will look in print, instead of "anything goes" (and of course, probably goes wrong at the printer).

~45 seems to match a typical view distance with what would be full screen in a 4:3 monitor. Just tested with a pair of compassess (the navigation kind): handle below the eye, needles aiming at the screen. Add some head tracking, and the system would make modelling a lot more 3D (or headache inducing, depends ^_^ ) than the 2D used to show it. There are demos of this, based around Wii hardware and two LEDs or even just webcams, sadly no big name apps seems to use the principle (or even adjust for window resizing). Look for Johnny Chung Lee or openvc 3d head tracking. Maybe it has some serious issues (yes, in simplest forms it only works for one viewer at a time), maybe patented, but sure would make things more like sculpting clay than watching some glass.

Thanks for the replies. You guys have been very helpful.