Turning Photos Into 3D Models With AI

Over Thanksgiving I wrote myself a check by joking that I would 3d print my father-in-law's head for stocking stuffers for the family. The problem being, while I have a 3d printer, I have not done any custom modeling outside of resizing existing models. That's a far cry from modeling my father-in-law into something printable.

Luckily for me we're in a time where tools like Gemini's Nano Banana Pro will let you generate multiple angles of an object from a single image.

I tested the process, as with most AI tools, by generating a version of America's favorite flame-clothed restauranteur, Guy Fieri.

Step 1 was to go to Google's Nano Banana Pro model to generate a bust of Guy Fieri, then use it to generate back and side views of the same image. I ended up using Adobe Firefly, as they have Google's Nano Banana Pro available (among several others) and I'm already paying Adobe. It didn't hurt that they were giving unlimited credits for image generation through December 15th.

Next I needed to find a tool to get those images turned into something I could 3d print.

That searching initially led me to Meshy AI, which looked promising, but didn't quite get the details down as well as I would have liked. Admittedly it could be a bit of inexperience with the tool and options available.

After some additional searching I found 3d AI Studio. This one interested me because it gave access to multiple models within its tooling, which allowed me to test and compare.

Surprisingly, I found that the Hunyuan 3.0 model gave me a better result even though it only allowed a single front view image to be uploaded. Maybe not that surprising considering I was just going for a simple head. Not a lot of unexpected details needed on the back.

I also liked the tooling 3d AI Studio had to edit and adjust my model specifically for 3d printing and allowed me to download multiple versions as both multicolor and single color.

The last step was to bring the model into Bambu Studio and fire up the print on my A1 Mini.

Turns out you can take a photo, convert it to a 3D model, and have it printing in a weekend. It isn't perfect, but it dramatically lowered the barrier to entry for custom 3D modeling. Imagine what someone with actual expertise could accomplish. That's the power of embracing AI tools in your workflows.

Thanks for reading,

Jason