Feb 19, 2016 | By Benedict
In years gone by, life-size busts had to be made by a professional sculptor. They were therefore commissioned only by the rich and famous. How times have changed! Although hand-chiseled marble statues will still cost you a pretty penny, affordable and professional-looking alternatives, produced in completely new ways, can now be bought by anybody.
The catalyst for change? Technology, of course. 3D scanners, 3D modeling software, and 3D printers have all contributed to the growing market for affordable 3D busts and statues. Visual data can be sourced with cheap hardware, processed with open source software, and crafted using a variety of mechanical and manual techniques, allowing average Joes like you and I to immortalize ourselves and our loved ones in plaster.
Luckily for us, EGO3D is neither a group of Freudian psychoanalysts nor a Kanye West fan blog; it is rather one of Germany’s leading manufacturers of affordable, personalized, 3D printed busts. Their products include life-size busts, miniature busts, and sculptures. Thanks to the company’s fair pricing structure, anybody can order a 3D printed bust of themselves or their loved ones through the EGO3D online shop, with the digital sculptors promising a high quality and rapid delivery times.
As well as customized products, EGO3D also has a catalogue of “celebrity” likenesses featuring busts of historical figures. Arthur Schopenhauer bust? He’d have been miserable about the whole idea, but sure, we’ll take one. Fyodor Dostoyevsky bust? It would be a punishable crime not to order one of those. John Paul II bust? We don’t need that one, but it’s still great that it exists. Perhaps the most thought-provoking offering within the category is EGO3D’s 3D printed Karl Marx bust: What would the revolutionary have thought of his head and shoulders being sold for profit? And would he have valued himself higher than €19.90?
Unlike many 3D printing services, EGO3D does not require a 3D scan of its subject, which allows customers to place orders online with minimal effort. All that the German company requires to create its impressive likenesses is three photos from different angles: “First, we optimize your photos for the calculation of the 3D model,” EGO3D explains. “Our self-developed software then generates a rough head from these photos.”
Once the rough 3D model has been generated, a member of the EGO3D team manually sculpts the digital image until a satisfactory likeness has been achieved. “Our team of educated artists sculpt by hand the details, the essential features and hair,” they explain. “Here again, the intermediate result is compared with the customer's photos. This modeling is performed on the computer and uses highly specialized software.”
To produce the physical bust, EGO3D uses a special kind of 3D printer, which prints each bust in a mineral powder, similar in kind to those used in the automotive industry for prototype parts. The 3D printed busts are not fired, as is the case with clay or earthenware products, but are instead saturated with a hardening liquid. The result is a model as strong as porcelain, but much less fragile.
Prices for the miniature customized busts start at €69.90, with the more luxurious life-size models costing as much as €1,500.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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How big are the miniature busts?
Dilip wrote at 5/20/2016 2:49:12 AM:
Can it be done with picture only,as have photograph of my late Dad.Thanks
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