art

3DScan Spotlight – Statues/Art

October 30, 20193D Scanning / Photogrammetry3dscan, art

Fun fact: The first object we scanned in early 2013 was a statue, so today were going to look back at our favorite statue/art scans from the last 7 years!

Some of best examples we have from those early days were of Thai origin; there is something about the aged materials and the details employed on so many piece that make for a great scan. One of the ones we brought back from Thailand was this great metallic Buddha head:

Since then we have worked closely with Spirithouse to scan several more Thai objects and carvings, as well as other pacific nation artifacts:

Laughing Statue by 604scans on Sketchfab

When artist Ivan Eyre’s Birdwrap statue made its residency in Vancouver, I made a point to scan this amazing work and the results were excellent! The embedded model bellow is greatly reduced in size to 14k polygons:

Ivan Eyre’s Bird Wrap by 604scans on Sketchfab

The first native art we scanned was Susan Point’s Welcome Gateway permanently installed in Stanley Park:

One of the most challenging exterior scans would have to be Abraham Anghik’s Spirits in the landscape, commissioned by BC Gas and permanently installed at 1111 West Georgia in Vancouver.

3DScan Spotlight – Totem

October 29, 20193D Scanning / Photogrammetry3d Scanning/Photogrammetry, 3dscan, art

While many of our scans are captured in the controlled comfort of a well-lit studios, there are times where you need to capture something onsite. Such is the totem at the front entrance of Lu’ma Native Housing Society on Nanaimo in Vancouver BC. Incorporated in 1980, the Society was initially incorporated to provide affordable housing to Aboriginal families and individuals with low to moderate income, currently operating just under 500 units of affordable housing

Expertly crafted by Nisga’a artist Mike Dangeli, the totems were officially unveiled on October 25th 2013 and have weathered the elements rather well since then, as they often do. After getting permission, I found an ideal cloudy day and in the middle of the day, with traffic zooming by at one of east Vancouver’s busiest intersections, I captured the left totem in about 15min (Both totems are nearly identical)

The 114 source images needed some processing even before getting into the compiler, at which point the background of each image had to be masked out to avoid unnecessary data points. The first compile level generated nearly 71 million points in the dense point cloud, which in turn created a 2,887,088 polygon mesh.

The process from 114 source images to polygon mesh

The 114 source images needed some processing even before getting into the compiler, at which point the background in each image had to be masked out to avoid unnecessary data points.

The resulting textured model was simply beautiful, capturing the most subtle carving details and wood grains. Special thanks to the administrative staff of LNHS!

3DScan Spotlight – SAM

April 29, 20193D Scanning / Photogrammetry3d Scanning/Photogrammetry, art, Museum

Today were going to expand on our look back at Disguise; our collaboration with The Seattle Art Museum.

I was first contacted last year by a SAM representative regarding the potential use of photogrammetry and color 3D printing to bring the public closer than ever to priceless artifacts in a major summer exhibition. The project turned out to be ‘Disguise’, a summer exhibition examining the role of masks in ancient cultures. Through 3d scanning and printing, the goal was to allow visitors to touch and feel some masks, some had never been displayed in public .

The first task was to handbuild a custom turntable to accommodate the artifacts, which ranged in size from 7″ to 4 feet long. We also assembled a rig of low-heat lighting to eliminate any risk of damaging the pieces.

Some of the masks were extremely delicate, which made the process quite challenging but the team persevered and everything was scanned within the allotted time booked with the pieces.

Once the data was secured, there were a few weeks of solid weeks of processing ahead. The project required the highest possible detail level and we pushed the tools to the limit and in a few cases, beyond their limits.

Everything went fairly smoothly on the processing side but the relatively new color 3D printing process brought along several challenges before we ended up with the results we wanted.

The masks presented as 3D renders

In the end, we delivered 12 replicas of the masks at a stunning level of detail, on time. Disguise was an amazing project to be involved with and we are always looking forward to more projects with Museums. The exhibition wrapped in early September, after a wildly successful late summer run.