I made a small sculpture that I would like to have 3D printed at Shapeways.com.
I used 123DCatch to make a 3D model from jpg files, and it made what was probably a good start, it clearly needs some human work.
It turns out that although I am a professional software developer and use software nearly every waking hour, I profoundly suck at CAD/CAM and completely failed to figure out how to fix my model. I suspect it might be a quick and easy job for someone who has used CAD/CAM before, but it’s hard for me to say.
I placed here some jpgs of the sculpture, and the model I have in .obj and .123 format.
Shapeways supports files in the following formats:
I checked the file in Blender, the shape is there but it needs to be cleaned, a lot.
I recommend here to make the images again with a more contrasting background or light added (It seems the 3d tool you are using added a lot of the flat background to the model) and run the images into the 3d tool again. If those images are the best done so far, I could do the removal of all the extra nodes, but I’m busy today, I could help tomorrow.
Definately try another set of photos. Your biggest problem is the shininess of the object and the background.
Set it on something that has plenty of texture and a matte surface. I found a photo online of a frame full of fancy colored russian easter eggs and printed it out on a full sheet of paper. Don’t use something like sanpaper which is textured, but very random. The extra texture will help orient the cameras so Catch doesn’t have to rely only on what is in the object.
Is there any way you can dull the sculpture? Maybe some kind of makeup powder to take the shine off. Also large light sources can reduce specular highlights. I use several clip-on work lights with paper towels draped over them. The light comes from the whole towel rather than the point of the bulb. This also helps reduce shadows.
An alternative is finding a spot outside on a sunny day that is in the shade. Ideally the shady spot won’t have any sunny areas in view. I use the driveway on the north side of my house, which is close to my neighbors house. Both house walls are shaded, and there is a fence on the third side and a car on the fourth. This prevents high contrast between the object and something like a sun lit wall in the background.
When you get a good mesh, you will need to cut the object away from what it was sitting on, which can be a pain. Find something to use as a pedestal to raise it up, that is narrower than the sculpture. Something like a marker cap might work with this one. That will separate it from the base and make it very easy to delete the background mesh. It also gives you the ability to see the bottom of the sculpture, and you would ideally only need to fill the area where the cap comes in contact with it. You will need to put a light or two down low, or use a reflector to get some light on the underside.
Fill the frame with the sculpture as much as you can, and still keep it all in focus. Focus is critical, so you should get as much light as you can to get the depth of field as deep as possible. It can be as simple as a bunch of cheap clip-on work lights with bright bulbls in them.
When you get it done, post it here. I can do any additional cleanup, filling and smoothing once you get a good scan