The Met Releases High-Def 3D Scans of 140 Famous Art Objects

Stevvo 19 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

The original article is https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/03/metropolitan-museum-o... Not sure why that is not linked, instead we have an AI generated SEO spam page.

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jandrese an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's kind of annoying that the 3D viewer on their website keep you a respectful distance away from the object like you might try to touch it if you got too close.

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knolan an hour ago | parent [-]

It works really well with the AR viewer on mobile Safari.

	▲	LeifCarrotson 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Interesting, on desktop Firefox I can barely zoom in past the point that the object fills the FOV. I want to be permitted to navigate up close to a point where I can see the pixels and triangle meshes, as if I was a millimeter away from some brush stroke or chisel mark, and then back out just a bit.

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teachrdan 7 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Any recommendations for art objects worth 3D printing at home? Bonus points if it would appeal to a grade schooler.

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minihoster an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Anyone know how the material roughness/metallic is captured? For instance here https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/253348. I've only seen basic albedo for 3D scans before. Maybe it's just hand-authored.

	▲	utopiah an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		No idea what they used but I know that in Brussels they use CultArm3D FT20 by https://verus.digital basically a camera on a robot arm.
	▲	alecail 7 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		From what I saw in that file and a few others (in USDZ), the metalness is not captured. It's in 0/1.jpg , and the file is always pure white. You are only seeing roughness I opened them in Houdini and it translates to a USDPreview material, with those PBR channels connected: basecolor, roughness (decent map), metallic (no data, juste white) and normal map (decent map too)

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jonhohle an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

> To request images under copyright and other restrictions, …

If these are available as public domain with unrestricted use without fee, what is the use case for requesting a version under copyright with restrictions?

	▲	dfxm12 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Not everything is open access data and public domain images. This image is tagged open access & public domain: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/321937 This image is not: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/492371

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xattt an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I see the “spinning” view in browser, but I don’t see an option to download the STLs.

Edit: It appears the usdz AR file can be converted to obj/stl files.

	▲	alecail 24 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Each of the models is available in fbx, usdz and glb if you dig a bit in the page. It's in a json file named masters

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infocollector an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Does anyone know where the STL/OBJ files for the 3d models are at?

	▲	utopiah an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Check your browser console, network tab, search for .glb and you can directly download them.
	▲	alecail 5 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Look for the file named masters, it's a json file that contains the filenames for those formats: glb usdz fbx

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utopiah an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Great use of WebXR.

Works well both on the Vision Pro (USDz format) and Meta Quest (glTF binary format).

That being said without the right mediation, without some context... unless you already are an expert in the domain what's the point?

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toomuchtodo 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/03/metropolitan-museum-o...

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?showOnly=has...