Blog: Scan of the Week #5

Learning How to 3D Scan using a 3D Scanner

3D scanning can seem quite daunting at first glance. As someone that just recently started to scan, I can attest that it takes both time and patience to be able to produce decent results. In an attempt to challenge myself, I decided to do a scan of a simple garden hose nozzle using the HDI 3D scanner. Easy, right?

Unlike your regular point-and-shoot, with 3D scanners you quickly have to learn to think in multiple dimensions. Instead of framing and balance, it becomes a question of depth and geometry. As you can see below, my first attempt didn’t turn out so well.

Objects like this garden hose nozzle present a challenge because the color contrast between the bright green and the black handle make it difficult to find a proper exposure setting. Another challenge is the contrast between the metallic reflective surface and and the darker plastic surface. The result is a lot of unwanted noise in the scan.

Of course, Flexscan3D features HDR scanning capabilities. However, for the garden hose, I employed a slightly more elegant solution. By simply spraying the nozzle with some solvent based developer spray, I was able to greatly reduce the surface contrast of the object. The result can be seen below.

Though its still not perfect, its interesting to note how a simple change can make such a significant difference in scan quality. And of course, the spray will wash right off under water.

Abe Sapien, a character from the Hellboy comic series, has a very long and complex origin story. But for the sake of appreciating the scan, it is enough to say that – yes, he is amphibious, and – yes, he is 220 years old. 

Taking a closer look at the wireframe, you can see that our HDI Advance 3D Scanner was able to masterfully capture some insight on this mysterious character. 

This week we’d like to highlight another unique product of our HDI 3D Scanners. For the third installment of our Scan of the Week series, we’d like to present this highly detailed 3D scan of the sole of a running shoe. 

The HDI 3D scanners have many uses in a variety of industries. With the use of our HDI Advance 3D Scanner, one can obtain extremely detailed data of any surface. Take a closer look at the mesh density can give you a greater appreciation of just how much data can be captured with the HDI 3D scanning systems.

You may recognize him from the Marvel Universe as Aleksei Sytsevich, one of the Amazing Spider-Man’s most rhinoceros-like foes. Now in 3D! With the help our HDI Advance 3D Scanner and some textured cameras, 4DGate was able to obtain an incredibly accurate depiction of truly a most heinous villain. Below you’ll notice the texture map that links together with the .obj file to make the textured scan.

We’d like to kick things off today by introducing our new Scan of the Week series, where we highlight some of the exceptionally cool, detailed scans that are made with the HDI 3D Scanners. For our first entry, we’d like to share this scan of a small Buddha figure produced by our South Korean distributors 4DGate.

With the help of our HDI Advance 3D Scanner, the user was able to obtain an extremely detailed scan of a fairly small object. The Buddha figure in question measures less than 10cm in width.

In an extreme closeup wireframe view of the Buddha’s head piece, the sheer density of scan data becomes more apparent. 

For a closer look, feel free to Download the Scan here.