Turning scans into clay

Scans are messy: holes, floating specks, a texture instead of geometry for the fine detail. Shapeaway turns them into clean, editable clay.

1. Import the scan as OBJ (with its MTL and texture beside it) or glTF/GLB. Texture colours become paint.
2. Choose a detail level: it sets how far the scan is simplified in the clay.
3. Under Clean up, keep Drop loose bits on, and turn on Fit detail to the scan.
4. Shapeaway builds clay (closing holes), then a detail mesh subdivided to about the scan’s own resolution and fitted to it, taking its fine surface and colour.
5. If it came in at an odd angle, look at it from the front and choose Objects › Align to view.

Now sculpt: fix the holes’ surroundings, sharpen what the scan blurred, and repaint what it got wrong. See the tutorial Turn a 3D scan into editable clay.