In a ideal world, the recently captured Head model would perfect and not require any finessing or repairs, but this is reality and time to get to work fixing the model with Meshmixer.
The goal of this project is to create a master model of a Skull to use as form to sculpt our heads. Currently we use a styrofoam egg as a base to begin the sculpt — it is first shaped into a skull, eye sockets are hollowed out as well as the nose and facial area then covered with epoxy clay. We wanted to have a master Skull that can easily be resized to suit and maintain the parts of the form that do not need to be altered, like the cranium. And it would also be nice to have ears (hate sculpting ears) or at least something in place to help ease the pain.
The 3D captured Head is imported into Meshmixer, wireframe setting activated to analyze the density of the mesh, too dense will add longer time to the slicing/printing process which can already take a hours even when all is right. The model is run though various diagnostic tools to find holes and weak areas that require patching, then using the brushes to refine, smooth and re-sculpt parts of the model.
Head+Time=Skull
Once we have a good error-free master Head, the skull form is made by selecting parts of the face to remove (orange) and then delete/auto-fill the areas. Then the Skull is again run through analysis to check for hidden problems, repair new holes, see if the mesh is still reasonable as any alteration can increase the density of the mesh.
The next stage is printing the final Skull Model (yes, it does look creepy) but first we need to run the 3D Printer through calibration. This can be easy-peasy or an all-day event….wish us luck!
