OK, so that was one of the scariest thoughts i had, when I saw the professor make a 3D printed model of himself and imagined what one of me would look like! Nobody needs to see that.

I found the 3-D modeling interesting, however, and can see clearly how it may fit into storytelling in the near future.

We do a lot of stories throughout the year on land use issues and proposed developments. It would be great to be able reproduce models of the proposed developments for our readers to see online in 3D and get a true sense of what the developers are proposing.

Similarly, a lot of our advertising is based on the real estate industry. How cool would it be to offer the real estate companies the opportunity to put (paid) 3D models of their current listings on the website. A virtual walk-through, so to speak.

What i like about the 3-d modeling, is that is a true representation of something. Unlike some of the virtual or augmented reality materials we were looking at, which were more creative, the 3-D modeling is accurate and lends itself to journalism. You are scanning something and presenting it in a different frame, but it is essentially unaltered.

I can see content providers utilizing the technology successfully. I’m not sure that the physical, 3D printed models have much of a place in journalism, as I’m not sure how they would be delivered, but maybe they could utilized in promotions and giveaways–Maybe as was mentioned in the lecture, sports stars or local celebs could be reproduced and used as content prizes.