Today the Smithsonian announced that it has put the first ever 3-D printed Presidential portrait on view.
3D Systems is proud to have worked with the Smithsonian on the printing of President Obama’s 3D portrait. 3D Systems designed the printable digital models (using Autodesk software) , and printed the life mask and bust of the President using its Selective Laser Sintering printers – industrial grade devices that produce high-resolution 3-D prints.
About the production process…
Team members at the Digitization Program Office of the Smithsonian Institution started by using high-resolution 3D scanners to capture facial details, then photographs and structured light for hair and clothing details. Autodesk processed data from these distinct reality capture input methods and produced a single, high-resolution 3D model that could be fed into a 3D printer, or viewed in a browser through the Smithsonian’s x 3D Explorer. All together there were multiple scans and more than 50 photographs taken to bring the 3D model of President Obama to life. Source: Autodesk.
The 3D printed bust will find a home at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., which owns multiple images of each president. This marks the first time that new technology was used to create a portrait of a sitting president for the National Portrait Gallery.
This video (link) from the White House details the entire project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
- New Video Provides a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the First 3D-Printed Presidential Portraits
- Smithsonian Displays 3-D Portrait of President Obama – Portrait Marks First Time in History a Sitting President Has Been 3-D Scanned; New Behind-the-Scenes Video Details the Process