Hey all, you have probably noticed that I have not been commenting and posting as much as usual and I have said that I have been busy making a new toy. Actually its sort of refurbishing an old toy but I know how you guys like a new toy so I thought I would show some pics.

A very long time ago...about 1994 I think it was but it might have been before that I got wind of a technique for getting 3D object data from laser scan lines. At the time this was really new stuff but I thought that this would become a well needed thing. In 1994 I was on the old Commodore Amiga - a great little machine - and it was used a lot for video work as it had a hardware genlock for video as an input. Anyway on the back of that came a lot of 3D rendering software and I thought that was very cool but it became really apparent really quickly that getting 3D objects into it was a real pain.

Out of a real skip (dumpster US sp ?) I got an old LP record deck and wired up some motors to it and got a video frame grabber and an old black and white vidicon tube security camera - i.e. this was done on a low low budget ! You could buy laser pointers for not too much and I made a line generator lens out of perspex because nobody sold them either.

The first results were poor but the principle was proven and since then every few years I seem to think of more ways to improve it. I have lost track of how many revisions its been through but its now using more up to date stuff and bigger motors and a better platter.

Well it all went into hibernation a while back for loads of different reasons but I wanted to revive it again. I should have had this capability for my Werthers skull challenge and missed it so I was determined to get it back online.

So my recent project and mass hacking is now complete with only some minor tweaks to put back in. God its faster than it used to be with modern PC's and oodles of RAM to hold the data.

So heres some pics. The original Cadbury's Episode 1 edition Darth Maul chocolates box sprayed white on the left showing the laser scan line running down it. Then the model in the middle after scanning. Note that the right part of his cloak has gone wrong as that is where the line gets hidden from the camera. You can fix that by taking two scans or using two cameras but this is the first scan data thats come out of it. And then pic three is the textured model using a texture that I had from years ago when I last did this model. (When SW Ep 1 was out I guess !). Ok its not all that well lined up but you get the gist.

I was digging through my box of models and came across a board with 3D terrain on it so I think I should be able to get some better starting models for my GTS by sculpting the basic shape. This should be able to make the rivers run approximately in the right places as its easier to sculpt a model than it is to guess the contours.

Hope you found that interesting.