9 — June 2008 Vol. 1, No. 1

INDUSTRY NEWSFe–fye–fo–fum— “The Awakening”

has remained on loan to the National Park

Service and has become a faithful destination for

park visitors.

Last year the sculpture was purchased for a reported $725,000 by Washington-area developer

Milton Peterson to become the artistic centerpiece

for the new National Harbor complex, his $4 billion

development project on the eastern bank of the

Potomac River south of the District. While moving

the sculpture would present a logistical challenge, re-installing it in its originally intended orientation was a spatial challenge. But at Direct Dimensions, we

call this “a 3D problem” and we have been providing

rapid solutions to 3D problems with the most

advanced 3D scanning technology for 13 years.

Bringing the giant to digital lifeIn addition to being a prolific sculptor, J. Seward

Johnson is also the founder of the Johnson Atelier, a non-profit art casting and fabrication services

organization in New Jersey. This org an ization has

made advanced art technology accessible to sculptors

of all levels for over 30 years. “The Awakening”

piece was originally created without the benefit of

the advanced technologies that Johnson Atelier has

helped develop for large scale sculpture—namely,

3D laser scanning and 5-axis CNC milling. Jon

Lash, one of the original artists who worked on “The

Awakening,” and now heads the newly re-named Digital Atelier, is experienced in 3D scanning for art

fabrication. He knew that the Giant he had worked

hard to make by hand three decades earlier, could now be accurately captured as it sat in the ground

The Trimble FX, aimed at the outstretched arm, captures portions of all five pieces of the sculpture from a central position.

Mark Kluza moves out of the line of the laser beam while the Trimble FX captures the outstretched arm of J. Seward Johnsons “the Awakening”.

With the Trimble FX mounted on a Jib high in the air, Direct Dimensions scanned the tops of the sculptural element

final_awakening_feat_05.29.08v2.indd 9 6/1/08 10:13:06 PM

10—June 2008 Vol. 1, No. 1

SHOWCASE

The laser beam of the Trimble FX spins around it’s horizontal and vertical axes and captures the three-dimensional form of the foot and knee of J. Seward Johnsons “the Awakening”.

Positioned to capture the outer extremity of the right foot and toes, the spherical scanning Trimble FX also sees the inside of the left leg of J. Seward Johnson’s “the Awakening”.

at Hains Point with the help of 3D scanning by Direct Dimensions.

Knowing this, Lash called on Direct Dimensions, as he had many times in the past for their expertise and access to the best 3D scanning technologies, to bring an affordable and accurate solution to scan “The Awakening.” Lash needed a 3D map of the intersections of the sculpture surfaces with the surrounding ground. With this infor mation he would be able to supply the civil engineers at the National Harbor what they would need to prepare the new site to receive the sculpture and to recreate the layout true to its original artistic design.

Direct Dimensions, Inc. (DDI) of Baltimore, MD provides a complete range of 3D scanning technology services and products and is often asked to evaluate solutions for complex aerospace, defense, and other industrial applications. Direct Dimensions owns many 3D scan ners that could successfully perform this project, but they had recently tested a new scanner, which is new to the market called the Trimble FX, marketed by Trimble Navigation. Upon review of test results from the Trimble TX, DDI determined that it had excellent resolution, speed, and accuracy and also functions uniquely in the mid range between the many other close-range and long-range scanning products. This scanner solution would provide not only the required positional information, but also document the 3D form and surface detail of the sculpture, which would be a bonus for the project.

During the early fall of 2007, Lash exchanged several calls with Harry Abramson, Director of Bus iness Development at Direct Dimensions, to coordinate with the National Park Service and to arrange for a special access permit to laser scan the sculpture. Once obtained, and the date in October was set, Direct Dimensions arranged with Mark Klusza, Manager of Engineer at Trimble, and the Trimble FX was made available for the job.

Enter the magic red-eyed CyclopsOn a chilly October evening, three DDI employees loaded

its van with laptops, tripods, an 18-ft camera jib, a portable generator, and plenty of warm coffee and headed south about an hour from its office just outside of Baltimore. They arrived at the park in D.C. just before closing in time to see the last few tourists marvel at the five giant body parts, only to disappear minutes later, leaving the giant alone again to stare at the sky and listen to the airplanes takeoff and land from Reagan National just across the river. One of those planes was carrying Klusza and his Trimble FX scanner, which is small enough to fit in the overhead compartment.

By dusk the team converged on the site and had just started

scanning when they were approached by armed officers asking a lot of questions about our work, why we were there, and what we were doing. However regardless of our permit, the officers were from the Secret Service and informed us that we would have to leave the park for exactly two hours. While not given a specific explanation, we realized our central D.C. proximity to our nation’s leaders and figured that they did not want a rogue gang pointing red laser beams into the sky. Shortly thereafter we heard a rumble of multiple helicopters flying nearby. We took the opportunity to eat dinner knowing that upon our return that it would be a long cold night!

In the world of 3D scanning technologies, the Trimble FX is classified as a spherical scanner since it captures everything in its line of site and within its range radiating outward from its center 360 degrees by 270 degrees, basically everything except the tripod below. The Trimble FX works on the phase-shift principle with laser light and can capture up to 190,000 points per second. A single scan can take as little as 2 minutes and can collect several million points. The challenge to using such a powerful scanner is handling the immense quantities of data that it can produce. Among other things, this is a specialty at Direct Dimensions.

We approached the sculpture as five individual pieces, knowing that while we focused on each piece by taking scans

Although not required for the reinstallation of the sculpture, capturing the top of the hand would complete the 3D documentation of the entire piece. Three months later in February, in a single day, cranes, trucks and barges converged on Hains Point to de-install the sculpture from the ground and transport it to its new permanent home. In the process, the large arm was set on its side in a manner that gave us access to scan the top of the hand with our Konica Minolta Vivid 9i.

With reporters and cameras swarming to report the news of the sculpture move, we quick-ly set up our equipment and within hours, gathered all of the missing data required to complete our model. And as we packed up, the arm was raised by crane and loaded on a flatbed truck. The five pieces and all of the reporters caravanned their way down to a dock just north of the National Harbor project, and everything was loaded onto a barge. After a short barge ride around to new waterfront site, the pieces were hoisted off and lowered onto the pre-installed fittings per our information, perfectly matching the original orientation.

Alas, our giant’s journey has caused a stir. There has been a mild controversy as many fans of the sculpture enjoyed it just where it sat and blamed the new owner as if he plucked it away from them. To the contrary, D.C. residents are fortunate that J.

Seward Johnson chose a buyer who would keep the sculpture local and ac cessible to the pub lic. Furth er more, John son, and his staff at the Digital Atelier were technically advanced and concerned enough about the art to employ advanced 3D scan ning technologies from Dir ect Dimensions to pre serve the original layout of the sculpture in its new home.

So the giant still stares at the sky over Washington, while the sounds of the planes land ing are a bit farther off in the distance, but the swarms of admirers will still come to visit, and may all live happily ever after.

Harry Abramson is the Director for Direct Dimensions, Inc., Owings Mills, MD. For more information visit their website: www.dirdim.com, or via e-mail at info@dirdim.com.

Rendering of finished model in Z-brush.

Screenshot of the completed model

Phot

ogra

phy

cour

tesy

of

Pete

r Fe

llow

s

Polygonal data in Polyworks.

3D ScANNiNg TecHNologieS June 2008 — 13