Use Case: Alex Lobos, Rochester Institute of Technology

Alex Lobos is a renaissance man of design. When he’s not evangelizing sustainable design, he’s re-engineering champagne glasses. Or teaching industrial design students at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Or playing drums for Guatemalan rocks bands. 

Here we talk to Alex about his projects using Autodesk ReMake and Fusion 360:

What are the advantages of using ReMake and Fusion 360 in your work and teaching?

 It saves me time: If I want to explore variations of an existing artifact, I don’t have to model it from scratch. I can capture and edit it directly in ReMake or I can also export it to Fusion 360 to play more it with or combine with other models.

It helps me to maintain design intent: many times, designers are happy with a physical mock-up but then need to use it only as reference when remaking it in CAD. This causes a lot of details to be “lost in translation” but ReMake allows for the actual model to be digitized in a format that can be directly edited in Fusion 360.

It’s fun and easy to use: ReMake aligns well with Fusion 360 in terms of having a simple and intuitive interface. There’s no significant learning curve that requires a lot of wasted time trying to learn the software before getting the results that I want.

How have you (or plan to) use ReMake with your students? In your own work?

 I’ve enjoyed using ReMake in a number of applications. My students are also becoming very interested in using it with their projects. We have some projects going on around accessible technology, prosthetic design and healthcare interaction, and ReMake will be a very important tool so that we can develop designs that connect better with their users and their physical needs.

What inspired you to re-engineer the bicycle pedal?

 This pedal goes back to the idea of exploring improvements for an existing design in a quick way. When looking at the existing pedal I realized that I would waste a lot of time modeling it from scratch in the computer. ReMake allowed me to capture it quickly but also to make edits to the surface and even add geometry to it in a very short time. I wasn’t expecting for this process to substitute a final design for manufacturing but I felt that it was a great way to see if a new design could work. I was also interested in exploring how well ReMake can be applied for mechanical designs that tend to be more geometric and precise. I was very happy with the results of the pedal redesign for quick concept exploration.

How does starting with a 3D model help the process of developing on things that already exist?

 We live in a 3D world. If we model in a physical world, we automatically validate the interaction that we’ll have with a product. ReMake helps in capturing this physical exploration and bring it to CAD in an easy workflow. This process eliminates a lot of assumptions that happen when only designing in CAD, which in many cases lead to huge problems.

 Do you think this approach will have an impact on the future of design?

 Design is becoming more integrated and intuitive. New technologies allow for designs to become tangible almost immediately. Many of the processes for creating design is also becoming more natural, following human gestures instead of computational commands. ReMake is an excellent tool for integrating physical and digital worlds and to maximize fluid processes for concept development.

How were you introduced to ReMake and why do you like it?

 I was familiar with similar Autodesk products such as 123D Catch and ReCap. I was very excited to see many enhanced capabilities when Memento came out as beta and eventually was released as ReMake.

ReMake is very easy to use and extremely powerful for capturing physical products and editing mesh faces. This type of manipulation is not common in traditional CAD for designers. You can create interesting geometries but it’s harder to manipulate sections of faces as if you were sculpting them. ReMake allows you to do that! In addition, ReMake can export geometries in formats that make them completely editable in Fusion 360. This capability makes it a must-use software for workflows in industrial design.

The flashlight is an example of Alex’s physical and digital prototyping using ReMake and Fusion

What are you working on now? What’s next?

 My personal interests tend to focus on sustainability, technology and emotional design. Lately I’ve explored how software like Fusion 360 and ReMake can help in sustainable product design, in terms of creating products that are simpler and that capture feedback from potential users in a more natural way. The more that users connect with their products the more (and longer) that they use them, making the products more relevant and sustainable.

Alex’s Tips & Tricks 

1.      Use Bridge to quickly create sections:

When editing the pedal in ReMake I wanted to add support sections. After deleting faces in opposite ends sections I was able to connect them with “Bridge”, eliminating the need of going to a CAD software to add geometry to the model.

2.      Smoothing surfaces out results in models with better quality:

ReMake can capture A LOT of details, which sometimes translates to faces that have too much texture and variations. Using the “smooth” tool to clean faces helps in exporting models with cleaner surfaces into Fusion360.

3.      Be careful with how many faces are exported to Fusion 360:

Importing a model with too many faces into Fusion 360 might make it challenging to edit. It’s useful to export a few files, each with different number of faces, in order to find a face-count that provides the necessary surface quality with the simplest geometry.

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Alex was born in Guatemala where he started his career as industrial designer. Currently, Alex is Graduate Director and Associate Professor of Industrial Design, and extended program faculty at Golisano Institute for Sustainability, at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Read more about his work here. His research and academic work has been sponsored by companies such as Autodesk, AT&T, Colgate-Palmolive, General Electric, Kraft, Staples, Sun Products, Unilever and Wegmans. Alex is a Fulbright Scholar and holds an MFA from the University of Notre Dame and a BID from Universidad Rafael Landivar.

Autodesk ReMake is available for both Mac and Windows. Download a free trial at remake.autodesk.com. Learn more about Autodesk Fusion 360 here.

Bronze Londoners Invade Heathrow in “London – New Vision”

A woman sits on the grass in the middle of Heathrow Airport. A man in spectacles and slouching jeans plays guitar for listeners who stand silently behind him.

These scenes and more have been captured from real, every day London streets by Henry Reichhold – renowned 3D artist and photographer. For his London - New Vision exhibit, running from July 19-October 19 in Heathrow’s Terminal 5, Reichhold used photogrammetry and Autodesk ReMake to cold cast these scenes in bronze resin.

The London - New Vision exhibit uses a variety of technologies including Autodesk ReMake and ArtCam software, 3D printing technology by MyMiniFactory, Ultimaker, and 3D Filaprint to merge London’s fantastic architecture with the people who fill its streets. The project goes far beyond the capture of static objects and challenges preconceptions on how we use photogrammetry. The result is a whole new art form - all from a camera.

First, Reichhold captured his subjects using photogrammetry and his Nikon. Next, the 2D photos were turned into 3D models using Autodesk ReMake, and decimated and optimized for further use. Then the reliefs were prepared in ArtCAM, and the models were 3D printed and cold cast in bronze resin to achieve the final result.

From Piccadilly Circus to the bus depot and picnics in the park, this exhibition is all about the people of London, always changing, always fascinating.

For London - New Vision, you used a Nikon camera, Autodesk ReMake and ArtCam software, and 3D printing technology by MyMiniFactory, Ultimaker, and 3D Filaprint. How did this blend of technology address solutions for the project’s specific challenges?

Throughout the whole project I was able to test concepts with the kind help of Ultimaker who supplied the project with an Ultimaker Extended 2 printer. This meant that any issues could be ironed out before passing the models on to MyMiniFactory who used 20+ printers to create the parts needed for each model. Many thanks also goes out to 3D FilaPrint for the PLA media.

Showing work at an airport requires that the exhibition material passes the highest fire retardancy standards so showing a 3D printed final artwork in PLA was not going to happen. I looked at various casting methods and settled for bronze cold casting. This resin casting technique met all required standards.

I spent a month testing various settings and learning how to use the software with the 'Peter Pan’ statue in Kensington Gardens as my principle subject. When I was happy with how to capture the ’still’ subjects for my artworks I turned my focus on to the tricky problem of capturing atmosphere, people and clouds. For the background bas relief work Tatjana Dzambazova pointed me to a great solution - Autodesk’s ArtCam Pro. The software was perfect for bas relief creation so that just left one final obstacle, capturing people in a natural environment.

You can’t really expect people to stay still for half an hour while you take all the high res shots you need for full 3D capture so what I needed was a solution that would enable this capture in seconds - this meant a very, very fast camera. Enter Nikon’s lightning fast new flagship camera (the Nikon D5) - the ideal solution, capable of taking 140 high res raw images in just 10 seconds this became a real game changer. Thanks to Nikon’s generous support this camera made the final stage of capture into a reality.

How do you foresee photogrammetry and 3D modelling influencing art?

Photography merged together with 3D photogrammetry software creates a powerful new form of expression and I think we can expect to see a huge amount of development around this fascinating new art form.

How were you introduced to ReMake? Why do you like it?

A year ago I started looking into the possibility of taking photography into a new dimension - inspired by the extraordinary bas relief bronzes at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London I wanted to create 3D artworks that had the immediacy of photographs but in 3D.

I looked at various photogrammetry solutions and then came across the ReMake Beta application - I was amazed! The capabilities and the potential to be had from this software were jaw dropping. After a few tests I contacted the ReMake team and spoke to Tatjana Dzambazova whose brilliant knowledge and support led to the development of the Heathrow project.

 The clarity of the user interface and the simple workflow both make ReMake a real pleasure to use. As a photographer creating complex 3d designs the cloud processing and intuitive surface tools are real time savers and make this a compact yet powerful and comprehensive solution. 

This has been quite an exciting summer! What’s been the most surprising with this exhibit?

What has surprised most people with the current project is the fantastic detail in the models and I hope to expand on this with my next exhibition that will look at creating large artworks in 3D full colour.

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Henry Reichhold is based in London and is a part time lecturer at Central Saint Martins. His work can be seen at www.reichholdarts.com. Read more about Reichhold’s London - New Vision exhibit in Heathrow Airport here and here. Autodesk ReMake is available for both Mac and Windows. Download a free trial at remake.autodesk.com. Learn more about Autodesk ArtCam here.

Student Designer Recognized by Autodesk ReMake Product Team

Christoph Unbescheidt is a prolific product design student with a whimsical side. His creations span BMX bike helmets to funky fridges, futuristic jet skis to mushroom lights for smartphones. Unbescheidt's design approach stunned the audience at the Global Education Supplies & Solutions (GESS) conference in Dubai with his presentation of a beautiful, complex 3D model of a cabbage leaf pendant inspired by his mother’s home cooking. 

His innovation and passion to generously share his knowledge of technology with others has led to Unbescheidt to be recognized as a student visionary by the Autodesk ReMake team. He will be awarded a $500 gift card in appreciation of his work and collaborative ethic.

Here is what Christoph -  Autodesk Expert Elite, Fusion360 Champion, and founder of CUD - says about creativity and the tools that fuel it.  (Interview has been translated from the original German.) 

Tell me about the famous cabbage leaf pendant. What inspired you to create this piece?

The project started with an idea to give someone a unique present. Despite its simple and well known basic shape, a leaf’s high complexity has always fascinated me. One day, I was watching my mom in the kitchen while she was cooking a typical cabbage soup, and I was again reminded of the leaf and wanted to capture its beauty. From earlier experiments with organic surfaces I had concluded that ReMake (at the time Memento), amazingly, could not only capture this complexity but even augment it.

So, I took bunch of photos from different angles and developed for myself a surprisingly fast and accurate workflow. Moving forward, the subject of mass customization will only grow in importance and ReMake is perfect for designers like me who prefer to spend time focusing on design, rather than re-creating objects.

Previously, I had built complex models from various materials (such as plaster and wires) in the local Museum of Natural History. I found that the gold materials from Fusion360 that I applied to the models were very effective and appropriate for the GESS 2016 in Dubai - and they indeed resonated with the visitors.

Only later I realized that this project reminds of the first efforts of famous American inventors (including Benjamin Franklin) to use leaf imprints in paper banknotes to prevent the counterfeiting of money.

 How were you introduced to ReMake?

 I used 123D Catch previously, both on my smartphone and (desktop), and found the possibilities quite impressive. About a year ago, I started using Memento Beta and it opened opportunities for my workflow. Memento then became ReMake and I started testing the 30 day version.

Why do you like ReMake and how do you use it?

 ReMake is very intuitive to use and provides good results, and I can work quite quickly with them in my product design workflows.

I mainly use ReMake to save time. It is often much easier to capture and work with digital replicas of complex objects from real life, rather than to build them in CAD.

What are the advantages of using ReMake and Fusion 360 in your work?

 When I want to design a product or tailor something exactly for someone’s body, ReMake is indispensable for me. Previously, I used a lot of images on different layers and scaled them correctly to then design a 3D model from 2D surfaces.

Depending on the use case, this would often take hours or even days. ReMake helps me in this workflow in that I can export the OBJ models to Fusion and can rebuild a 3D model in Fusion really fast. The OBJ Quad export is super powerful for direct free form modeling in Fusion 360!

Where do you see opportunities with ReMake and Fusion 360?

The possibilities that ReMake opens are huge and will grow from the greater community. Many interesting projects that will be loaded in the ReMake Gallery will be an inspiration for other new projects. For me, it’s only a natural progression - after painting, sculpture and photography - to capture objects in 3D, as our world is three-dimensional.

Currently we explore these 3D models on a flat screen but all that will be (or has already) changed with the increased use of virtual reality.

If it would be possible to also export the wonderful pixel-textures during the OBJ export of the models, one could use the model for lot more use cases. This export could be named OBJ.pixel and the textures could be printed on a RGB 3D printer like the one from Disney.

Also, a live scanning function could be helpful to recognize errors on objects in real time.

Overall, with today’s capabilities, personalizing designed items seems to be the most meaningful use case.

What are you working on now? What’s next?

At the moment I am working on a few different projects. One of them is creating living organisms for the human body that augment humans’ abilities and senses:

Mask - enables you to see in the darkness

Pulse - organic living device for electro-communication. Brain to brain interface will follow.

 Aroma – a living device to produce, store and release different aromas designed for the year 2084.

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Autodesk ReMake is available for both Mac and Windows. Download a free trial at www.remake.autodesk.com. Learn more about Autodesk Fusion 360 here.

How to take photos that will produce best 3D models?

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Hi all,

Many of you who are new don't yet have the experience of what makes photos GOOD for photogrammetry (for converting to 3D).

We made this new video to help out https://youtu.be/D7Torjkfec4:   

We also have a section about this in the Getting Started Guide.

Finally we still have the old Webinar 03 in which we tried to explain all that in more detail. 

Enjoy and ask any question you might have on our forum!

-Tanja

Autodesk ReMake Redefines Reality Computing, Opening the Doors to Possibilities Across Industries

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The ability to digitize the physical world into high definition 3D models just took another leap forward.  After a successful test period Autodesk ReMake, previously known as Autodesk Memento, is now available as a commercial product.

ReMake converts a sequence of photos or scan data into high resolution 3D meshes and provides a smart toolset to clean, repair, and optimize the mesh for design and engineering workflows, digital archiving, interactive AR/VR experiences, and fabrication -- all in one package.

“We are amazed by the creativity of our Beta community and the variety of industries using ReMake software,”  said Tatjana Dzambazova, Senior Product Manager at Autodesk. “The positive feedback we’ve received on how simple ReMake is to use is very encouraging, as making complex technology easy-to-use was our main driver.” 

Feedback from Beta users:

• “The clarity of the user interface and the simple workflow make ReMake (formerly Memento) a real pleasure to use.  As a photographer creating complex 3D designs, the cloud processing and intuitive surface tools are real time-savers, and make this a compact, yet powerful and comprehensive solution.” – Henry Reicholds, photographer

• “I teach an Introductory Digital Tools class at the California College of the Arts. ReMake (formerly Memento) was by far everyone’s favorite tool to experiment with. Many of my students came into this class with no experience and feeling very intimidated. For such power, ReMake is extremely easy to navigate, and my students were able to grasp it right away and able to apply it to their own creative practice almost immediately.”  - Mia Feuer, instructor, California College of the Arts

Designed to handle dense reality data that often slows down other software, ReMake can visualize and edit up to one billion polygon mesh models, which are typical when detailed captures are needed and various sensor inputs are combined. 

While offering local photo-to-3D processing, ReMake is unique in offering cloud computation, eliminating the need for powerful desktop machines and thus making digitization of reality (reality computing) accessible to a vast number of users.  ReMake requires no CAD or 3D modeling experience, opening the doors to possibilities across a variety of industries and levels of design experience.   

 Examples for ReMake in action include:

• Made in Space integrated a 3D scanning system in their 3D printer on the International Space Station, utilizing ReMake software to compile the data and create a 3D model used to verify the dimensions of the printed part. 

• The Smithsonian Institution teamed with Autodesk to scan and create a 3D model of the iconic Apollo 11 command module for preservation, education and further research. 

• Hardshell Labs to create digital models of tortoise shells for 3D printing and conservation efforts to help save desert tortoises. 

• Renowned paleontologist Dr. Louise Leakey used the technology to create digital replicas of the oldest stone tools known to man to share with scholars and enthusiasts in the African Fossils virtual laboratory. 

• The Hydrous, a science communication non-profit, is using ReMake to create detailed 3D models of coral reefs to monitor changes in size and color for conservation efforts. 

• ReMake also integrates with Autodesk ReCap 360, helping to clean up, fix, and optimize assets for further workflows.  A recent scan project at the Colorado Red Rocks Amphitheater captured images to create a digital map of the challenging terrain, producing details, such as cracks on rocks, to a one-half inch of accuracy. 

Some of the new features included with the commercial launch are:

• Local computing with control parameers and 50Gigapixel image input

• Powerful diff analysis, reference points, scale and units

• Smart export templates for direct workflows with design, modeling and story telling tools

• New Play publish for online sharing

ReMake will initially launch on Windows with the Mac version to follow soon. To learn more, visit http://remake.autodesk.com/try-remake.

Autodesk, the Autodesk logo and ReMake are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries.