I was watching a video about these things a while back and it occurred to me these would be great for customizers. The scanner would allow you to copy a figure and do whatever without risking permanently damaging the original figure. This would be great for first timers as well cause then they can practice on the 3D Printed copy rather than risking the actual figure. The scanner can create exact 1:1 dimentions with the actual figure. This would also make it easier to create new parts since you can edit it digitally rather than sculpting something yourself. So a couple questions... if you have access to such things... what have you made with it? If you don't have access to such things what would you do with it? I'd make replacement tires for RID1 Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus and some custom Prime Vehicons because I don't want to alter the official versions but I would love more of them.
Thread probably belongs in the Creative talk section but oh well: 3D Scanners can be had from relatively cheap ( 300 usd ) up to expensive ( 15K usd ). I used the services of a company for scanning PotP's Dreadwind's shin legs, because those feature difficult shapes to just replicate. They use an expensive scanner ( Artec Eva ). After some research I found out, the cheap scanners aren''t able to reproduce the accuracy at such a small scale. Supposedly you can also simply use your smartphone's camera with something called photogrammetry ( usually for free online ), but I don't think that will produce the required detail accuacy either. In total, I ordered scans of 4 different parts ( limbs of the deluxe mold ) and it cost me 4 x 45 usd. The results were good, but due to the high res scan triangulation, you still need to basically 3D model it from scratch, because the scan can only act as a guideline of sorts. So it can be done, but it is not a solution as straightfoward or cheap as it may seem. My eventual final results can be found here for PotP Dreadwind & Darkwing: Heavy/Scratch: - G1 Style sets for Dreadwind & Darkwing Below, some screenshots of WIP versions of that and the high res 3D scan in neon green:
You can do slightly better photogrammetry with a Microsoft Kinect. Better than what you can get from a cell phone but still not nearly as good as a proper (expensive) 3d scanner. As for using a 3d printer, I've made a few parts for a custom I never got around to finishing. Articulated feet and replacement heads for Wei Jiang's Arcee. I still plan on finishing it someday but I've been having trouble getting good enough results printing the head (there's a slight vibration when printing that's playing hell on getting the details right).
I tried the creative talk forum but for some reason it says I can't start any new discussions there. Anyway... the 3D scanner I saw Jeff Dunham was using to scan a head for a new dummy he molded in clay and the scan even replicated his finger prints from the clay onto the computer. The software also by default creates a 1:1 scan meaning however big the object you scanned was that's how big the printed copy will be so not only do you get every detail but you also have the exact size of whatever parts you want to scan. You can change the size before printing to make it bigger or smaller but I can't see any reason to use that... Unless of course I wanted to make all my figures deluxe size... I don't really care about characters being in scale with each other but Deluxe class seems to be best for the amount of detail I like and saving space in my room. That would be a lot of work though and unfortunantly you still gotta paint all the parts yourself. I kinda feel like we're in the days of black and white again except for 3D Printers because you can't load multiple colors of plastic all at once and just print something in full color... at least not yet... it probably sounds impossible now but so did colored ink cartridges about 30 years ago.
What was the size of the dummy ? I'm just asking because any scanner under 1K usd will struggle replicating 1mm - 0.1mm detail. As I showed in my earlier post, even a 14K scanner will feature inaccuracies to some extent when scanning objects the size of deluxe figure limbs. A year ago, the media spoke of 3D printing as a burst bubble of hype. This is not entirely true, although it is going through a tough evolutionary phase now indeed. A month and a half ago I was invited to an online meet & greet with Shapeways' new CEO. I can't reveal full details since they requested confidentiality, but don't lose hope for full colored 3D prints. We might start to see it within 12 months at Shapeways.
There are actually FDM systems that print in colour already. There are systems similar to inkjet, where they require a separate spool of each base colour, which then run on individual bowden extruders. Those lines all feed into a specialized hotend that allows them to be mixed according to feed rate, then extrude from a single nozzle. I also remember seeing a system, on hackaday I think, that added colour to white filament at the extruder. This negated the need for separate extruders and should reduce costs significantly.
t=12:24 where he claims that you could literally see my fingerprints in that thing if you zoomed in enough. I think that is a far overzealous claim for the scanner in hand. That is a Faro Edge Scanarm. A scanner like this is making a dot-cloud by imaging the straight lines. Software then generates a mesh out of the dot cloud. The item he's scanning there is bigger than a soccer ball. It's getting some pretty incredible detail, but if you look at the eyebrows in the scan, they are no where near as detailed as the rest of the head. The printer he is housing in the back is a Dimension printer Dimension 1200 Reviews & Ratings $35,000. And I doubt the scanner was only $12k new. Skip to 27:47 where he shows off a print. "It takes away. It doesn't look nearly as cool as that thing does." That's on an object easily many times larger than a transformer toy.
His closeup of the print, where you can see the obvious layer lines, as well as "zits" and other 3d printing issues.
If you are technologically savvy, getting into 3d printing is at a decent hobbiest pricepoint now. You can get a decent machine at the $250 pricepoint, such as the creality ender 3, the monoprice maker select, or the anycubic i3. I've had the printrbot simple, printrbot play, and currently have the creality cr-10. I've used ultimakers and makerbots both at the university I work at. At the $750 price point, I highly recommend the Prusa i3 mark 3. knotted's scans above are very fair representations of scans at the deluxe tf figure scale. It makes much more sense to try to measure with a decent pair of calipers and sketch the part out, then print that. ----- Another side of the coin is how much low end printers can jam or fail. I've been printing a 24" tall stay puft for over a month now, due to machine issues. Belts can slip, cheap filaments can clog and even ruin hot ends, and so on and so forth. \ But it can be used to scratch build some new parts for TF. Here's some WiP shots on a swoop to slash deluxe conversion that is on hold until I get some funds for parts for my home printer. And time. ----- On the brainstorm ideas list, I currently want to modify a combiner wars Inferno into Fire Convoy, then scratch design a Ultra Magnus that breaks up into five parts and combines with FC to make Omega Prime.
You read my mind. Been thinking about this since picking up Hotspot a couple years ago. The car carrier that split into limbs always seemed simple enough, it was making that also turn into RID Magnus that deterred me though. Sooooo much work lol. My current fix-it-with-a-printer obsession is Unicron. While I appreciate the head sculpt and deco for the 2010 version, he still needs a lot of fixes.
Yeah, I've been lowering my print speed and it's helped to make the ripples more shallow but I can't get rid of them entirely. The printer feels pretty solid but I guess I should give it a once over to make sure nothing is loose. I've installed several mods (Z braces, all metal hot end, better fan and duct). I've adjusted the belt tensions up and down (too tight will actually encourage vibrations). I've made quite a bit of progress but I'm at the point where I'm wondering if I just need a better printer. Maker Select V2.
I'd have to pull up my slicer (it's at home) but I believe my outer shell is running at around 20ms. I'm using Simplify3d and it has you set the mad speed and then you tell it what percentage you want the outer shell. I believe I have it set to 40 and 50% with six shells. The innermost shell would be at 40, the outermost at 20 and the ones in between would be at graduated percentages in between. The ripples are what is referred to as "ringing." Essentially echoes of the surface features that fade as you get further from the features. It's supposed to be solvable by adjusting the belts but I haven't been able to kill them completely. They're fairly minor and can be sanded off pretty easily but when you're trying to print things like 30mm mini figures or replacement heads for Transformers, even light sanding will destroy important details.
What model printer do you have? The ringing is caused by vibration of the smooth rods the extruder head rides on. Since your 20mm/s print speed is already pretty low, try printing the part at the extreme left or right edge of your print bed...that might reduce the amplitude of the ringing. Also, be sure acceleration is turned on in your printer’s firmware...that will further soften the effects of sudden changes in direction.
And jerk settings (jerk:acceleration||acceleration:speed) if you can. I keep my cr10 jerk set to 7.0 mm/s^3.
Maker Select V2. I'll try the left/right suggestion. Thanks! It's there anything that can be done to dampen the vibrations of the smooth rods? I'm not sure it's just that, though - I get ringing in the X and Y directions. Wouldn't that only affect X? Or at least affect X quite a bit more than Y? Yeah, I've got my accelerations at around 600-700 (can't remember and I'm not at home to check). I had jerk at 8 but turned it down to 6 to fight the ringing (from factory it was set to 20). Honestly the prints are already pretty impressive from my printer. I'm using a .2mm nozzle, which gives impressive detail (seems like it made it more sensitive to ringing though). I printed a 30mm DnD mini on it and it came out pretty damned close to my buddy's resin printer. All the details were there and it did depths better than the resin (there's a slight fuzziness to my friend's resin printer - like there's a thin layer of extra resin wrapped aroundv the whole thing). The only problem with my mini was the ringing made it look kind of messed up in the areas to the right of any details (prints counterclockwise). I've even managed to dial in the support settings so they they break off pretty damn cleanly.
All depends on your printer configuration...you might actually try printing in the corner of the bed where the X and Y rods both have the most support.
