Gilbert Stuart it ain't.

June 18, 2014 7:27 PM

President Obama is now the first president to be 3D scanned and printed. The...creation will be housed at the National Portrait Gallery.
posted by MoonOrb (41 comments total)

I give it a couple of months before the Obama 3D files are up on Thingiverse and people are making their own plastic/gummi/chocolate presidential busts.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:34 PM on June 18, 2014 [6 favorites]

Is there a layer with all the hues and shades, or is that not really practical with the 3D scanners?
posted by crapmatic at 7:40 PM on June 18, 2014

Well i guess they can use these scans in a couple hundred years when all the kids are in school on the holodeck...
posted by emptythought at 7:41 PM on June 18, 2014

Was it head to toe? Was it ... thorough?
posted by kafziel at 7:42 PM on June 18, 2014 [10 favorites]

Now post the scan in Maya-compatible format so every video game modder can easily add high-res Obama to games!
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:44 PM on June 18, 2014 [6 favorites]

Yes we scan!
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:47 PM on June 18, 2014 [18 favorites]

I, for one, welcome our new Cyber-bama overlord.
posted by arcticseal at 7:47 PM on June 18, 2014

More likely though, is an elaborate Ferris day away from Presidential responsibilities.
posted by arcticseal at 7:48 PM on June 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of nothing so much as a past coworker of mine who kept making and bringing to work Rice Krispies Treat sculptures of presidents' busts.

When he got to Obama he used Cocoa Krispies.

I am not even kidding.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:53 PM on June 18, 2014 [17 favorites]

I look forward to the Fox News Heads proclaiming the Czarist aspirations of Dictator Obama with his bust being made with Taxpayer Money to be worshipped as a false idol or something like that.
posted by symbioid at 7:53 PM on June 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

I could've sworn Martin Van Buren already did something like this…
posted by mazola at 7:54 PM on June 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ok so everything in Futurama is totally happening.
posted by sweetkid at 8:03 PM on June 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

I give it a couple of months before the Obama 3D files are up on Thingiverse and people are making their own plastic/gummi/chocolate presidential busts.

And how long before someone is using it to make those target dummies that spray fake blood everywhere when you shoot them in the head?
posted by pbrim at 8:04 PM on June 18, 2014

I think it says a lot about how far we've come technologically, that now you can print a 3D president.

Back in my day, if you printed a 2D president, like Andrew Jackson, in green ink on a certain kind of paper and you included words like TWENTY DOLLARS, you could get in trouble for that.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:07 PM on June 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

The look on his face is pure "is this scanner thing on? You're sure?"
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:11 PM on June 18, 2014

Eyebrows McGee, I am like 90% certain that your coworker only started making the things so he could build up to the Cocoa Krispies punchline, because why the hell else would anyone bother?
posted by nonasuch at 8:11 PM on June 18, 2014 [6 favorites]

Anything that could improve the presidential chia pet industry can't be all bad.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:18 PM on June 18, 2014

It's better than his head sculpt at the Hall of Presidents. That Valerie Edwards is no Blaine Gibson.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:20 PM on June 18, 2014

I was hoping it was going to be like these 3-d models.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 8:21 PM on June 18, 2014

I have no idea how these people got their presidents wedged into their scanners.
posted by Jode at 8:25 PM on June 18, 2014 [6 favorites]

Eyebrows McGee: "When he got to Obama he used Cocoa Krispies."

That is not a sentence I thought I would ever read.
posted by notsnot at 8:26 PM on June 18, 2014 [4 favorites]

The look on his face is pure "is this scanner thing on? You're sure?"

"Okay Mister President, look at the birdie and..."

*click*

"Wait, I didn't smile. I thought you were going to count to three!"

"I'm sorry Mister President, but we don't do retakes. That cost four hundred thousand dollars."
posted by Turkey Glue at 8:32 PM on June 18, 2014 [3 favorites]

So now idiots are going to complain about how this was printed in Kenya?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 8:34 PM on June 18, 2014

Lincoln did it!
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:44 PM on June 18, 2014

Why do they call them "busts"? They're usually heads, not busts.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:52 PM on June 18, 2014

Pshaw! Queen Elizabeth did this in 2003.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:13 PM on June 18, 2014

Ah, our first white black president.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 9:25 PM on June 18, 2014 [4 favorites]

twoleftfeet: "Why do they call them "busts"? They're usually heads, not busts."

I don't know, but I bet it's for the same reason a stupid person gets called a "boob".
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:34 PM on June 18, 2014

pbrim: "And how long before someone is using it to make those target dummies that spray fake blood everywhere when you shoot them in the head?"

But if we could make one with a flaky pastry crust and strawberry jam, it'd be a delicious PB&J prez-head.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:38 PM on June 18, 2014

When he got to Obama he used Cocoa Krispies.

No Lucky Charms for JFK? Quaker Oats for Nixon?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:50 PM on June 18, 2014 [3 favorites]

Raisin Bran Vuren
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:05 PM on June 18, 2014 [5 favorites]

Ok so everything in Futurama is totally happening.

Obama Met a Giant, Talking Robot Giraffe at the White House Today.
posted by mazola at 10:49 PM on June 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

Why do they call them "busts"? They're usually heads, not busts.

bust, from fr. buste, from it. busto, from lat. bustum, tomb.
"Sense development in Italian is probably from Etruscan custom of keeping dead person's ashes in an urn shaped like the person when alive. Meaning "bosom" is by 1884."
posted by dhartung at 11:52 PM on June 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

First 3d president! But rumours persist that he was actually born in Flatland.
posted by forgetful snow at 2:30 AM on June 19, 2014

Obama Met a Giant, Talking Robot Giraffe at the White House Today.

I somehow respect that giraffe maker more for the fact that he went to meet Mr. Obama wearing a wacky t-shirt and mullet hair
posted by angrycat at 3:19 AM on June 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Puts the Chia Obama in its place.
posted by ZeusHumms at 5:10 AM on June 19, 2014

now that you know the truth do you feel better?
posted by wallstreet1929 at 6:58 AM on June 19, 2014

Check out the comments..somebody's getting a visit from the Secret Service.
posted by tetsuo at 11:38 AM on June 19, 2014

planetesimal: "Wait, so were these put out in the break room for snacks or were they meant as decoration/inspiration? If you ate them, was the etiquette just to go rip a hunk off? Did people get served?"
nonasuch: " why the hell else would anyone bother?"

Okay, so, this workplace had mandatory, competitive, themed potlucks on a regular basis, which 75% of the office attempted to avoid and half-ass as much as possible, but unfortunately the boss was in the 25% who were REALLY INTO IT. This kicked off with a president-themed potluck (which was probably for presidents' day) and won that potluck and he liked the accolades so much he just ... kept ... making them.

He served them by ceremonially cutting into them with a chef's knife and, trust me, by Rutherford B. Hayes we were all heartily sick of Rice Krispie treats. A human head's worth of Rice Krispie treats is A LOT.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:14 PM on June 19, 2014 [4 favorites]

I mean, it would have been a bit offensive in a way if he HADN'T used Cocoa Krispies, wouldn't it? In a sort of casting-Benedict-Cumberbatch-as-Khan way?

All's I know is, this Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch replica of Jimmy Carter is delicious.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:57 PM on June 19, 2014

Here's a Lincoln life mask in 3D (close the mouse and keyboard instructions to see it and manipulate it). Take a tour.
posted by gudrun at 7:44 PM on June 19, 2014