Did you ever see a photo with so much depth that it seemed to become three dimensional before your very eyes? Traditionally this only happened when a talented photographer found just the right angle to create the effect. But now with 3D printing, you can have any normal printed photo transformed into a 3D work of art.

For as low as $59, a comped willtake your photo and reproduce it in 3 dimensions. This recently happened to Barry Collins of PCPro, as reported by WebProNews. Unbeknownst to him, his colleagues uploaded his portrait to BumpyPhoto and had the 3D model made. Now that’s a good office prank to remember.

According to BumpyPhoto, their designers take the 2D photo and, aided sophisticated software, create a 3D model of the photo. The more people or objects that are in the photo, the longer it takes to recreate. Once the 3D model is created, they email the customer a preview for their approval. Then they use a 3D printer to manufacture the sculpture in 24-bit color with a matte varnish. According to their website, the sculpture “is made of a hard plaster-like composite.” They will also create a 3D cutout of just the photo’s subject if that’s what the customer wants.

The 3D model is “scarily accurate,” writes Collins writes, saying: “Yes, my nose really is that big. Although I do have more than one ear in real life.”

Not everyone would enjoy seeing a photo of themselves in three dimensions, but for those egomaniacs in your life, this could make a great gift. The sculpture could also be of the family pet, your favorite cartoon, a landscape, or pretty much anything else you can take a picture of.

Probably the most disturbing part of the whole thing is the backside of the 3D sculpture. Unless you enjoy seeing a person from the inside looking out. If you do, it’s probably best not to mention that to anyone else.

These sculptures are an example of yet another industry being created because of 3D printing. I can’t wait to see what other new ways people find of using the technology to feed their ego or embarrass their coworkers.

Millions have been waiting for the iPhone 5 since even before the iPhone 4S was released almost a year ago. They’ve been scouring the Internet for gossip and impatiently counting down the months, weeks, days and minutes until they could have the 4G-enabled device in their little hands. Finally in the very early hours of this past Friday, pre-ordering began.

Luckily now that the iPhone 5 is here, there’s no such wait to accessorize everyone’s favorite new smartphone. In fact, because of the brilliance of 3D printing, personalized iPhone cases were being designed for the 5 before its specs were even officially confirmed.

Sculpteo, a French 3D printing accessory company, began accepting orders for iPhone cases before the official Apple unveiling on Wednesday according to Mashable. Through their app and website 3DPcase, customers can design a case that incorporates customized text, profile pictures from social media accounts, and more. They can also change the color and tweak the shape of the case. Wired claims that the entire process can take less than a minute.

The model for the next-generation case was designed in advance of the phone’s release based on rumors and leaked photos of the iPhone 5, which is taller than the iPhone 4S and requires a wider opening for the camera. Because of the flexibility of 3D printing, any unexpected adjustments could be made instantly as soon as Apple announced them.

“That’s what we like so much with 3D printing,” Sculpteo said on their blog. “We can react in real-time, create a 3D design and manufacture thousands of unique custom items in record time. Because we have been using 3D printing technologies and developing customization tool for a long time, we know how to react fast and accurately.”

Customers who designed their own iPhone 5 case in advance can even prove just how ahead of the game they were. On the side of the case, Sculpteo will engrave the date and time it was ordered. Since the 3D printing techniques make turnaround so quick, customers will most likely have their iPhone 5 case before they actually have their iPhone 5. Yet another example of how 3D printing is radically changing the world of manufacturing for the better!

The world of rock and roll may never be the same now that 3D printing has entered the scene. This October, the world’s first 3D printed band will take the stage at the 3D Printshow in London.

Wow, it works!

The collection of musicians, including special guest drummer Paul Stewart of the Feeling, will be playing a set of 3D printed instruments. These include guitars, a Stradavarius violin and a pair of drum sticks.

Olaf Diegel is the man behind the 3D printed ODD guitars and basses. He admits that his “real job” is as a professor of mechatronics at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand. But his true passion is designing and printing custom guitars using a technique called Selective Laser Sintering.

The body of these guitars is created by spreading a thin layer of nylon that is then fused in the right spots for that particular slice of the guitar. Another layer is added on to this one, and another and another, until the entire instrument body is built. Each layer has an average width of about .1 mm.

Customers can choose the type of hardware they want, from pickups to bridges, necks and tuning heads, and these are added to their customized guitar. The base color of the guitar is white, but they can be dyed to fit any musician’s taste. Because the color darkens with age, no two ODD guitars are exactly the same shade of color.

Dave Marks, the resident composer for the 3D Printshow, used the 3D printed guitar to record a fantastic multi-instrument version of the show’s theme song. Check out the recording, which shows him playing four or five different instruments in unison, here.

All of these instruments will be exhibited at the show on October 19-21. The show will also feature a 3D printed fashion show and many other exciting ways to put the technology to good use.

“I think it will open the eyes of people to see just what can be done with this technology,” said Kerry Hogarth, founder of 3D Printshow. “It’s going to be an exciting launch as people haven’t really seen this before.”

Chemistry professor Lee Cronin is always looking for new ways to stretch the limits of his field. He is the leader of a team of 45 researchers at Glasgow University whose primary mission is making complex molecules. Now he wants to combine that expertise with 3D printing technology to one day turn every house into its own pharmacy.

“Basically what Apple did for music, I’d like to do for the discovery and distribution of drugs,” he told Guardian reporter Tim Adams. Apparently he’s decided there should be an app for that and is determined to make it happen.

Colorful, potent, 3d-printed

His goal is to create chemistry that is both downloadable and printable at home. For years his team has been hard at work building molecules and even attempting to create “inorganic life.” He was at an architectural conference a couple of years ago discussing his work on inorganic structures when he heard another man giving a lecture on using 3D printing in architecture. That got him thinking.

“I didn’t want to print an aeroplane, or a jaw bone,” he says. “I wanted to do chemistry.”

Cronin is not suggesting simply copying a software blueprint of any given chemical. Instead his team has designed a prototype chemical 3D printer that could be programmed to stimulate basic chemical reactions to produce molecules. In essence, the 3D printer becomes its own mini chemistry lab or “chemputer.”

His team is already studying ways to print simple pharmaceuticals such as ibuprofen. Cronin uses the analogy of cooking someone else’s recipe in your kitchen to demonstrate how the process could work. The drug company would supply the recipe of the medicine; then you would gather all the necessary ingredients and let your 3D printer do the rest.

“The value is in the recipe, not in the manufacture. It is an app, essentially,” Cronin says.

This process could change the pharmaceutical world forever. Not only could vital drugs be distributed quickly anywhere in the world, they could also be created wherever they are needed most. It would also enable the production of drugs that have not been created already because the demand is not high enough. Suddenly manufacturing one drug for one person can still be cost effective.

Cronin admits that his idea for a chemputer is still in the “science fiction” stage. He’s currently seeking the support of everyone from pharmaceutical companies to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

I know I’m pretty excited at the idea of just pushing print from my couch when I feel a migraine coming on and I’m all out of Excedrin. Until then, I guess I will resign myself to that long trip to the pharmacy.

Star Wars fans, rejoice. There is now one more piece of Star Wars merchandise you can plop down a hundred of your hard earned dollars for, and then subsequently decry your own victimhood in George Lucas’ exploitive marketing strategy. That’s right. Now, you can be immortalized/imprisoned in carbonite just like everyone’s favorite galactic picaroon, Han Solo. The Carbon-Freezing Chamber is the newest feature at Disney Hollywood Studios’ annual Star Wars Weekends, going on this weekend and next.

Steven Miller, merchandise communications manager at Disney Parks, explained the process in a blog post earlier this month:

“Using state-of-the-art imaging technology, this experience casts your likeness as a three-dimensional, eight-inch figurine. At the Carbon-Freezing Chamber, several cameras will capture multiple angles of your face. The images are then reconstructed in a computer for processing, and in approximately four weeks, the completed figurine is shipped directly to your house.”

This new bit of geekiness is part of Disney’s “D-Tech Me” product line, which consists largely of Disney-ized cases and covers for connected devices and laptops and, according to Miller, “uses technology to take personalization to a whole new level.”

The figurine will run you a cool $99.95 plus shipping, and you can order additional carbonite copies for $74.95 (though I’m not sure why you’d need more than one). Guests will also receive light-up Star Wars wristbands that will likely engorge the many waste baskets throughout Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

While Miller doesn’t actually come out and say that the Carbon-Freezing Chamber employs 3D printing, it sure looks and smells like 3D printing to me. Whatever the case, we could be looking at the next hot application of 3D printing: customized recreations of great movie moments! They could even be from movies that aren’t Star Wars (yes, there are a few). Think of the possibilities. It could be you, instead of Cary Grant, fleeing from that crop-duster in North by Northwest. It could be you, instead of Orson Welles, on your deathbed, muttering, “Rosebud.” Or, conversely, it could be your head on Marlon Brando’s bloated body, sweating and murmuring, “The horror. The horror.”

If my girlfriend had her way, she’d be backlit by that glorious Technicolor sunset, her fists covered in dirt, vowing, “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!”

As for me, I’d have to go with that scene from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory—to which I had also alluded in my first 3DPH blog post—where Augustus Gloop got sucked through those chocolate pipes. So, here’s my challenge to you 3DPHers: who will take up a project to put my head on Auggie’s body?

So, what great movie moment can 3D printing customize for you? As always, if you’ve got a hot tip from the world of 3D printing, or you’d just like to make a suggestion for future articles, feel free to drop me a line at dfujiwara@3dprinterhub.com.  Until next time, keep on pushing those dimensions.