Toymakers once made models by hand, but 3-D printing has changed all that.

3D scanning and 3D printing have arrived in the age of computers, a time when all media, including photos, are endlessly manipulable. The transition to 3D rapid prototyping cuts development time and allows faithful reproductions of actor’s faces.

We can expect a future in which our memories are captured and even realized in something other than the two dimensions to which we’ve become accustomed — and that this process will be as mundane then as the digital camera is now.