I do not know anything about 3D printing, let me know if another place might be more appropriate for this post.
My friend about three months ago was in a catastrophic motorcycle accident. He was hit by a texting F150 truck driver. He lost his leg, an eye and has had pretty much full body reconstruction, including jaw and face. He was wondering if he could 3D scan in the helmet he was wearing with all the first responders/doctors (who helped save him that night) signatures then give each one a copy to thank them. He is in Ontario/Brampton area. He can pay for it.
Picture is not of actual helmet. Being sent down from up north right now.
The scan is the easy part. The easiest option is photogrammetry (here are phone apps for that), but it's also quite bad in terms of quality.
Some iPhone models have special hardware in there that allow for better 3D scanning (they originally added it for face unlock), which is probably your best cheap option.
You can also get a professional 3D scan, they aren't that expensive. I'd guess it should be doable with <€100.
The real problem is reproducing this. Most 3D printing technologies only allow for a single color or maybe 4-8 colors at max, with no color mixing.
The only technology that comes to mind that can do full color 3D printing and is somewhat widely available is MJF, but that technology is firmly professional-grade only, and even small prints are really expensive. Also, depending on how small the prints will be scaled to, the resolution of the color texture and the finish of the final print might not be satisfactory.
All MJF prints I have seen so far had a low-saturation fuzzy look to the printed colors.
Just to give you a very rough overview of MJF printing costs, check out this link: https://all3dp.com/1/mjf-3d-printing-price-comparison-charts-5-sample-projects/
Depending on the size of the finished helmet, expect between €300 and €5000 for one piece.
Thank you. Will pass it on. (Excuse my ignorance in advance not knowing exact terms) I think the best way would be to copy original helmet and scale down, make more copies to cover all the 1st responders. Do a photo scan of surface with signatures etc and wrap it on helmets. Best of both worlds. Not that I know what I am doing. I am sure we will figure it out.
Doing a single colour print and then copy paint onto it sounds really hard. I wouldn't even know which process to use for that.
Not paint. Scan the whole outside of helmet, print it on a wrap and wrap around the helmet is the idea.
Yeah, that's what I mean. I wouldn't even know how to get a wrap onto a complex 3D print.
I have yet to see the helmet and the damage it received(it’s in transit). Guess would depend on how not smooth it is.