Scanning the President in 3D

“This isn’t an artistic likeness of the president ... This is actually millions upon millions of measurements that create a 3D likeness that we can now 3D print — and make something that’s never been done before.”

— Adam Metallo - http://www.siggraph.org/discover/news/president-obama-lands-first-3d-presidential-portrait

This President Abraham Lincoln plaster cast from April 1860 was the inspiration for the digital face scan

This news passed me by when it came out in December 2014, but its a remarkable testament to how far the development of digital humans has come. Barack Obama became the first US President to have his likeness digitally scanned and 3D-printed. Inspired by the plaster casts of President Lincoln, Adam Metallo and Vincent Rossi conceived of the project to digitally represent Obama, which was lead by Günter Waibel, Director of the Smithsonian 3D Digitization Program Office.

The process used a mobile version of Paul Debevec's Lightstage technology, which uses an array of 50 lights and 8 DSLRs to capture 80 photographs in a range of lighting in under 1 second. This quickly capture vast detail and lighting information from a subject's face. Lightstage has been used to create digital faces for a number of Hollywood films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Avatar, and Debevec and his team won a Scientific and Engineering Award (a scientific Oscar) for the Lightstage.

The Lightstage data was augmented with data from hand-held digital scanners, which were able to fill in the missing data from the back of the President's head. The entire process of digital capture took just 7 minutes, which is even more impressive when you consider that it took 15 minutes for the plaster to dry on Lincon's face. Of course, the real work started once they left the White House. The different data sets needed to be combined into a unified space and then optimized into a 15 million polygon model ready for 3D printing.

The files were then transferred to 3D Systems, who used a process called Selective Laser Sintering to print a highly detailed 1:1 scale bust of President Obama over 42 hours. The bust is now on display in the Smithsonian museum in Washington.

Further Reading

Smithsonian Institution Digitization Program Office press release    
Siggraph Article on the scan

Paul Debevec explains how the Lighstage works:

LEGO Jurassic World - “A Jarring Encounter"

In honor of the release of Jurassic World or, more specifically, the Jurassic World Lego sets, Lego has put out this cute stop motion animation A Jarring Encounter. Directed by Kris Theorin of Something's Awry, this short captures everything that is charming and iconic about Lego stop motion animations - quirky, slapstick comedy with unexpected punchlines in a recognizably Lego environment. This is what Lego animation should be.

In contrast Lego has also put out Jurassic Pals, a fully CG animation featuring Lego characters in a photo real environment, by CC Pixels. The short is well animated, and beautifully lit and rendered, and I take no issue with it technically. But if The Lego Movie taught us anything, its that the charm of Lego CG animation is that it obeys the rules of Lego physics. Lego is made of solid plastic which doesn't bend, it just rotates at the joints. It is also distinctively adorned with lots of small plastic studs, which allows for the interlocking of pieces and into which the character's feet snap. These facts about Lego are clearly visible in A Jarring Encounter, and The Lego Movie captured them so perfectly that people questioned if it was really CG. Without these elements, the Lego design of the characters is purely an aesthetic choice, and almost incidental to overall film.

So, in conclusion, the rule-breaking nature of the CG animation ends up falling a little flat, but the stop motion A Jarring Encounter is funny and charming, everything a Lego animation should be.

Jurassic World at Waterloo

To celebrate the release of Jurassic World, velociraptors have been set loose in London's Waterloo station. Four life-sized and wonderfully detailed raptors have been built and placed in the station, complete with their own InGen transport crate, for tourists and commuters to admire and take photographs with. The models look a bit plastic-y when you get up close, but are otherwise incredibly life-like ... I assume. They certainly look believable.

The 4 velociraptors are part of Universal Pictures' 2 week 'Jurassic World  Takeover' event.

“Jurassic World is taking over Waterloo Station! A two week, fully immersive, takeover of one of London’s busiest stations with 350k footfall per day. All branding, posters sites and digital screens will be themed to the film while the station will also be split into zones for ‘in-world’ and film advertising. The underground tunnel has been completely wrapped featuring Mosasaurus aquarium and Jungle raptor scenes while the mezzanine level will take you through a 10 minute audio tour available at www.jurassic.london”

— press release quoted http://www.filmoria.co.uk/2015/06/jurassic-world-is-taking-over-waterloo/

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This is the second dinosaur stunt to happen in London in recent weeks, following the National Geographic Channel driving a flatbed truck carrying a dead T-rex on the back, to promote it's T-rex Autopsy show.