Printing Out Your Favorite Art

While looking for possible models to print out on the 3D printers, I came across a website that made me begin to question what 3D printing allows people to make. On the website shapeways there was a post about printing out your very own famous work of art.

While it looks like a great opportunity (after all, who DOESN'T want their own Venus de Milo statue?), it also got me thinking about the legality of it all. One man in San Diego named Cosmo Wenman has two life sized reproduction of the Head of a Horse of Selene from 432 B.C. While the original is in the British Museum, Wenman has made it a habit to go to museums all over the world and taking pictures of famous sculptures.  Taking at least 200 pictures of each one, Wenma can then construct the files on his computer and post the finished model on websites like Thingiverse. 

On top is the original Horse Statue in the British Museum and below is Wenman's printed one. 

While Wenman is sticking to taking pictures primarily of older statues of antiquities to avoid copyright concerns, there is still a question of legality and whether or not these are forgeries. Wenman claims that these are not simply cheap knock-offs for people to print, but lets be honest here. If you had the opportunity to print out your very own Bernini or Michaelangelo sculpture for very little, would you say no? 

And being able to 3D print sculptures was only the beginning. 3D printers are now able to recreate fine art paintings with the specific textures and brushstrokes certain artists are known for. By scanning the paintings with two cameras zoomed in very close to capture all the colors and details, they can then be rendered as a 3D scan and put together to become the whole painting. 

For an example on how exactly a painting can be printed, here are two videos demonstrating it. 

Ultimately, technology is making it very accessible to obtain famous artworks as "authentic" as they can be. But the question is how comfortable you as the buyer feel about how it was made.  Is it a reproduction of the artwork or a forgery? That is most compelling thing to think about. 

3D Guns

Continuing on with the trend of 3-D printing, this post is about the much debated ability of what exactly one should be able to print.  With such easy access to 3D printers and sharing templates to print out, many people are wondering about being able to print out guns. The world's first 3D printed gun was printed out in 2012.

But even this one was not full plastic. It also contained a metal chamber to hold the actual bullets. What legally made it a firearm was the receiver of the gun.

The YouTube news channel VICE did a particularly interesting documentary looking into this issue.

One of the main groups they focused on was DEFCAD.  DEFCAD and other websites including Defense Distributed (a non-profit digital publishing and 3D printing firm), are giving the public free access to these files. There is no need for a license or background check of any kind.  Just about anyone can get their hands on these and use them for whatever purpose they want.

Defense Distributed has also created a tumblr page entitled WikiWeapons. It documents their printing of 3D weapons while at the same time showing the hurdles they are being forced to encounter. Knowing what this group is doing, the United Stand Department of State has sent them warning letters and their bank terminated their account, along with PayPal suspending their account. There is much opposition to this group because they are one of the most vocal about being able to have the freedom to print out their own weapons.

This question of safety of the guns themselves has also been looked at by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. The State Department has also begun getting involved, forcing websites to take down the designs of particular guns. But once something is out on the internet, it is never really gone.

Printing Out the Human Body

As we have been working with 3D software and 3D printing for the past couple of weeks, I have begun to find many examples of 3D printing in recent news.  There have been a particularly high amount of posts lately amount the contributions that 3D printing can give back in the medical field. Below are just some examples that I found particularly interesting.

Back in April, CNN published a story about the ability to actually print out body parts. These ranged anywhere from prosthetic eyes and ears, to even bones themselves.  Originally, using 3D printing in the medical field focused on more realistic looking fake limbs and body parts. One particular company in the UK has made a business of mass producing prosthetic eyes that are cheaper than glass ones and more realistic in their printing of eye colors.

Over time, individuals in the medical field have begun to further expand on what is possible. Using the same technology of 3D printing, scientists have begun to print out the objects they want with ink gels containing actual living cells. The possibilities of what this can actually do is hard to even imagine. Researchers in Washington State University have been dealing with the process in which they are able to actually print out replacement bones. Printed out of calcium phosphate (which is bones are primarily composed of), these 3D printed bones are seen as possible temporary structures in which broken bones can regrow on.

Coming out of this use of printing with living cells, one particularly intriguing development is actually leading to being able to print out skin.  Rather than traditional skin grafts, this method would be a spray of skin cells customized to the patient through collection of their own DNA.

 Step 1: 3D scan the wound

 Step 2: Print first layer of skin cells

 Step 3: Print second layer of skin cells

Not only is this process much less painful than skin grafts, it also takes less time to heal.  There are still issues to be looked at, such as the connection of the skin to blood vessels, but slowly it is becoming more likely to actually work.

Coloring 3D Objects in Photoshop

In this step by step tutorial, I will demonstrate how to use color 3D objects using Photoshop. When doing this, I used Photoshop CS5 but CS6 should be very similar to it.

Step 1: Have an Object

For this example, I have a figure I downloaded from the website turbosquid. I chose a subject that is not too complicated and easy to demonstrate on.

Step 2: Begin Coloring
Go into the color swatch on the left and choose any color you want to use. You can now begin painting.

NOTE: When wanting to view the object you are coloring, you have the option on changing the position of the object. This is found on the menu bar right above the image. You can also physically move around the object by selecting the Position icon on the left menu bar.

Step 3: Reparameterize UV's
As I am coloring the figure, there are spots that are not being painted or are proving to be difficult to get. To smooth everything out and make it easier to paint the object, go to the 3D menu and go down to select Reparameterize UV's.

Of the two given options, select Low Distortion. This will prevent the object from becoming distorted and rearranged.

Step 4: Continue Painting
Once you have reparameterized the object, you will notice that painting becomes much smoother. Continue to paint- you can also add more details to the object, like eye and lip colors.

Step 5: Going into Diffuse.
As you can see in the above picture, there are still gray spots that are not colored in. Rather than spending hours changing the angle of the object in hopes of being able to paint it, there is a much quicker way. On the right hand side is a menu with the layers of the file.

If you hover the mouse over the layers entitled Diffuse , you will notice a small box image with patches of color pop up. Double click that.

A separate file will open containing what looks to be blobs of color. This is actually a 2D rendering of what you are painting. Upon zooming in, you can no see where there are patches and spots that need to be painted over.

Another helpful way of knowing where to color is by creating a wireframe. Go to the 3D options and down to Create UV Overlays. From that, simply select Wireframe.

By doing so, black lines will show up and map out the object more clearly.

I chose to rename the layer with the wireframe on it "Mesh". When you are working with these layers, make sure you are on the first layer with the colors and not the "Mesh" layer.

Step 6: Filling in the Whites
With the "Mesh" layer visible, you can go throughout the image and color in all of the boxes. When you are doing this, try to stay in the boxes.

Step 7: Save the File
In order to transfer the coloring you have done in this file, you must save it it. You can do this by either going into File-Save, or simply press the keys COMMAND-S.

To remove the wireframe from the 3D model, go back into the 2D rendering file and simply uncheck the visibility of the "Mesh" layer. When you go to the 3D model, the black lines will be gone.

 Step 8: Saving the Finished File
Once you are satisfied with the coloring ob the object, you can now save it. Simply go to File-Save As and save it in Photoshop format (.psd). This will allow it to be saved as a 3D object and also still be opened and edited in Photoshop.

Looking Back at the Past

One of the most interesting aspects in this asset mapping project was looking back into the history of New Paltz. One of the events we covered that I found most interesting was the incident regarding Excelsior Avenue. Currently one of the main concourses on campus, Excelsior Avenue was once an actual street in the town of New Paltz with private residences. In 1961, President Haggerty first proposed the acquisition of the street to further expand the campus.

This photo from 1962 shows four dorms, Parker Dining Hall and Smiley Arts Building. After this was taken, Excelsior Avenue was acquired by the school and construction began on Elting Gym, Sojourner Truth Library, the humanities and science buildings, lecture center and Jacobson Faculty Tower. 

Although there was opposition by many residents of New Paltz, the school was able to buy up Mohonk Avenue, thus displacing the residents.  The houses were torn down to make room for the new academic buildings.  This marked the first real event that caused tension between the college and the people of New Paltz. For many years after, the residents of New Paltz had little to no trust in the college.

It is thus quite interesting to look at where we are now. Almost 60 years later, the school has now proposed Park Point.  This proposals is to provide off campus housing for both students and staff and have their own community.  But it would require the school to buy land currently owned by a private landowner and would force the town limit to expand.  Taxation issues are also showing to be a major concern.

The Influence of the Wealthy

Last week, I found an interesting article about Mark Zuckerberg. As the creator and CEO of Facebook, he is one of the richest people in the world. Yet despite this, he rarely splurges on what we would think he would- mega-mansions, yachts, fancy cars. Rather, most of his money is given away to various charities and organizations. In 2010 Zuckerberg signed Giving the Pledge, in which he vowed to give away more than half of his money. He also has given almost $100 million to Newark public schools.

One particularly interesting project Zuckerberg is involved in is Code.org  This project serves as a beginning platform to encourage learning about coding and understand how it works. People of all ages can participate in the "Hour of Code" in which they go through various exercises that teach more about coding and how to do it.  The set up of the coding is quite similar to that of Scratch.  Upon completing the Hour of Code, participants are told various ways to continue to learn about coding. Resources given include an Intro to Computer Science Course, Tynker,  Scratch, Lightbot, and App Inventor.

And Zuckerberg is just one of many influential people involved in this project. The founder of Dropbox has donated money and various celebrities appear in their videos. But Zuckerberg in particular is listed as a founding donor of Code.org. And while the exact amount he has given is unknown, it it can be sure that with the support of the founder of Facebook, Code.org is having quite a bit of success. 

Alongside Code.org, he has also invested in other educational programs through school-improvement effort known as Startup: Education. With a $100 million donation, the effort has assisted a Massachusetts-based startup that analyzes data from teachers, parents and students to better advance schools. Also, last December,the effort also gave support to EducationSuperhighway,which is a nonprofit to help bring faster online connections to schools. 

While it certainly is extremely generous of Zuckerberg to say the least, what I find particularly interesting is the role of wealthy individuals providing supports for education. Bill Gates is another excellent example- one of the primary goals of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is to expand educational opportunities and give better access to information technology. Donations have ranged anywhere from $3.5 million to $1.5 billion. 

Scribble Machines!

A scribble or a drawing Machine is "a motorized contraption that moves in unusual ways and leaves a mark to trace its path". Something interesting about these machines is that they can easily be made from simple, everyday materials and anyone has the ability to make one. The idea of a scribble machine is not just about the marks that can be made but also the process of making it. Figuring out how the machine works to create specific marks requires experimentation and an open mind.  It also allows for people to learn the general set up of an electric current and creating a motor from that set up.  

Scribbling machines can range from relatively simple designs…

… to more elaborate and complex ones.

Scribble machines of all variations can be created as tools of experimentation and creating pieces of fine art. Students are able to learn the dynamics of how different components come together to create their very own personalized scribble machines. It also involves a lot of trial and error in figuring out where to place the mark making objects and the motor.  Every little detail can make all the difference in the making of the machine and this kind of project creates an experimental and learning experience.