Timelapse of 3D printout of Stephen Colbert's head

Darren Barefoot sends us this link to a timelapse video of a MakerBot 3D printer extruding a copy of Stephen Colbert's head, noting, "John Biehler has a 3-D printer, an excellent photographic eye and whimsy."

Colbert timelapse (Thanks, Darren!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: 3d printing • Happy Mutants • maker • makerbot • stephen colbert • timelapse • video

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benher

Would love to know how which method was used to capture the head scan.
- John Biehler
  
  I used a Creative Labs Socialize HD webcam and iStopMotion with some tiltshift settings dialed up to shoot the video.
- http://inchoate.myopenid.com/ Inchoate
  
  According to the Thingiverse page, the model was made with a Polhemus 3d scanner. (Colbert’s head was scanned for Bre Pettis’ visit to the Colbert Report where he was demonstrating the Thing-O-Matic. You can see a video of the show here.)
angrydroid

Looks like it had a little problem with Stephen’s chin.
- John Biehler
  
  Yup…the model is a little too high resolution for my print settings. A razor blade cleaned it up nicely though…
Alan

Is it me, or does Colbert have two mouths?
- John Biehler
  
  1 mouth and 1 droopy chin where the printer had trouble with the overhang.
http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

Nicely done! I keep expecting the mouth to start singing “sledgehammer.”

How long would the printing take in real time?On a related point, could someone tell me if this photo of a 3d head printed in color is legit? The result seems too perfect, though I have no reason to doubt it. Or am I misinterpreting the caption and this isn’t colored during the printing?http://www.flickr.com/photos/rapido3d/5795634568/
- John Biehler
  
  The print took a little under 2 hours to make.
  
  That 3d head looks legit to me…although it’s hard to say if it was printed then painted those colours. The high end ($100k & up) 3d printers can do some amazing things.
http://www.facebook.com/Theismisacrime Stephen Bullock

I’d love to know more about 3-D printing. The possibilities look endless. Anyone have some comprehensive material on how it works?
http://QuixoticJedi.com niceguyted

Bah. Crap. I want my 1:14 back.
Ted Brennan

To think that I once thought it was the Stork who brought Colbert. How wrong I was. Colbert=Cylon.
http://www.facebook.com/martinjlogan Martin Logan

Looks like Abe Lincoln
http://twitter.com/IlhanKudeki Ilhan Kudeki

I would very much like to see this done for Robert Patrick’s head from Terminator 2. If anyone should be printed in such a process, it should be the T-1000.