Major Update - OpenScan Micro & Future

The Micro

It has been quite some time since my last visible online activity, and there have been a lot of changes over the last few months. But with change comes opportunity, and here is the first of many new upcoming 3D scans:

After getting to know this wonderful little new human, my focus on many things shifted. Nevertheless, OpenScan will be a major part of my future and there is still so much more to do and to explore. A major benefit of being a father is that time became much more limited, and thus I need to focus and be more efficient.

Consistency

Those following the OpenScan project for a while know that focusing is not my strength and that I get distracted quite easily. Therefore, various promising side-projects and interesting developments ended silently and never got documented or published at all.

Another issue of the last years is my very irregular publishing of content. I have never had a plan, when and which content should be posted where. And this led to quite some large gaps on the various channels (e.g. my last noteworthy YouTube video is from April 2020 ^^)

Now, I am in a totally new situation, where time is so much more limited. I partially explain my past inconsistency with the fact that I did not need to make a plan. I had plenty of time to spare and not many obligations. But it seems to be the opposite now. Spare time is super rare and obligations skyrocketed.

My vision for the future of OpenScan

So I have spent quite a few nights on what seems to be a plan, that won't just end up in my endless to-do-list-bucket. I have settled on a weekly post-schedule where this blog will be the central point for publications. From there, I will cross-post on the different platforms depending on the content. I will also publish all 3d scans on various sites like Sketchfab, Thingiverse and similar and try to create more YouTube content from some of the topics.

Facebook and Reddit will be the place for detailed discussions and there will be a monthly Newsletter summarizing most posts. So please feel free to join those channels :)

For now, there will be a four-week-cycle with four main topics:

1. OpenScan Projects & Updates - I will post about the current progress and (side-) projects, next there will be a post about the multi-camera scanner and maybe a tour of my relatively new workshop.
2. Scan of the Month - Presenting a scanned object with the focus on the occurring challenges.
3. Tutorials - Explaining certain scanning related topics in more detail. Next up will be a tutorial on object preparation with chalk/scanning spray. I might also review some other existing scanners in the mid-future.
4. Scan the World - This is a totally new section for me, but I would love to contribute to this wonderful initiative, where people around the world are digitizing their cultural heritage. For now, I will go out and scan some local sculptures, artworks and historical buildings, which are quite abundant in my wonderful town of Halle (Saale).

Btw, with this plan, I have already managed to focus and fill most of the topics with content for the upcoming weeks, which makes me really happy.

I am very open to your suggestions. Which topics are you interested in? What would you like to see being scanned?

Kind regards,

Thomas