head and body 3D scanning in Central London.
sample & hold is a 3D scanning service company based in central London. We have been providing 3D scanning services to the creative industries for over 16 years and during that time have built up a wealth of experience in managing projects and optimising our technology. We are now 3D scanning people with fully custom head and body photogrammetry systems and objects with a state of the art photogrammetry robot. Recent projects have included characters for AAA games, product development for high street fashion brands, sculpture fabrication for Turner Prize winning artists and head scanning for historical archives.
The Studio
sample & hold was started by Chris and Sam in 2008. With a background in Fine Art and Product Design we are uniquely placed to apply the latest 3D scanning techniques to a wide variety of creative projects. We have surfed the wave of ever changing technology, from laser scanning to structured light scanning and now photogrammetry. In 2020 we said goodbye to our ‘unique’ studio on Ridely Road in Dalston (if you came there, you know) and moved down the road to Shoreditch. We now run a full body 3D scanner and an Esper Powered LED head scanner in our trendy studio loft just off Curtain Road. There is even room for some mid-century sofa’s and a coffee machine, so please do come and say hello…
Body Scanner
We are always asked how many cameras does our body scanner have (if you must, the answer is 154), however very few people ask about what you are doing with the lights. We think this is just as, if not more important, and it is why we designed and built 10 fully custom flash softboxes. The lights and cameras are polarised and the camera placement and orientation (think parallel, not pointing every which way) have been carefully tuned to eek out the best results that we can from the system.
So what can we 3D scan? The bread and butter is your standard ‘A-Pose’ but we also have the volume to scan a wide variety of poses, both still and in action, for example we have scanned people riding bikes, playing tennis, and yeilding viking hammers.
Head Scanner
For head scanning we operate a 156 LED lightstage with all the bells and whistles. 70 cameras for high detail photogrammetry capture, 9 4K video cameras for additional 4D motion capture. There are cables absolutely everywhere. We can scan everything from single Neutral heads right through to our custom 81 expression FACS set. We have an in house expression director who will lead you through the process and custom HUD screens inside and outside of the rig to aid direction. We have even orchestrated scanning sessions via the web, so that talent in London could be directed by a client in Japan - all in real time.
Object Scanner
Affectionately named ‘the Robot’ we use an Arago Photogrammetry Rig to capture static objects. Optimised for the capture of multiple objects and/or multiple passes of the same object, we use the robot to capture a wide vairety of items such as sculpture, footwear, museum artifacts, and design prototypes.
To find out more about the systems capabilites have a look at the developers website - we were early beta testers and the first to operate a machine in the UK.
If you have an object to scan, drop us an email with some photos and information about its size, what it is made from and what you want to do with the data and we will come back to you with a cost.
“Just wanted to say a massive THANK YOU for being so unbelievably awesome”
— Simon Crossley, Development Executive, Possessed, ITV Studios
Recent Work
If you have a moment please take a look at some of the recent projects to which we have contributed - we have colloborated on some amazing projects with wonderful people over the years. We don’t have space (and sometimes permission!) to show all of them, however, we have worked with Turner Prize winning artists on a variety of sculpture projects, background visuals for the Pet Shop Boys, Stormzy, Ed Sheeran and Kylie Minogue. Album covers for Roots Manuva, Jehnny Beth and The Horrors. We have scanned football teams for Konami and tennis players for Addidas. We cut our teeth scanning on feature films such as John Carter of Mars, Into the Woods and Now you See Me 2. Recently we have been working with a number of AAA games studios on some exciting upcoming titles. Oh and we always love working on the super creative commercials our good friends at Time Based Arts are winning awards for…
Our clients include -
Let’s Work Together
Talk to us about your project. No idea is too big or too small. We specialise in creative 3D scanning and have done everything from 3D scanning Nina Simone’s Chewing Gum to invaluable museum artifacts. Our head and body scanners have been graced by rock stars, film stars, tall people, short people, babies, kids and old people!
