Need to make a 3d mask of someone specific – fast

November 25, 2014 7:17 PM

I have one week to create a wearable mask for a client. Ideally, it would be something like this but open to other techniques. I have photos and my client has deep pockets.
posted by pmaxwell to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Well, as they say in The Princess Bride, what are your assets? What software do you have available? What are your printing capabilities?

And how detailed do you need it to be -- does it need to look photorealistic, or could you go with something painted, or what?

What's it going to be used for?

(Why did you and your colleagues offer to make this?)
posted by Madamina at 7:39 PM on November 25, 2014

There's a lot of guides out there for that kind of papercraft mask ever since it made the rounds on the internet a few years ago - this is one. Youtube has some, as well.

I haven't done this myself, but have played around with Pepakura and a lot of 3d modeling. Essentially, you want a 3d planar mesh model of a face (either created by hand, or 3d scanned and hand-adjusted), then create an accompanying face texture, and then generate the papercraft version in pepakura, print it out and stick it to a thin museum board or such, then cut out via laser cutter or by hand, glue together, and voila!

If any of those steps aren't within your skill set, then it may be worth it to pay someone else to do this. MeMail if you wish; I have some contacts who are reliable and might be interested.
posted by suedehead at 8:01 PM on November 25, 2014

I posted about this on MetaFilter a few years back - you can order it here for $24.99.
posted by Dragonness at 10:24 PM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Did you try contacting the artist?
posted by devnull at 4:47 AM on November 26, 2014

I did a "That's My Face" a couple years ago. It scaled up and assembled pretty easily, and turned out well.
posted by achrise at 7:27 AM on November 26, 2014