With the help of the CxC Art+Design Studio’s 3-D scanning and printing capabilities, University artists are pushing the limits of what it means to be a “model” student.
Engineering science graduate student O’mar Finley has worked in the studio since he was a digital art undergraduate in fall 2012. The scanner was received through a grant shortly after Finley was hired, and he was one of the first students to be trained to use it.
“I was one of the few undergraduates at the time that was in digital arts and who had kind of the technical know-how or knew what the scanner was actually doing, or at least some parts of it,” Finley said.
Since receiving his training, Finley has worked with students to scan everything from faces to topographical models. Once the object is scanned, students can create a digital model, which can be manipulated and printed.
While he has yet to implement the technology in his own school work, Finley said he uses the equipment to experiment and test the limits of possibility.
“My goal has been trying to see how far we can push the capabilities of the scanner and seeing how far we can get with it as far as what we can scan, what we can’t scan can we implement these things, can we print these things ultimately,” Finley said.
After he is contacted by a student looking to use the scanner, Finley sits down with the individual to evaluate what needs to be accomplished and what the equipment is actually capable of.
For example, he met with an engineering student who needed to repair a broken component of a project he was working on. Finley was able to assist the student in deconstructing his model and scanning the necessary pieces to digitally fabricate a reconstruction of the component, so he could build a new working part.
While other on-campus facilities, such as the Engineering Communication Studio, have 3-D scanning and printing capabilities, Finley said the CxC Art+Design Studio is the only University facility he knows of with portable equipment that can detect colors.
Finley said he is often contacted by students who are concerned they might not be able to scan an object because of its size. However, he said the portable equipment has allowed him to assist students in scanning objects as tall as seven feet.
Even though the scanner is available to all University students, Finley said it is especially helpful to architecture and interior design students.
“Especially for artists, our scanner gets color, and it makes a color image association with the 3-D model that you get, so that’s very advantageous for people who are trying to do renderings for any sort of project,” Finley said.
The device allows students to scan real-world design elements and print out smaller replicas. They can also scale up or scale down a model for printing.
Finley said digital arts students have used the scanner to digitally fabricate an item to be used as part of an animation.
“Your mind is the only thing that’s limiting you from using that scanner in a creative way, and, you know, there’s been a lot of different projects, I mean, countless projects where people have come in and used the scanner in some new fashion that I hadn’t thought about previously,” Finley said.