Creaform Digitizes a Celebrity

Team's 3D scans of popular snowman win prize.

by DE Editors | Published March 27, 2008

During the February 2008 Quebec Winter Carnival, in which Quebec City celebrated the 400th anniversary of its founding, staffers from Creaform (Quebec, Canada), a Levis, Quebec-based company specializing in 3D technology, executed a digital scan of the carnival’s star representative, “Bonhomme Carnaval,” a living snowman character, as part of the company’s annual 3D scanning contest.

Creaform challenged its employees to complete an original 3D digitalization project on the theme “The Four Elements,” using the company’s REVscan laser scanner and standard post-processing software. Inspired by the element water, the winning team came up with the idea to digitize the snowman. Of course, such an ambitious project was not without its challenges.

“The texture of Bonhomme Carnaval’s arrow sash and stocking cap were particularly difficult to reproduce, because they are tremendously complex,” said David Gagne, mechanical engineer and team member. Despite minor technical difficulties, the process was completed in five hours using two REVscan laser scanners.

After the contest, the digital files were handed over to officials of the Quebec City Winter Carnival, where they may be used to create miniatures and effigies that match the snowman’s proportions, as well as 3D ads and 3D animations.

Creaform, with offices in Canada, the United States, France, China, and Japan, provides 3D processes and technologies for the automotive, aerospace, biomechanics, consumer products, education, heritage preservation and architecture, and multimedia industries. Visit Creaform online at creaform3d.com.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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