Quebec-based art virtuoso accomplishes stunning creative feats with Go!SCAN 3D

Cynthia Coulombe Begin is a renowned Québec painter and artist who started her professional career in 2006 by paying tribute to the aesthetics of the human body. Her first exhibit, Traces corporelles, took place at the Marius-Barbeau Museum and was acclaimed by local art critics. Over the past few decades, she has exhibited in galleries, private companies and collective events in Québec City, Montreal, Toronto, New York, London, Los Angeles, Singapor and Hong Kong. Her works have also been published in regional and national publications.

Her most recent exhibit, Le Corps à Coeur, took place in 2021 at the Corno X Beauchamp Gallery in Montréal; she was the first solo artist to host an exhibition following the death of renowned Canadian artist Corno, Joanne Corneau’s pseudonym, in 2016.

Le Corps à Coeur is CCB’s sculptural exploration of body image and self-acceptance. She actually used 3D scans of her own body to create stunning statuettes using Creaform’s Go!SCAN SPARK 3D scanner and VXmodel scan-to-CAD software module.

The scanning process of CCB’s body took place at Creaform’s offices, in Levis, and required approximately 4 hours. Data acquisition was conducted with a resolution of 1.00 mm. While 3D scanning only took 2-3 minutes for each pose, CCB took the same pose several times to ensure enough data was acquired for post-processing.

Because of the model’s micro-movements (due to breathing and difficult positions to keep for a long time), the 3D scanner operator only scanned all the required body parts once for each pose; this eliminated capturing the tiny changes in the model’s position during the pose. To help even more, the software was set in Semi rigid object mode, which increases accuracy on subjects that slightly warps during the acquisition. For some poses, stands were used so that the model’s body parts would not move during data acquisition. 

To complete this art project, various VXmodel tools were used to correct the micro-movements and improve surfacing. The post processing of all the models took place over a 3 to 4 days span. After that, all that was left was to 3D print the models and let the artist express her creativity through added colors and textures. All in all, around 30 pieces of art were created. 

Creaform was thrilled to be the technology partner behind her latest works of art that celebrate the wonders of the human body—her own!