Selfies Come to Life Via 3D-Printing App, Insta3D

Taiwan-based 3D design firm, Speed 3D released its mobile phone application Insta3D in late June.

Insta3D allows its users to take selfies and create realistic 3D-imaged avatars. Once a user creates a 3D avatar he or she can add accessories and pose the avatar in different positions.

The app, which is available for iPhone and Android phones, has already received a decent number of downloads and was generally well-received. The team at Speed 3D is already looking to update the app, and the company needs the help of the crowd to do so.

According to the company’s recently launched Kickstarter campaign, it is looking to raise £60,000 (about $100,000).

The money the company raises will not only go toward updating the Insta3D app, it will also allow the company to bring 3D-printing to its user-base. They want to be able to allow people to 3D-print the avatars they make.

The company is betting on lots of people getting behind the project because 3D-printed avatars may make a good gift and there really isn’t a mainstream offering like it.

According to the company’s Kickstarter campaign, “Currently, if you want to own your avatar printing, you have to purchase an expensive scanner, or requires a 3rd-party scanning service, and wait for couple weeks in order to generate 3D printable models and final result.”

If Speed 3D is able to raise the funds it needs, users will be able to press ‘print’ after rendering their 3D-models and have the source files printed at a professional 3D-printing company or printed and shipped via Speed 3D’s 3D-printing service.
Speed 3D has said that it plans on using 3DSystems’ zPrinter line to fulfill its 3D-printed avatar orders.

As always, crowd-funded projects have a chance of failure. Potential hindrances for Insta3D 2.0 include increased cloud-computing costs and production delays due to lack of material resources. People who back the campaign will receive a variety of items based on their contribution level.

Eight British Pounds Sterling gets a contributor a pack of playing cards emblazoned with a 3D avatar. Sixteen pounds or more gets someone a t-shirt or stickers. Seventy pounds allows backers to get their own 3D-printed avatar, while £120  or more allows a person to get a custom 3D-printed couple (which is useful for those who are getting married soon as it can be used as a wedding cake topper.) The biggest reward is at the £5,000 pound level. That hefty price tag will allow backers to get their whole bodies scanned in Japan by a professional 3D-imaging company.

Learn more about Speed 3D’s crowdfunding campaign at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/583754486/insta3d-get-yourself-printed-in-3d-with-a-selfie. Let us know if you have backed this campaign in the Insta3D forum thread on 3DPB.com