The most common expectation is a miniature person indistinguishable from the original. The most common reality is better than that: a thing that is recognisably that person at that moment, and that you can pick up.
How the scanning goes
The infrared mode is built for living subjects. It doesn't dazzle anyone's eyes and it doesn't get confused by breathing. In practice that means a couple of minutes, and a child does not have to be a statue.
- An adult: a couple of minutes, standing, one pose
- A child: the same, but usually two or three attempts and we keep the best
- A pet: scanning is the fast part, persuading the dog is the slow part
- A pregnancy bump: standing, a couple of minutes, no gel and no waiting room
What comes out well
- Posture and proportion: the thing by which you recognise someone from a hundred metres away
- Fabric folds and texture, as long as the fabric isn't shiny
- Facial features down to roughly the level of eyelashes
- A child's size and shape at one specific age. A year later that's a different child.
What doesn't
- Hair. Long, light and curly especially. A scanner sees a mass, not strands.
- Glasses and shiny objects. Glass doesn't scan, so either we take them off or model them back in.
- Very dark, glossy fabrics.
- The expression in someone's eyes. The geometry is there; a gaze isn't geometry.
Likeness is subjective and I say so in advance. A scan gives shape, not interpretation. Most people look at the finished figure and say “that's him”. Some look and say the nose isn't right. The nose is exactly as it is. You have simply never looked at it in three dimensions before.
When scanning isn't possible
A memorial figure can be made from photographs where the person can no longer be scanned. That is sculpting rather than scanning: the model is built up from the photos. It takes longer, costs more, and the result depends entirely on how good the photos are. Three good ones from different angles beat thirty bad ones.
Material and finish
Portraits are printed in resin, because the detail resolution is in a different league. In exchange resin is more brittle and gets more fragile in sunlight over time. A figure is a shelf object, not a toy. More on materials: what the part is actually made of.
A bust up to 15 cm is €290, a full figure up to 20 cm €390, a pet from €340. Prices including VAT are in the price list.
Tell me who, and what the occasion is. We'll work out the rest.
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