Titanium Fingerprint Ring Photo and Render

[Ed]

I made this Titanium Fingerprint Ring.  I digitized the fingerprint into vector artwork and deep laser engraved the print into the titanium ring.  This is not laser marking where the image just sets on the surface - instead this laser removes metal to about 0.008" deep.  It's deep enough to feel the ridges, and feels very similar to running your finger over a metal file.

I took the photo on the left, and in Photoshop replaced the background with light blue.  The photographed ground shadow was weak, so I made the shadow in KeyShot using a ring model, and brought it over as a transparent layer multiplied with the blue background layer.

Then as a learning exercise, I trying reproducing the photo in KeyShot.  Taking the same vector artwork used on the laser, I brought it into MoI, extruded, deformed around the ring, and Boolean diff to get the recessed fingerprint.  In KeyShot I used the foam material for the black areas that are laser engraved.  Each pulse of the laser blasts out a little crater, and the foam material was a good match.  Using the KeyShot HDR editor, I built the HDR as best I could, and even added a pin to reproduce the diffused reflection of my camera inside the ring interior.

The ring photo has DOF due to the f-stop setting with my macro lens, butI forgot to apply DOF on the KeyShot render.  Also, on close inspection, the two fingerprint patterns don't exactly match - this is because I didn't take the time to model a new ring with the exact diameter of the real ring.  Anyway, it was a fun exercise.

Ed Ferguson

[TpwUK]

Without your description to assist you could have posed a 'which came first' scenario, super stuff Ed

All the best and seasons greetings

Martin

[Esben Oxholm]

That is pretty cool.
Great exercise and good results. Maybe a very small fillet along the edges of the recessed fingerprint would improve the look.

[Josh3D]

Wow, this is great. At first glance I didn't notice the difference. The render stands out mostly because of no machined edges showing and no DOF. Very fun exercise and cool to hear about the process you used, especially about using the rendered shadow in the photo!