I have been working with the 3D objects that we are tasked to work for the James Monroe museum. I have had my ups and downs with it and for those who are wondering whats those are this blog post will explain the issues that I have had with it.
First I would like to talk about the hardware that I was using. When I first saw what tools we had to use in order to scan the objects with I was excited, until I saw how they actually scanned that is. We had the option to pick between a large platformed scanner, a small platformed scanner and a ipad scanner. The small platformed scanner would be unusable because of it didn’t scan in color and only could scan small objects. The big platform scanner had a bugs that needed to be fixed like, the drivers that would make the software that was need on the computer weren’t working so we weren’t able to use that scanner. So the last option we had was the ipad scanner which did indeed scan and capture the colors of the object.
Since the Ipad scanner was the one we ended up using I had to figure out how to use and figure out any flaws that it might have when scanning an object. I didn’t encounter many problems, but one the main problems had to be the amount of space we had. We needed space to move around the object so that the scanner could render a better scanning of it. The other problem that I had was trying to scan outside. The sun would mess up the camera’s ability to capture certain colors and also made it hard to render the 3D image. With this I could conclude that too much lighting is bad for capturing an object. The last problem that I encountered was capturing a thin object or the musket that I was suppose to scan. The scanner had a little trouble rendering the small details and certain parts of the musket, but in the end I at least captured the shape of the weapon and also the primary color of the object.
Overall I think that 3D printing still has a long way in advancing. The one I used is very good and it captures medium to large items with good color and decent detailing. The technology right now is pretty good and I’m sure if want a better rendered image there is technology out there, but its probably expensive to obtain.
Here an example of the 3D I scanned for the James Monroe Mueseum page that I have been working on with my team:
NC
by James Monroe 3D
on Sketchfab
