3D imaging an Ocarina

When attempting to 3D scan an ocarina, each one comes with its own challenges. While my ocarina was relatively simple, it required multiple class periods and several scans to create an accurate 3D depiction of the ancient Mayan artifact that was found in the Stingray Lagoon site of Belize. For my scan family A I chose to begin with the anterior side of my ocarina and do a vertical 360° scan as a starting point. I split the 360 into 7 divisions because, aside from the clothes on the front of the whistle, the ocarina was relatively simple in shape and form. With the divisions set to 7, the quality set to 29k HD, and the scanner set to macro/neutral, I began the scan which took approximately 30 minutes to complete. The first picture below is the completed scan family A.

Finished Scan Family A

While the front of the ocarina was captured well, the top, bottom, and back were incomplete due to places where the scanning platform created interference with the scanning lasers. To remedy this, I decided to introduce scan families B and C as a bracket scans. The bracket scans preform three divisions of scans with my chosen parameters of 29k HD, macro, and neutral. Scan family B provided scans of the inferior (bottom) side of the ocarina whereas scan family C scanned the superior (top). The picture attached below shows the results of scan family B, which scanned the ocarina with the posterior (back) side facing upwards.

Bracket scan of inferior side

The final scan done was to fill in the gaps in the posterior side of the ocarina that were created by the arm of the scanning platform blocking the path of the lasers upon the initial 360 scan. The image below shows the posterior side of the 3D scan with missing pieces due to platform interference. Due to the low level of complexity of the posterior end, scan family D consisted of a single scan done in 29k HD, macro, neutral conditions. The back of my ocarina contains a larger hole than others due to part of the mouth piece being cut by researchers to gather more information about the age and composition of the whistle. This hole became a source of issue when it came to scanning the inside of the square cut out; however, since the hole was cut by researchers and was not a specific, integral part of the original ocarina I decided to let the Scan Studio software fill in the gaps when I complete the scans.

Missing pieces due to interference

After finishing each of my four scans, I proceeded to align the four scans together using the alignment feature in Scan Studio. I placed no less than four and no more than six markers on each of the four scans to get them into an alignment with a .001 deviation tolerance. After running the alignments, I fused the images together using the watertight model feature. The end result was what I believe to be a good 3D rendering of the ocarina using four scan families over the course of two class periods. The fused and finished scan can be viewed below.