I decided to scan a love bug planter that used to have beautiful mini roses when I originally bought it a year ago while working at Trader Joes. I’ve been interested in the functionality of 3D printing, especially making items that can hold plants and support life. The cute details on this object like the heart shaped headlights, made me want to recreate this item and have my own 3D scan for the future.
This project began with lots of trial and error. My first attempt at a good scan for the love bug, was done using the Trnio App. As you can see in the images above, the app picked up and scanned the speaker that was holding the car as well. The way the software requires you to scan the object involves having a full 360 view of the object. I was nervous about shadows, so I tried to prop it up onto a trashcan first then a speaker which was easier while I put my dorm floor lamp on a chair to attempt to get even lighting. With a lot of work on the bottom/open part of the car and lots of Blender skills, I think I could’ve cleaned this scan up. I really enjoyed using Blender and hope to use it for other projects, but during this step, the software was not needed and I knew I could get a much better scan with better software.
After multiple failed attempts, I determined that Einscan was the perfect software for this object and I needed to move past my own struggles with using phone technology that is hard to manipulate. Because I have an Apple computer, I was only able to scan my object during class time using Einscan on the Makerspace desktop. Setting up the software was super fast and easy since the device is already connected to the desktop.
With two days of scanning and crashing the computer multiple times with technical difficulties, I was able to compile three scans from three different positions of the love bug to get the most cohesive scan yet. I flipped the car on its side and completely upside down as the initial scan could not account for the bottom features and the hollow inside of the car. By manipulating the brightness setting on the software, I was able to get some of the black lettering on the love bug windshield. The tires were still invisible on the last scan due to their darkness but after applying the watertight seal on Einscan, the wheels and dark features were compensated for and filled in. The only downside of having to do multiple scans of the same object, was having to edit out the textures and surfaces used to steady the item on the turntable. Using the software’s basic editing features made it easy to erase unnecessary vertices and textures floating off the item.