I made this Titanium Fingerprint Ring. I digitized the fingerprint into vector artwork and deep laser engraved the print into the titanium ring. This is not laser marking where the image just sets on the surface - instead this laser removes metal to about 0.008" deep. It's deep enough to feel the ridges, and feels very similar to running your finger over a metal file.

I took the photo on the left, and in Photoshop replaced the background with light blue. The photographed ground shadow was weak, so I made the shadow in KeyShot using a ring model, and brought it over as a transparent layer multiplied with the blue background layer.

Then as a learning exercise, I trying reproducing the photo in KeyShot. Taking the same vector artwork used on the laser, I brought it into MoI, extruded, deformed around the ring, and Boolean diff to get the recessed fingerprint. In KeyShot I used the foam material for the black areas that are laser engraved. Each pulse of the laser blasts out a little crater, and the foam material was a good match. Using the KeyShot HDR editor, I built the HDR as best I could, and even added a pin to reproduce the diffused reflection of my camera inside the ring interior.

The ring photo has DOF due to the f-stop setting with my macro lens, butI forgot to apply DOF on the KeyShot render. Also, on close inspection, the two fingerprint patterns don't exactly match - this is because I didn't take the time to model a new ring with the exact diameter of the real ring. Anyway, it was a fun exercise.

Ed Ferguson

Great results, both on the render/model and on the real ring Ed.

Martin Spencer-Ford

Really cool one Ed, that could be a very personalized ring if a person had their very own fingerprints on it!

- Michael

Will it activate a laptops fingerprint recognition "password"? :-)

- Brian

Ed, Left is real? right is Model?
If yes,
original has much deeper pits. But model look like no pits at all, just like dark areas was painted on metal.

If no,
then vice versa :)

Andrei - If you need to ask which is real, then I'm flattered :) The left is the photo.

For the dark areas hit by the laser, I used a pre-existing foam material. To refine this further I could try other normal maps or make my own.

Getting the illusion of the fingerprint depth could be improved perhaps if I assigned a slightly darker material to the vertical walls of the fingerprint ridges. The same texture applied to both the walls and the bottom seems to make it look flatter.

One thing that would add depth and realism is a small fillet on the fingerprint ridge edges at the surface of the ring. Because of the tight angles I'm not able to do that.

If anyone has any ideas how to do that, let me know.

Ed

"The same texture applied to both the walls and the bottom seems to make it look flatter."
I thinks the proble is that:

1. Walls are not vertical on original, they have diffrent angles and have organic feel. Your walls are perfectly veritcal... That do not allow to KeyShot make that deep you need. Here, there are two solutions, first is to get your model to sculpting software and produce all that kind of deffects and imperfectness and all other laser artifacts or make it with normal/bump for example in 3D Coat you can draw it with normal maps in minutes.

2. Vertical walls and bottom have diffrent materials on original. Bottom is black rough but walls are metal rough and the top is "polished". That rough , can be achived partly in first suggestion.

3. Also to accent depth it will be good to set appropriate light that will create good tones and semitones to emphasize depth.

Very very cool!!!

I actually have a question. Can anyone point me in the direction on how to use the deform tool. New to MOI completely. Really dig the way you got the fingerprints around the ring just cant figure out how you did it!

Mikey -

I make sure the ring is a solid before proceeding.

I made a rectangle surface with an area equal to the width of the ring, times the circumference of the ring.

I positioned my extruded fingerprint so the desired depth extends below the rectangle.

Transform > Deform

Select Object to Flow: I select just the entire fingerprint.

Select Base Curve or Surface: I click on the rectangle on the right-hand side near the closest edge (shown by my red dot).

Select Target Surface Near Matching Side: Imagine the rectangle is wrapped around the ring. I click on the ring close to the corresponding place where I clicked on the rectangle (shown by my red dot).

After the fingerprint is flowed, I boolean diff the fingerprint which leaves the recessed areas.

Ed Ferguson

Hi Mikey, also see here for the help page on the Flow tool:
http://moi3d.com/3.0/docs/moi_command_reference8.htm#flow

And also see here for some links to previous discussions in the forum:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=6746.5

- Michael

Ed-
Thanks so much for the explanation will give a try and post!!!!!!

Thanks Michael!!! Excited to give this a shot!!!!

Hi Ed!
Thanks for the Flow Tut! Ive attached a pic! Totally understand it now. Here's an issue that I'm running into and Im sure I'm doing something wrong. When i attempt to do a boolean difference on the ring nothing happens. I select the ring as the base and the pattern as the subtract. It then proceeds to calculate but nothing happens. any ideas?

Hi Mikey, re: booleans - it can be difficult for booleans to handle cases where objects have overlapping surface areas where they are just barely skimming through each other.

So because of that when you do a flow it can be a good idea to make the objects stick some distance pushing through the object rather than trying to place them with their bottoms or tops just skimming right along the same surface area.

- Michael

Got it! Thanks again Michael!