Artek: how we make three-dimensional portraits

    We all saw similar photos from the past. One hundred years ago, going to a photo studio was a very special event in the life of any family, any person. Our ancestors chose the most important events - weddings, graduation, - prepared in advance, dressed in full dress. For many, a photography session could be the only one in a lifetime.



    And here is what it looks like now, repeating the story, but already in 3D:





    Such a three-dimensional portrait can be obtained with a hand-held 3D scanner:



    Here President Obama is scanned by our scanners and our software. Usually 10-15 minutes are spent only on the scanning process itself, and then another one to two hours to process the scanned material to get a high-quality model. It turns out that to obtain a three-dimensional model suitable for printing, manual labor was required, and the skilled work of a professional 3D-modeler, as a result, the figures were very expensive, and it was difficult to scale such a business. We decided to make a device that makes the whole process fast and automatic.

    In just six months, an unprecedented period for our industry, we have designed and set up the production of devices that automatically scan 3D people. The device consists of 4 of our professional scanners with lighting, mounted on a frame that makes a full revolution with shooting around a person in 12 seconds. The survey results are transmitted to the cloud, where within an hour, as a result of automatic data calculation, a high-quality 3D model is obtained.

    Especially for scanning cabins, we created new algorithms for processing three-dimensional data and textures, which we later integrated into software for 3D scanners, Artec Studio 10, and now they are available to our professional users: this is, first of all, the acceleration of many steps of post-processing scans, and a much more stable scanning mode that allows you to scan large objects without interruption.



    The result is dozens of Shapify scanning booths installed around the world and tens of thousands of scanned people. We heard many touching stories from amazing people: these are newlyweds ordering their figures for a wedding cake; a Star Wars fan scanned in the costume of an Imperial stormtrooper (and when asked why he orders a figurine, although the same can be bought at the supermarket, he replied, “I will know what's inside me!”); pregnant women who want to give an unusual gift to their child when he grows up, and many, many, others. Everything is even more fun than in old photo studios.



    In this blog, we will share with you the most interesting stories about those we scan, about our technologies and about our customers, including the most famous car and electronics manufacturers, film studios and museums, hospitals and universities, archaeologists and designers.

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