Portraits in Three Dimensions

Imagine printing a photograph and having your subject appear in three dimensions instead of two. Like a camera, a 3D scanner can be used creatively to capture a subject’s essence through personal filters.

Teaching my students about 3D scanning and printing provides them with a new medium for their creative toolbox. The product of this captivating and challenging medium is like a monoprint because each print is unique. The elements of art and principles of design are evident in students’ choices.

The creative potential of this medium is just beginning to be explored. Teaching students how to 3D print is now part of the media art curriculum and national art standards. I learned how to work with a 3D printer seven years ago when MakerBot donated a 3D printer to our school. I went from being a realistic watercolor painter to a 3D print artist.

Technology Resources
To get started 3D scanning, I used the following:

a 3D scanner (the Xbox 360 Kinect; see Resource for details)
a PC adapter
a PC with the latest Kinect drivers, downloadable (free) with a 64-bit Processor
Dual core (3.1 Ghz) or faster CPU
4GB of Ram
Nvidia CUDA graphic card or a Kinect Fusion compatible GPU
a compatible USB 3.0 port

If you need help getting set up, contact your school district’s tech people to help install your 3D-printing station.

Scanned Self-Portraits
Once everything is set up, it is fairly intuitive to use, and I think you will be thrilled with the results.

I demonstrated the scanning process for students, and they watched eagerly, excited to try their hands at scanning themselves.

Some students stopped by after school to be scanned because they didnʼt feel comfortable being scanned in front of their peers. Whether or not a student wants to be scanned is entirely up to them and there needs to be trust between the student and the person running the scanner.

Because I have more than 150 students, I made each print small: 3" (7.5 cm). I had several printers going at once, printing nine scans at a time. The cost of the filament was under $30 for the entire job. If you get a 3D printer, I recommend that you purchase the one-year protection.

The Kinect was set up at a height taller than students so it would scan the top of their head. I had boxes I could stack to raise the Kinect for taller students. I used the software program Skanect, which is no longer supported with Kinect, but there are plenty of other programs available.

Procedures and Printing
Students pair with a classmate and take turns scanning each other. The student being scanned rotates on a swivel chair, keeping as still as possible, which can be hard for fidgety students. As the chair slowly rotates, the scanner creates a 3D model of the subject. Students can also bring in objects from home to scan.

The physical setup is as follows: the Kinect (3D scanner) is connected to the PC, which, while simultaneously running the Skanect software, converts the real-time video scan into a 3D model on the PC.

After cleaning up the scan (removing any unintentional elements, filling in any holes, and making sure it has a flat bottom), the models were saved as an STL file.
I transferred the STL files to a USB thumb drive and 3D-printed the models. I used white filament most of the time so students could add clothes, patterns, and details with markers. Students treasured their scanned portraits and spent hours customizing them with designs and colors.