Disney Research has just dropped one big bomb on us, and we can't say we mind

Aug 9, 2014 07:29 GMT  ·  By

Layer thickness, another word for FDM 3D printing resolution, is what ultimately decides the level of detail and precision of a 3D printed object. So far, it has been pretty hard to make sure that all prints are truly faithful to the 3D models.

This will continue for a while yet, especially if you own one of the less stellar 3D printers in the world. However, the 3D printing market is advancing quickly, and we dare say that a new technology from Disney Research could change how a lot of things are done.

Why? Because it actually allows for 3D printed figurines to have realistic hair. And now, we aren't exaggerating at all. Look at the attached pictures and you'll see what we mean.

Hair has long been an issue when it comes to rendering something in three dimensions. 3D programs have been making do with painting an illusion of fur on animals, with the occasional tuft of strands that move to and fro.

Same for human hair. While it's been used a fair bit in CGI-based films, games have mostly been shying away from it, although there's been the occasional title that added a fringe or side strands that glided in the simulated wind.

Only in the past two or three years have technologies like AMD TressFX appeared, which can draw true hair in virtual environments.

The only reason toys have had an easier time with hair is that many of the better ones use actual human hair. You know, the type donated for making wigs.

That's not exactly something you can easily apply to a 3D print though. Fortunately, and amazingly, Disney Research has the solution.

Scientists from Disney Research, specifically Disney Research Zurich, the Disney lab (one of the researchers was a PH.D student that interned there) and the University of Zaragoza, Spain, have created a technology that can 3D print realistic hair on miniature bobblehead dolls.

The key was a multi-view stylization algorithm that “extends feature-preserving color filtering from 2D images to irregular manifolds in 3D.” In layman terms, it uses abstract details to apply an effect similar to the hair in photos, while smoothing out the hair surface. This works equally well for beards and mustaches as it does for actual hair.

Ironically, it's not the 3D printers that cause most of the problems here, but the scanners. 3D scanners have trouble capturing the way hair is arranges (how individual hairs or strands stick out, the shape, the color, etc.). The algorithm we mentioned before allows 3D scans to properly capture the hair, leading to the prints embedded above and below.

3D printed hairy things (4 Images)

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