Making of Action Heroes

More heroes in the Tribecraft team got their own action figures. How to find your alter ego and design its character.

When new employees join our team, we don’t just take a photo of them and post it on our website. Instead, we ask them to do some self-reflection and to find their inner action hero. What am I particularly good at? What are my interests, both professionally and personally? How would I typically describe myself? Basically, what are my superpowers?

In a joint effort with our figure development team, a character gradually emerges, attributes and accessories are found and – very importantly – the right pose is choreographed.

When the design is done, it’s time for the 3D scan. In contrast to the rotating 3D scanning we use for product scanning, the My3Dworld photogrammetry installation consists of a room equipped with cameras all around. With a shutter speed of 1/100 second, this system enables snapshots of dynamic poses.

However, your choice of outfit may thwart you in the end. Depending on the garment, the computer might not be able to reference the data spatially. Then, a re-scan with another fabric becomes necessary. Modeling a clean, complete figure from a raw point network requires a great deal of skill on the part of our scanning partner’s 3D artist.

After receiving the data, we model virtual accessories and work on the texture: away from the original photorealism to a more «painted look». We experiment some more with colors and materials. The action figure must integrate harmoniously with our team image, while also standing out on its own. While all this is quite an elaborate process, it is also very valuable as an initiation rite in becoming a Tribe member in your own right.