--- title: President Barack Obama Sits for a Three Dimensional Portrait description: The White House offered a behind-the-scenes peek at the making of a presidential portrait, in three dimensions, canonical: https://time.com/3614352/barack-obama-3d-portrait/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-02T19:55:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:03:49.771Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Barack Obama Sits for a Three Dimensional Portrait og:description: The White House offered a behind-the-scenes peek at the making of a presidential portrait, in three dimensions, og:url: https://time.com/3614352/barack-obama-3d-portrait/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d0fb989459cd7f2/69876bfa2dce01b1079dc20c/screen-shot-2014-12-02-at-2-49-35-pm.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Barack Obama 3D Portrait og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Barack Obama Sits for a Three Dimensional Portrait twitter:description: The White House offered a behind-the-scenes peek at the making of a presidential portrait, in three dimensions, twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d0fb989459cd7f2/69876bfa2dce01b1079dc20c/screen-shot-2014-12-02-at-2-49-35-pm.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch President Obama Sit for a 3D-Portrait  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Dec 2, 2014 7:55 PM UTC  White House  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Dec 2, 2014 7:55 PM UTC The White House offered a behind-the-scenes peek Tuesday at the making of a presidential portrait—in three dimensions. The video on the White House YouTube channel, entitled “The President, in 3D,” shows Barack Obama smiling wide, surrounded by a scaffolding of 50 custom-built LED lights and a team of digital imaging specialists from the Smithsonian Institution. One-second of flashes later, and they have captured what is expected to be “the highest resolution digital model of a head of state.” The Smithsonian [unveiled](http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/12/02/new-video-provides-behind-scenes-look-first-3d-printed-presidential-portraits) the freakishly lifelike bust on Tuesday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3614352/barack-obama-3d-portrait/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3614352/barack-obama-3d-portrait/"},"headline":"Watch President Obama Sit for a 3D-Portrait","datePublished":"2014-12-02T19:55:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:03:49.771Z","description":"It's being called \"the highest resolution digital model of a head of state\"","url":"https://time.com/3614352/barack-obama-3d-portrait/","keywords":["White House","Tech","President Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d0fb989459cd7f2/69876bfa2dce01b1079dc20c/screen-shot-2014-12-02-at-2-49-35-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d0fb989459cd7f2/69876bfa2dce01b1079dc20c/screen-shot-2014-12-02-at-2-49-35-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Barack Obama 3D Portrait","caption":"President Barack Obama 3D Portrait","creditText":"White House","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3614352/barack-obama-3d-portrait/","name":"Watch President Obama Sit for a 3D-Portrait"}}]}] ```