Welcome to the first in a series of blogs where I will guide you through the process of creating a stunning digital product shot. This tutorial is designed for intermediate artists who are eager to expand their skills. However, even if you're a beginner, you can still follow along and learn valuable techniques. Feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts in the comments section.

In this tutorial, we'll embark on a journey from visual design development to the final rendering of the product for presentation. We'll also explore how to print your prototype using Shapeways.

Please, note that this tutorial is intended for artists with a basic understanding of 3D programs like Maya or Zbrush. If you're a beginner, it would be beneficial to familiarize yourself with these programs before proceeding.

Materials Needed

For this tutorial, you'll need the following materials:

• A pen and paper for design sketches
• Chavant clay for sculptingA digital photo camera
• 3DF Zephyr for 3D scanning

Design Development

The first step in our process is to develop a concept for our design. This involves brainstorming ideas, sketching initial concepts, and refining our design. For this tutorial, we'll be designing a belt buckle with a wolf-like head.

Start by sketching the base of the belt buckle. The base should have rounded corners and a slightly concave shape to give it depth. The head of the buckle will be placed on top of the base, so it's important to have a clear idea of the base shape before moving on to the head design.

Next, we'll look for inspiration for the head design online. We'll focus on key features that define the creature and ignore details like fur to keep the design simple and emphasize hard edges. This design approach is inspired by the Renaissance period, also known as the Age of Gothic Dark Arts (mid 12th -16th century).

After we have our Design Card (DC), we'll move on to the sculpting process.

Sculpting The Prototype

Sculpting the product out of clay is a fun and rewarding process. During this stage, we're more concerned with the overall feel of the design than precision. It's important to remember that the final digital prototype may look slightly different when 3D printed, so it's always a good idea to have a physical model to start with.

For this project, we'll be using Chavant hard in green tint. This allows us to sculpt the edges more precisely once we've shaped the overall form. To soften the hard clay, we'll use a desktop lamp with a bulb.

Once we have the final sculpt of the belt buckle, we'll move on to the 3D scanning process.

3D Scan (Convert into point-cloud) in 8 Simple Steps

Step 1: Preparation

Before you start the scanning process, you will need a good light stage and a camera. A smartphone camera can be used for this purpose. For better quality, it's recommended to use a camera with a higher aspect ratio. The object you want to scan and the lights should remain fixed while you move the camera to capture multiple pictures.

Step 2: Capturing Images

Once you have taken the necessary pictures, save them into a folder on your computer. The next step is to convert these pictures into 3D data.

Step 3: Installing 3DF Zephyr

To convert your pictures into 3D data, we'll use 3DF Zephyr Pro (Free version). You can download the program from the 3D Flow website https://www.3dflow.net/3df-zephyr-photogrammetry-software/.

Step 4: Converting Pictures to 3D Data

After launching the program, you'll need to upload your pictures. From the top menu, click on Workflow > New Project. A New Project Window will pop up. Make sure you have 'Check online for precomputed camera calibration' highlighted (orange box). Click Next to go to the second window. Here, you'll load your pictures of your product. Press the plus sign (+) to load all the pictures from the folder. After all the pictures are loaded into the window, click Next again. The program will automatically check your pictures and identify the camera and other settings that will help 3DZephyr with the conversion.

Now, click on Next. This window is for the scan options. Here, you'll specify how much detail you want the program to capture from the photos. Depending on the project, the options may vary. For this project, set it to light conversion.

After you have all the settings matched, click Next and in the next window, click Run to start the point cloud creation. The process might take some time depending on your RAM and CPU power.

Step 5: Checking the Process

After the processing, the program will tell you how many pictures were accepted. If you have more than half pictures rejected, you will need to retake them under better light conditions (the best is cloudy daylight or under a shade). Click Finish to exit the window.

On your screen (3D workspace), you should see points. This is the point cloud that has been captured from your photos and placed in 3D space. To navigate your workspace, click SHIFT + LMB (Left Mouse Button) to zoom in or out, CTRL + LMB to shift or ALT + LMB to rotate.

Step 6: Generating an Additional Point Cloud

Next, generate an additional point cloud that will help with the details. To do this, click on Workflow > Dense Point Cloud Generation. The wizard window will pop up. It is the same process as part A. Press Next to get started. In the next window, check that you are in the presets settings. Set your Category to Close Range and Presets to Ultra.

In the next window, click Run for the process to get started.

Step 7: Mesh Extraction

The next step is to generate the mesh from the point cloud. Click on Workflow > Mesh Extraction to generate the mesh from the point cloud.

Step 8: Generating Texture from the Point Cloud

The last process is to generate texture from the point cloud. It will be available after the mesh extraction is complete. The texture extraction will be as simple as the previous actions. You will only need to set your Max Texture Size to 2048 and Image resolution to 100%. Everything else, leave as defaults.

To export your mesh with the textures, go to Export > export textured mesh or export mesh if you don't want the texture with your model. Set the desired mesh to OBJ and texture format to PNG. This section is done!

And that's it! You have successfully scanned a 3D model from your photos using 3DF Zephyr Pro.

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To create a floating window in Maya using Python, you can use the `cmds` module. To make it look like a fancy window, you might want to customize the appearance using styles and colors.

Here's an example code to create a basic floating window:

---->

import maya.cmds as cmds




def create_window():
    window_name = "Window"
    if cmds.window(window_name, exists=True):
        cmds.deleteUI(window_name, window=True)
    
    window = cmds.window(window_name, title="Window", widthHeight=(300, 150))
    cmds.columnLayout(adjustableColumn=True)
    cmds.text(label="This is a window", align="center", font="boldLabelFont")
    cmds.button(label="Close", command=('cmds.deleteUI("' + window_name + '", window=True)'))
    cmds.button(label="Press Me", command=show_message)
    cmds.showWindow(window)




def show_message(*args):
    cmds.confirmDialog(title='Message', message='It works!', button=['OK'], defaultButton='OK')




create_window()

<----

This code defines a function `create_window()` that creates a Maya window with a title "Window", a label, and a button to close the window. You can customize this code to add more elements and style them according to your requirements.