2. Digital bodies¶

Research & Ideation¶

referance image for Ain Ghazal monumental in Jordan — "Ain Ghazal"

You can Check the website - Jordan meuseum website

References & Inspiration¶

This week i wanted to present something related to digital-body but not just a form i wanted to have a story behind. As an architect growing up in a rich country of heritage and layers of ancient civilizations i found myself always inspired by heritage and archeology. That left me with one question !

What if I begin with the historical documentation process itself and tell a story through it?

THE STORY¶

The ʿAin Ghazal statues, discovered near Amman, are among the oldest known human sculptures in the world, dating back to around 6500 BCE.

Crafted from lime plaster layered over reeds and twigs, they reveal remarkable artistry for their time. Carefully buried in groups, these figures are believed to have held ritual or ancestral meaning, offering a glimpse into the spiritual life of one of the earliest settled communities.

Today, they stand as timeless symbols of Jordan’s deep cultural heritage and humanity’s enduring desire to tell stories through form and material.

To read more about Ain-Ghazal You can Check thisWebsite-Link

Week explore¶

Make Human¶

During this week my hand worked on several programs starting with "Make Human " free software can work well on creating characters / mannequin and even play with human bodies to have vaiety of shapes and races.

It was good to explore and create a few models . espicailly if you want to export a human body to rhino or any 3d software and you meight use the hand/ leg for jewllery design or even as a customized fashion mannequin for your designs. as well you can see the blue rectangle on the left photo- left down : shows some description of what you are creating such as age, gender, race, and more you meight explore!

I had fun explore it But for me i have not work on it further on this assigment as it is something historical and not easy to be done accurately on make-human. so well go with you on more steps to my work with next sections. Yalla!!

3D-Print Process and Workflow¶

First Step¶

To work on Ain-Ghazal models i needed a model for it and i wanted to go meuseum and try to scan it by myself using phone . the challenge is it meight not take 360 view for the model as the sculptures are protected with glasses and most likely you will be able to see only front view ."well it was still an option" . Then i decided to try searching on internet if there is any documentation or a 3d model for it on skechfab and luckily I FOUND IT !

Feel Free to check GlobalDigitalHeritag on sketchfab if you are intrested in 3d scanned heritage models .

Second Step¶

I exported the Ain-Ghazal file as obj format and imported to Rhino "Rhino is 2D and 3D software works well with design and preparing files directly for laser cutting . Adding to that grasshopper is integrated with it to work on more computational design . visual coding and turn your designs to be parametric. Check tools section to install.

Rhino¶

Opening Rhino You can import the file "i used milimitter unit " and on the command bar on the top you can write import and then select the file you already stored on desktop.

Normally when importing any 3d scanned object it is important to rotate it and check any openning espicially in the feet area as it meight be neglicted during scanning but it is important to have it closed. on this photo the feet were opening and needed to be closed with next step on mesh mixer.

Meshmixer¶

Then exported to Meshmixer software "well to work with 3d mesh on " to close any openning espicially on down side of the feet "feel free to install it from the website down on the tools section". After uploading the file to Meshmixer go to "edit" "left-side" of tools then "make solid"

Then I opened the file again to check if it is closed on rhino . it was closed so then i decided to take 2 approaches : 1- Take Stl file to Cura and 3d printed the figure. 2- Use Autodesk Slicer to export 2d sheets from the 3d model to use them on laser cutting machine.

Third Step - 3D printed¶

I upload it the "stl" file after mesh mixer and check on rhino again by imported the file "same way as mentioned in rhino section" and it was ready to UltiMaker Cura for 3d print. and the good thing is you can adjust the scale of the model " and you adjust one-axis and other axis will be updated automatically . "Ultimaker cura is good app to use perfectly with ultimaker 3d printing machines to adjust and slice and prepare the fille for process , it can also with other printer but meight not be as precise as ultimaker "

But i wanted to make it to scale as possible so for this i used Chat-GPt to help me with search and check the true size of this figure in the meuseums and it gave me "this model known as life size standing close to 1 meter tall" however following the scale icould adjust the scale base on the referance dimension so that i changed the scale to be a smaller for test 1 cm to each 10 cm .

Reviewing the estimated time for the machine to print — as shown here, it took around 2 hours and 22 minutes.
Then I exported the file as an .ufp to my USB to connect to the 3D printer.
The next step will be about machine setup.

I chose the filament color for printing the Ain Ghazal human figure and loaded it into the machine.
Next, I’ll describe the machine setup and configuration process. Machine worked to buld the model layer by layer . feel free to watch the following short Vimeo video.

From Vimeo¶

3D Printing for Ain Ghazal human figure

Final 3D printing figure¶

The output of 3d has a supporter " the columns on the figure shown near to legs to support the object and reached up to support the chin , it works to support edges to support . and normally you can ramove it unless you have a specific idea in your mind.

Final 3D - AinGhazal

you can see here the output as 3d printed and the photo on the right is during the dark as the showing how the bright filament used in this print glows smoothly when the lights are off.

Third Step (A) - 3D scanning¶

Since i already had the 3d printed model i decided to explore scanning for the object using Kiri a mobile app to 3d scan based on a video or multi images all sides then it export 3d model from photos.

Tips!¶

1- try to use automatic photo taker on the app to make your life easier!

2- Keep the object on a rotated surface to help you with rotation and here i used a rotated chair to ensure the object stays on same level for better scanning .

3- use a contrast background to help the app identify the object correctly . The more photos you take the better result you have , keep in mind to take photos from diffrent side 360 angles and top and bottom. And the output of these scanned photos will be a 3d model . see the skechfab file below:

From Sketchfab¶

Closed Mesh _ Kira Scanned by Haneen Khaleel on Sketchfab

Laser Cutting - Process and Workflow¶

Now i had two files for 3d model :

3d model file i used on 3d printing.
3D scanning model file.

I choosed to work on the first file and import it to Slicer as STL file .

Slicer¶

Slicer is a software was maintained by autodesk until 2024 and help designers to cut complex shapes and 3d to 2d on flat materials (cardboard, plywood, acrylic sheets,..etc) and assemble them into 3D structures.

You can create here y a customized material settings and add the material you will cut on the model on laser and the material thickness .

Saving the sliced items in dxf is well suitable to work on later on any 2d/3d software to prepare the file to be cuted on laser cutting machine.

File preperation + Laser Cutting settings¶

Make sure to draw your laser cutting bord size and here it is 100 cm * 60 cm . but because the available material in the lab size was 60*30 cm so i re adjust the boards to be suitablle for. however adjust the dxf exported boards is important to do on the 2d software you are using to to minimize the waste on the board and ensure the extra material can be re used later .

Laser cutting setting¶

Make a model from 2d cutting¶

The output laser cutted Mmachine ardboard as shown in the image bellow as 2d , the next step is to assemble them to 3d based on lasyering the 2d above eachothers following the number lightly engraved on the top.

3D Models¶

Ain Ghazal - second model Laser + 3D Print

Tools¶

Tools and softwares used during the process are:

You can Check following websites