You don’t have to be Dr. Evil to have a Mini-Me anymore.

Vancouver-based Corbel 3D has taken their digital double capture systems one step further with a marriage to advanced color 3D printers. Just as photography revolutionized the way we document our lives, Corbel 3D’s Mini-Me capture system expands the way we record them as never before; preserving memories, moments, and loved ones as detailed, full color figurines. The Mini-Me’s have become extremely popular as a way of recording milestones; graduations, weddings, sports achievements, and birthdays, but they’ve also seen unexpected uses; for example, scanning and printing your boss for his next roast!

There are no limits to what the Corbel 3D rig can capture – their custom built 3D scaning system can capture a complete, full-color scan in 1/1000th of a second; fast enough for even the most fidgety of pets or little children. Powered by 128 Canon DSLR cameras synchronized to trigger simultaneously, the photogrammetry-based scanning rig offers a much lower latency solution to full body scanning than any other method. Due to the speed of scanning, there are practically no limits on what it can capture – action poses, multiple figures, complex outfits, and even props. Their in-house artists even offer ‘digital plastic surgery’ for the figurines before they are printed; want a digital tummy tuck or a height increase? No problem.

This impressive array, built and designed in-house, serves dual purposes; the scanning rig can also been used in the visual effects industry, to scan actors on set. By adjusting the configuration slightly, Corbel 3D has uses their rig to generate high-quality, film-ready digital doubles; CGI models that look exactly like an actor for shots too dangerous for a real actor to film (or for more mundane purposes, like adding missing actors in post).

Corbel 3D has big plans for the future in both visual effects and 3D printing. They sell their C3D scanning systems internationally to help companies around the world create Mini-Me’s, while back home in Vancouver, they continue to push the quality of 3D scanning technology. With a focus on quality, Corbel 3D is pushing the limits of detail and speed to new levels, and growing their team of artists and technicians to serve the needs of the industry in order to create the highest quality film ready digital double seen on screen.