A Mildura teenager has built a piece of equipment that usually costs thousands of dollars for less than $40.

They seem like pretty ordinary objects - a milk crate, webcam and a laptop.

But for Mildura teenager Angshu Madge, they form the basis of a pretty special invention.

Angshu, who is in Year 9 at St Joseph's College in Mildura, recently took home a bursary for his creation from this year's Science Talent Search.

He designed and built a 3D laser scanner using everyday items, for the statewide student competition.

"It transforms video footage of an object with a laser line being swept over it, " Angshu says.

"It turns it into a three-dimensional image on a computer, which can then be used for different modelling and film making and all kinds of stuff," he says.

Angshu says he designed the scanner because he wanted to try and make technology that usually costs thousands of dollars in an affordable way.

"Seeing a lot of movies with CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) these days, I wanted to know how they did it, because you can't possibly make all that stuff on a computer, it's just too time-consuming," he says.

"So I found that a lot of what they do is modelling of objects in real life then scanning them into a computer to be able to move them and use them in their films.

Angshu says he achieved that goal, and bought or found all the parts for the scanner relatively cheaply.

"This was a project to see if I could achieve those same results with products available to any consumer," he says.

"And I did this project for under $40 and using parts available to anyone."

Coming from a family of scientists, Angshu says he had some help at home, but his invention was mostly a solo project.

In fact, he says one of the hardest parts of the competition was finding something new and innovative to present to the judges.

"It wasn't easy, because most things have already been done."