PT business makes memories the 3-D way
Ken Baumgarten, owner of 3D StatYou Studio, holds a figurine he made of himself.
Various examples of three-dimensional printing
One of the figurines depicts a clerk at a local gas station.
Imagine being able to send a plaster figurine of your son or daughter to a loved one who lives on the other side of the country.
Ken Baumgarten wants to help people make those memories of the three-dimensional kind. Baumgarten, a Peters Township resident, has opened 3D StatYou Studio in McMurray, where a person can get a photograph of himself transformed into a solid image.
Baumgarten, who worked in information technology for a local Fortune 500 company solving problems in customer data centers following a six-year stint in the Navy, said he always wanted to go into business for himself.
When he read about a part for a space station being built by a 3-D printer, it was an “ah-ha,” moment for the father of 8-year-old boy and girl twins, Mason and Samantha.
“It was a way to combine my love of technology with photography,” he said.
With the blessing of his wife, Tami, Baumgarten took the plunge and started 3D StatYou, which will formally open in August.
Using a process called photogrammetry, which is the science of making reliable measurements by the use of photographs, Baumgarten can transform a photograph into a figurine. His business can make three-, four-, five-, six-, seven- and eight-inch figurines of an individual, couple, or a person with a favorite pet.
At his McMurray studio, Baumgarten has created a circular screen. Mounted inside the screen, which takes up almost an entire room, are 130 digital single-lens reflex cameras. Baumgarten will have his client walk to the center of the circle, and then a picture is taken using all 130 cameras, creating an image that can then be printed in three dimensions.
Baumgarten sends his images to an off-site location for the actual printing. Because images are printed in layers using fine grains of plaster, the process can take anywhere from one to two weeks to complete. Prices vary from $60 for a small figurine to $360 for a figure of two people. Reprints also are available.
“When my son first saw the model of me, he wanted one,” said Baumgarten, who has fine tuned his craft by also making figurines of such people he has encountered as a cable man and the clerk at the BP gas station on East McMurray Road.
“I want this business to become an integral part of the community,” Baumgarten said.
For more information, visit www.3dstatyou.com.