3-D Printing and Scanning

3-D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three-dimensional solid objects from a digital file. As reported in the past, we have used this method extensively to produce some of the animals that are going to be displayed on the Ark.

Another use of 3-D printing will be found in several dioramas for display in the Ark. We have around 30 twelve-inch tall characters to “print.”

We are looking into 3-D scanning to basically give us an accurate digital “lump of clay” that our artists will then touch up through digital sculpting. To do this, we built a large turntable with lights encircling it to give us a better quality scan. So far, we are very excited by what it captures.

Kendyl Adams poses on the large turntable.

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Travis Wilson uses video game technology to capture a 3-D image of Kendyl as she is spun around on the turntable.

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The computer processes the data it receives from the 3-D scanner.

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The result of the scan that will then be cleaned up and prepped for 3-D printing.

Here is a collection of our test scans. We will capture some more scans, touch them up, and send them to the 3-D printer. These items will then be painted and placed in a diorama.