3D Capturing Introduction

ARC 4.562, 4.570, 4.s52

Instructor : Prof. Takehiko Nagakura
Last modified : 2023/10/15

Using a digital camera and importing photos to software

In a conventional production pipeline, you first use a digital camera to take the photos of the target object
and then use a photogrammetric modeling software to which you import the photos, process them and export the 3D model. To take photos,
you may use a smartphone's built-in camera, but using a stand-alone digital camera is recommended to make a model of a better qualtiy.

      Sample photos 18 photos of a sculpture at Boston MFA

In any method, preparing good photos are most essential to make a good model. So I recommend you to first watch the tutorial video below
for taking photos (the one from Autodesk).

Also, at the end of your process, use the following guideline to appropriately size your model when you export it to your purpose.
      For Design Heritage website:
            decimated mesh count: 5,000-150,000, Texture image max: 4096x4096 pixels (single image)

      For Unity / Oculus HMD
            decimated mesh count max: 500,000, Texture image max: 4096x4096 pixels (possibly multiple images)

Smartphone-based integrated hand-held scanning solution

Recent option for 3D scanning includes smartphone based integrated solution, where the app uses the phone's camera and/or LiDAR sensor (iphone).
It works like a hand-held scanner, without the process of exporting the photos to a separte processing software.
There are many emerging apps available that you can gind by Google'ing "3D scan smartphone app".
Here are two examples available on app stores for those who are interested in testing.
If you use one of these apps for Design Heritage platform upload, make sure that the app can export a model in obj format and with only one texture map image.