modeling from a photo

[ctdigger 2]

I have a photo of my dog who passed a few years ago. I would like to make a model of him, is it possible and if so, How do I do it. I am very very new to 3D printing, I have an Ender-3 printer and I am just learning it, so any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Ctdigger

[Smithy 1,146]

I am also interested, for the same reason, but I am not sure if a single photo is enough. And other photos will maybe not work, because it is not just another perspective, but also different background, the dog looks in the wrong direction and so on.

 

BUT, @cloakfiend has done this a few weeks ago, so maybe he can point us in the right direction.

[cloakfiend 996]

Ive done a few of these reconstructions. And ive done my friends dog as well. Normally dog traits are common to the breed so you can use a similar dog for reference and then photos of your own to personalize it with your own dogs features. 

One photo is not really enough to estimate depth, but if you know the breed you can just estimate and use references. Its not that bad. Mine took 6 hours to do. I did a few book front cover recontructions as well. Forest of Doom was my favourite! Its in the what have you made section. 

 

It really brings out your creativity and makes you think in a logical way! Good fun. But i tried to copy a giger face and whilst the face came out ok(after like 9 hours!) I had no visual reference for the rest and kinda gave up. But then again copying a drawing is much harder as it is fiction, and only one reference of it exists.

 

I use zbrush to sculpt with, but there are many alternatives and use what whatever programe you are quickest at because...its gonna take you a long time if you havent 3d sculpted before! But if you persist and keep refining your model from all angles, youll get there eventually and will be very happy....and learned a lot on the way!

Edited October 30, 2018 by cloakfiend

[geert_2 558]

9 hours ago, ctdigger said:

I have a photo of my dog who passed a few years ago. I would like to make a model of him, is it possible and if so, How do I do it. I am very very new to 3D printing, I have an Ender-3 printer and I am just learning it, so any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Ctdigger

 

I would suggest you try modelling it in plasticine first, but then in a good quality plasticine like used by professional artists. Not the baby-stuff which doesn't allow fine details. Use a color that shows details well, like beige-brown-grey or so. Choose one that has no sulphur and is compatible with mould making silicone.

 

And as cloakfiend said, use other photos as well to get the dimensions right.

 

Modeling by hand will give a much better feel for the right proportions, I think, if you are not familiar with modeling.

 

Once you have the model, you can easily look at it from all sides, if you want to make a 3D-computer model from it and 3D-print that. Or you could make a silicone mould from the plasticine model, and cast that. There are lots of good Youtube videos for mould making and casting.

 

Be aware that this has a huge learning curve, since there are three things to learn: modeling from photo, modeling in CAD, and 3D-printing (or casting) itself. Each will take time to master, so persist and don't give up too soon.

 

[ctdigger 2]

2 hours ago, cloakfiend said:

Ive done a few of these reconstructions. And ive done my friends dog as well. Normally dog traits are common to the breed so you can use a similar dog for reference and then photos of your own to personalize it with your own dogs features. 

One photo is not really enough to estimate depth, but if you know the breed you can just estimate and use references. Its not that bad. Mine took 6 hours to do. I did a few book front cover recontructions as well. Forest of Doom was my favourite! Its in the what have you made section. 

 

It really brings out your creativity and makes you think in a logical way! Good fun. But i tried to copy a giger face and whilst the face came out ok(after like 9 hours!) I had no visual reference for the rest and kinda gave up. But then again copying a drawing is much harder as it is fiction, and only one reference of it exists.

 

I use zbrush to sculpt with, but there are many alternatives and use what whatever programe you are quickest at because...its gonna take you a long time if you havent 3d sculpted before! But if you persist and keep refining your model from all angles, youll get there eventually and will be very happy....and learned a lot on the way!

I found this photo which is very close to his body profile. His color is more of the German Shepard brown, white, black but that isn't important. If I find other profiles, ie: the back, the other side would that help?

Thank You for the help.

Ctdigger

[cloakfiend 996]

Thats way too low quality. You need to see the shape of his body. And how his fur flows. Youll need a side view, top down view...etc. all angles to understand how everything looks like from all angles. I can draw but sculpting took me a a while to get quick at it. You  basically need to know how every single visible part of his looks like, from mulriple angles. So you can model it. Making things up to fill in gaps comes with experience. 

 

Try to save some time and see if you can find 3d renders from people who have done them before as they usually post different angles, which is helpful to define the basic shape.

Edited October 30, 2018 by cloakfiend

[ctdigger 2]

34 minutes ago, cloakfiend said:

Thats way too low quality. You need to see the shape of his body. And how his fur flows. Youll need a side view, top down view...etc. all angles to understand how everything looks like from all angles. I can draw but sculpting took me a a while to get quick at it. You  basically need to know how every single visible part of his looks like, from mulriple angles. So you can model it. Making things up to fill in gaps comes with experience. 

 

Try to save some time and see if you can find 3d renders from people who have done them before as they usually post different angles, which is helpful to define the basic shape.

Well, I guess I have my work cut out for. I will keep looking for more info and thank you very much for all your help, it is greatly appreciated.

Ctdigger

[yellowshark 153]

Lol modelling in clay etc. Use the camera  then the software and let technology do it for you. OK the software you want is Autodesk 123D Catch. Autodesk is one of the top 3 CAD software companies in the World and they have a range of free software for 3D modelling on their website. Catch is just brilliant, so easy too use and really good results. Yes you need more than one photo! Maybe a dozen will be OK, maybe 30 or so.

 

Now I have just been on their website and see the software is no longer available. Now it may have been absorbed into Autodesk 123D, which I think used to be Autodesk 123D Design. So could be worth downloading that and checking? Catch may be available on some other download sites? Ask some forums on the net how to get it?

 

Or if you have some cloud storage I can drop the software file there for you.

[Clayton_Timmons 0]

I am researching this topic and from what I can tell it's possible using Blender.  I think it requires a wire frame.  Blender if you aren't familiar is free.  You can also set up a factory file. 

[Brulti 177]

@yellowshark It will be hard to get pictures from different angles of a dog who's been dead for a few years... Unless you want the model to be Halloween-themed... ??

[ahoeben 2,010]

123d catch used “the cloud” for computation, and the servers have bee shut down 1.5 years ago. Even if you still have the software, it will not work.

[cloakfiend 996]

Indeed its called  Autodesk Recap now, and its expensive now. agisoft photoscan does the same thing and is free for 30 days trial but good luck taking photos of a dog from multiple angles without him moving!

 

if youve not done 3d modelling though, good luck....i reckon if you follow some tuts, you might do it in like a few days to a few months depending on if you are a quick learner. for sculpting you dont really need to think about wireframe imho.

Edited October 30, 2018 by cloakfiend

[yellowshark 153]

Funnily(?) enough some years back I had to dig up my dead cat. An unpleasant  experience preceded by several vodkas.

[ctdigger 2]

1 hour ago, cloakfiend said:

Indeed its called  Autodesk Recap now, and its expensive now. agisoft photoscan does the same thing and is free for 30 days trial but good luck taking photos of a dog from multiple angles without him moving!

 

if youve not done 3d modelling though, good luck....i reckon if you follow some tuts, you might do it in like a few days to a few months depending on if you are a quick learner. for sculpting you dont really need to think about wireframe imho.

 

9 minutes ago, yellowshark said:

Funnily(?) enough some years back I had to dig up my dead cat. An unpleasant  experience preceded by several vodkas.

 

9 minutes ago, yellowshark said:

Funnily(?) enough some years back I had to dig up my dead cat. An unpleasant  experience preceded by several vodkas.

 

1 hour ago, cloakfiend said:

Indeed its called  Autodesk Recap now, and its expensive now. agisoft photoscan does the same thing and is free for 30 days trial but good luck taking photos of a dog from multiple angles without him moving!

 

if youve not done 3d modelling though, good luck....i reckon if you follow some tuts, you might do it in like a few days to a few months depending on if you are a quick learner. for sculpting you dont really need to think about wireframe imho.

https://sketchfab.com/models/51f65371603c403b805d48a1e78bf4b2

I went here and found a perfect match. Can I just download it and save it on an sd card then insert it into my Ender-3 and run it from the sd card? (geez, maybe it ain't that simple, or is it???)

[ctdigger 2]

12 minutes ago, yellowshark said:

Funnily(?) enough some years back I had to dig up my dead cat. An unpleasant  experience preceded by several vodkas.

to a point, you have a twisted mind, Now that's some funny Sh..? why did you dig it up??

[yellowshark 153]

I wanted to take some pics to produce a 3D model :)

 

Err no, inexperienced in such things I put Sam in a plastic garden bag to carry him over to the grave and dropped it in. Some days later I was told I needed to take him out of the bag for the decaying process. Trust me, a tough job.

[ctdigger 2]

56 minutes ago, yellowshark said:

I wanted to take some pics to produce a 3D model :)

 

Err no, inexperienced in such things I put Sam in a plastic garden bag to carry him over to the grave and dropped it in. Some days later I was told I needed to take him out of the bag for the decaying process. Trust me, a tough job.

stinky too I bet

[Clayton_Timmons 0]

Cloak friend, it depends on shutter speed and aperture.  It also helps to use a tripod.  But we are talking about a deceased friend here.  I have not used it but I am told that the free photogrammy software will take as many photos as you have and put them together.  The more photos the better.

[cloakfiend 996]

ive done a lot of this and ive found that all photogrametry has problems with hair and such and generally always needs to be touched up anyways. if you dont know 3d then you are pretty much stuck with what it gives you. sometimes however it can be pretty darn sweet.

[Ghene 24]

6 hours ago, Clayton_Timmons said:

Cloak friend, it depends on shutter speed and aperture.  It also helps to use a tripod.  But we are talking about a deceased friend here.  I have not used it but I am told that the free photogrammy software will take as many photos as you have and put them together.  The more photos the better.

 

Would it be easier to just scan the face of a relative who closely resemble the deceased then sculpt it? Have you heard of a Trnio app? It's not a high quality one but it should save some time.

 

[Clayton_Timmons 0]

I have been into photography since the early 90's.  It is possible to use the available brushes in Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro to adjust things like hair etc.  I also do a trick where I scan actual hair at a very high resolution and Clone it. 

 

Since then I have been obsessed with not only creating new images from multiple images but finding ways to make my images more realistic.

 

Just now I watched a Blender Tutorial which demos how to convert a 2D object into a 3D object by first pulling up the object in InkScape, as a PNG then saving as an SVG.  You can then pull the image up in Blender and convert it to 3D.  No one wants to recreate an image they have drawn as a beautiful 2D image so it can be animated.

 

I am going through the Blender Classes and it will be a bit before I am proficient with 2D to 3D conversion.  This  is a drawing of mine that I want to convert.  I used a wire brush for the hair.  I do not know if there is that kind of digital brush available in blender or another application but given the beautiful 3D movies we have where we can see the hair flowing in the wind I am pretty certain it is not that hard.

[Clayton_Timmons 0]

I think this was a really old post however it is interesting.  I just looked and found sources for wire frames for download.  Taxidermy, which is essentially what digital artists are doing entails drawing a "skin" over a model. 

 

As I said I am not an animator as yet.  The only thing I have done is the tornado for a Wizard of Oz production for the art class I taught.  It took almost 17000 frames.  However I don't see this as a huge problem. 

 

Good luck with it CT.  The benefit of a lot of work is having your best friends avatar digitized and moving around on screen so you can visit when ever you want. :-)

[cloakfiend 996]

im not sure what the end goal is anymore, i though it was to essentially recreate a dead dog (as if he was still living) as a 3d model? Otherwise a still lithopane would be the easy option. Eitherway modeling something from scratch with zero experience in modelling will be very difficult if a realistic outcome is the target.

 

 

[ctdigger 2]

Just looking for a Siberian Husky model that closely resembles my dog in body form, I can then paint the model o look like him. I'm not looking to sculpt, wire frame etc, just do a model

 

 

[ctdigger 2]

On 10/30/2018 at 9:01 AM, ctdigger said:

I found this photo which is very close to his body profile. His color is more of the German Shepard brown, white, black but that isn't important. If I find other profiles, ie: the back, the other side would that help?

Thank You for the help.

Ctdigger

Gentlemen; This is a rendering of my dog, Dakota, Siberian Husky.I have found a 3D model that closly resembles him. I want to 3D print this likeness and do some hand shaping to better fit the body. Thank You All for the coments, suggestions etc. I really appreciate it all. I now think I am all set to try to print this out, if it comes out ok, I will post a picture of the model here.

Thanks again guys...

ctdigger