3D Printing from 2D Photos?

[dbrussee]

I'm a limited skill model maker/prop maker always envious of the skills shown on RPF, so I thought I'd look here for answers.

I am looking to find help taking some 2D digital photographs and converting to a file for 3D printing and then printing it out for my personal use. I'm familiar with Shapeways for the production aspects. What I don't know is is whether the photos are sufficient to turn into a 3D file. And I don't know how to use a software solution to do the conversion. Any ideas?

The object being discussed is the very elusive "whistle" attachment for Mattel's Lost in Space Roto-Jet Gun toy. I lost an on-line auction for the complete toy, but the seller was kind enough to provide four detailed digital photos. I'm hoping to reproduce the part so that I can complete my collection.

Thanks for any input!

 

[TazMan2000]

Four photos is not nearly enough to produce a 3D file. 40 may be enough but they have to be from all angles possible. If you have exacting measurements along with your hi-Rez photos you may be able to design a 3D replica in a freem3d program.

TazMan2000

 

[Mach]

Like Taz said if you have decent measurements, its possible. That part doesn't look too complex. Does it have to be functional ie whistle? Any idea how its baffled?

 

[dbrussee]

Yea, I was afraid the number of photos was going to be too limiting. But the seller was nice enough to take them, so I didn't want to burden her with a request for 40 photos. No, it doesn't have to be functional. As far as actual dimensions, I can probably estimate using the gun as a reference. The two tabs plug into a port on the side, so I would know the width of the tab and could infer the rest from that.

Here is an example of what I have to work with

 

[TazMan2000]

Unfortunately even if you had a hundred photos, it would not be much help as photos have lens distortion and may not get the correct size of your object. I looked around online for the whistle attachment. While not overly large it looks a bit complex in its make up and since it has to attach to the gun, tolerances may come into play, and even hi-Rez photos would not help you much. in order to reconstruct something like this you would have to have the actual object in front of you and with an inside and outside caliber take exacting measurements of everything, either that or 3D scan it, but with its clear plastic housing that may not be possible. I may be wrong about that so if anyone has ever used a 3D scanner before, feel free to chime in, on the limitations of the scan beam and transparent media.
Wow. I found an auction where one of these toys went for over 13K.
Elusive might be an understatement.

Sorry for the bad news. Hopefully someone can point you in an easier direction.

TazMan2000

 

[Jintosh]

Temporary white coloration can be added to an object and then removed after 3D scanning it. But you still need the original object to do the scan. (which is not available in this case) The hollow nature of the object can also make it difficult to scan.

If you had your own 3D printer, you could do some trial and error. It could get costly to keep trying and making changes and trying again with Shapeways.

 

[George]

I came across Paint3D for windows 10.Not sure if that's an option?

 

[Jintosh]

wait....are you saying the piece with the black arrow is what plugs into the gun ? That can be approximated and then you just file the pegs down gradually until it fits.

How else does it fit with the gun ? This could potentially be done with a simple design and no need for 3D scanning.

 

[avagoyamug]

If you mean photogrammetry, no way - even 40 would not really do the job, more like 400, and lighting conditions and materials might still throw up problems... The resulting model still would be noisy and in a professional pipeline an artist would build the object from scratch, to this 3d reference.
The technique is great but it is very overestimated what you can do with it.

The object is fairly simple though and it wouldn't be to hard modeling this from scratch. Ideally you would need at least some measurements though.

 

[avagoyamug]

Sorry, TazMan pretty much already summed that up, but I failed to load the newest comments...
But what Jintosh said was right too, If you could get near one with a calliper, this would be easy to model. Otherwise I'd go for estimating and then filing, like he suggested.

 

[dbrussee]

Thanks for the comments! The black arrow points to the piece that attaches the whistle to the gun. Essentially, the whistle plugs into the side of the gun so that the kid can make noises with it as he aims and shoots.

In addition to the four photos, I do have reproductions of the instructions so I could infer sizes comparing the illustrations of the whistle against the actual pieces that I own of the rest of the gun.

While Lost in Space toys don't have the passionate following of, say, Blade Runner blasters or Star Wars light sabers, Taz is correct that in the toy world, the Roto Jet Gun is "a holy grail". They have sold on-line MIB for over $10K. I have collected the various pieces over the years and found a talented graphic artist to reproduce the box. So, the only piece missing from the ultimate display piece is the darn whistle. It is pretty much my "white whale" that I have been pursuing for many, many years since first owning one in 1967.

 

[Jintosh]

Mach may have already started a design, if not, I'll be happy to do this for you. If there's a picture of the whistle with the gun in the same picture, that would help.

Please post the pictures you have and figure the dimensions, and I can work from that.

 

[Anders Lann]

lock at this

 

[Jintosh]

Very nice pics, thanks !

 

[Jintosh]

The width of the black mark should be the width of the slot in the side of the gun. You can measure the slot in the gun to the closest millimeter and that will be the most important measurement.

 

[dbrussee]

You guys are great! Thanks for engaging with me on this project!

jintosh, the width of the slot in the gun is 11mm. So that would make the width of the black mark 11mm as well.

Here are the photos that I have:

 

[TazMan2000]

Since I didn't know how the whistle attached to the gun, I misspoke. I thought it plugged in via the 2 square tubes into a female slot. But it its just that tab, it should be too hard to model. If the tab is out a bit its nothing that some sandpaper and and X-acto knife couldn't handle.

I have a question debrusse. Are you a collector and "treasurer" of this object? The reason I ask, is that most collectors want to have everything orginal, and not recreated artificially. They generally spare no expense in getting the exact object of what they want and know and track the exact value of it over the years. There also are those that don't mind having a replica of the original, since it will be either sitting on a shelf as a reminder of a toy once owned or occasionally played with, or handed down to their family as a memento of the many years spent enjoying a toy.

Just curious.

TazMan2000

 

[dbrussee]

Interesting question.... I consider myself a "practical collector" but not an archivist. I'd love to have everything original, but the realities are that sometimes rarity and/or cost make it impossible to acquire the original item. In such a case, I'm OK with copies and replicas. For example, the MIB Lost in Space Roto-Jet Gun has sold at auction for over $10,000 over the years. And there are so few of them that they rarely change hands. So, I've purchased loose guns and pieces and assembled the complete toy. Then, I was able to take dozens of photos of an original box and had the box recreated. So, in the man cave it appears as a $10,000 item but the actual acquisition cost was so much less. Plus, I don't have all the worries of insurance and storage.

 

[Jintosh]

........

Okay, I worked an STL file. Here are renders of it. I'm just shooting for functional, not perfection.

 

[dbrussee]

Wow. Just amazing! What's the next step?