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When Jared Leto walks up the steps at the Met Gala, in a custom-made Gucci gown, carrying his own head, well, heads turn. Hearing that his 3D printed head reportedly cost around $11,000, might stun you a bit more, but here’s how you can probably 3D print one on your own for about $500 or less.
Tweet This: $11,000 for a 3D Printed Head? Do it yourself for way less!
There is always lots of hoopla over any outfit and accessory, particularly Gucci, at the Met Gala, formally known as the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute benefit, where celebrities dress up in beautiful, if not outrageous, outfits. This year’s theme was “camp” as in campy, which Cher may have perfected. Tweet This: Jared Leto at the Met Gala carrying his own head! A 3D printed one.
Do-it-yourself (DIY) makers and cosplay (a portmanteau of costume play) aficionados who create and make costumes and accessories to model a specific character have been making props to rival the Met Gala for years.
Of course, this hilarious idea of Jared Leto modeling Jared Leto on a day where he misbehaved and suffered the ultimate punishment is not the usual cosplay scene, but not far from it. There are many individuals in the maker community that do this sort of work-for-hire; they are active and easily found online.
Here are several artists and cosplay creators you can check out for inspiration, networking, and possible 3D print production (and talk to 3D Pros in Austin, too).
- In addition to 3D printing service bureaus, you can check out the inspiring works of Melissa Ng aka “Lumecluster” for ideas and accessories in her shop (cool Modular Phoenix Gauntlets that are coming soon - I link to the video at end of the post). Marvel has commissioned her work and Adam Savage of Tested.com invited her on his program late last year for the gauntlets.
You saw quite a few headdresses at the Met Gala (this year and before) that didn't quite rival Hela from Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok, but they were impressive. Check out Melissa's interpretation in this Marvel Becoming video.
- Mike Syfritt aka “MadPropps” is a cosplay maker worth checking out as he does custom work.
- Joel Telling, the “3D Printing Nerd” has a super popular YouTube channel where he shares tons of 3D printer reviews, how-to’s, as well as other advice.
- Darrell Maloney, the Broken Nerd, also has an active YouTube channel (my link is to his Instagram) is printing the Infinity Gauntlet from Marvel Avengers Infinity War Gauntlet in his profiled video.
- Spectra3D in Asheville, North Carolina, does commission-based 3D printing, including lots of cosplay and props.
- John Biehler, well-known 3D printing advocate, collaborated with artist Douglas Coupland on the 3D Canada project, where they scanned and printed hundreds of people across Canada over four years. They used the Occipital Structure scanner on an iPad (approximately $500 for full setup, minus the iPad). Amazing results.
Overall, the reported $11,000 cost is not obscene in the film industry (though it is to me, and maybe you, also), according to a number of high-end 3D printing experts I know and talked to for this post. The higher-end printers, like a Stratasys PolyJet or the new(ish) HP Multi Jet Fusion, are more expensive to print on, but produce excellent quality. Al Billington, owner of 3D-Pros in Austin, Texas, explained: “We could print something like this but it would need significant post-processing by the customer or a third party to smooth it out, and add the coloring and extras like hair. For just a raw print, the cost would be around $400 to $500 from us.” Much of the work begins after the 3D print is done.
Scanning is often the first step unless you are printing a model that already exists and not your own head. Getting a good 3D scan of a head can be difficult, but not impossible and not always expensive. A new iPhone X or XR can do the job (as can some of the older phones via an app). Again, a fair amount of manual cleanup will likely be necessary. I did some scans and 3D resin prints last year with an Artec 3D scanner and they had high resolution and detail. I spent four hours on the scan (because I’m a novice/noob) and just as many tweaking the prints. They were not life-size but easily could have been scaled up. I’d recommend reading John Biehler’s blog and site to learn about what he did if you need a decent scanner device like the Structure.
One of my go-to experts, Mara Hitner, Director of Business Development at MatterHackers, one of the nation’s largest sellers of 3D printing materials and resellers of 3D printers, said that just about any experienced hobbyist could print a life-size head for $25 in materials.
“The Jared Leto bust detail is where new digital technologies meet old world craftsmanship. To get to that level of detail would take a lot of post-production work, but a lot of artists using desktop 3D printers for props, costumes, and fashion could be up for the challenge," she said.
The Jared Leto bust detail -- I would have to agree with Mara. That Jared Leto head took a lot of post-production work; a ton of craftsmanship. That is, it required many hours of labor to produce that quality level. Me? I’m firing up the 3D printer, grabbing some Sharpie markers (paint is beyond me), adding a wig and some glued-on beard hair and heading to the Met. Oh, wait, it’s over. Maybe next year.
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For more on the Met Gala, read this fun piece by Meghna Sarkar: Met Gala 2019 Served The Best Of Non-Binary Fashion.
And if you think all this Met Gala stuff is just ridiculous, and you want to read about “real” 3D printing of heads -- let this piece from Thomas Brewster strike a little fear in your Android heart: We Broke Into A Bunch Of Android Phones With A 3D-Printed Head. It is a terrific read about how 3D printing can fool your phone’s facial recognition software. I’ll make all the iPhone users happy -- they couldn’t fool the iPhone.
Here is Melissa Ng’s YouTube video on her gauntlets.
