3D Scanning Shoes

I have been becoming more and more interested in photogrammetry for its 'quick' model creation, and exploring what is possible with the heavily topologized models. I scored a $3 'lazy Susan' turntable from Daiso which I think has become my deal of the year, armed with that, my Nikon D7000, some Officeworks lamps and Agisoft PhotoScan I dove headfirst into a wondrous realm which is still defining itself.  

'AdiBoost Splash'

I dusted shiny areas of these shoes with talcum powder to reduce reflections that would cause issues. They say adding natural environmental phenomena always adds interest so I created a splash using RealFlow and rendered with shallow DOF within 3ds Max using V-Ray.

Lo-Fi AF

At the risk of revealing myself as a ghetto maniac this set up is the most budget thing ever seen. As it turns out lighting is really important, I can get results day or night with this setup, but I found that I achieved better results shooting with ambient daylight, which I am lucky enough to get a lot of in my apartment.

DJ spin that

Here is the 'Rotating Table' I purchased from Daiso. Seriously, pick one up!
I set my camera to take 9 photos with 3 second intervals and I rotate 10° each shot, so the auto 9 shots takes 90° - a nice way to deal with tracking the photography.

Here are some untouched photos which I shoot straight to jpeg. It forced me to zero in my exposure a little more but significantly lowered overhead when I was dealing with hundreds of photos. I have been having issues getting my colour temperature correct in-camera. I do not use any automatic settings as I try to keep all the photos as similar as possible. I shoot around f10 and disable the auto focus to have confidence that the area of interest will remain in sharp focus. I create Photoshop actions for image adjustments and masking.

These are the results inside of Agisoft PhotoScan. You can tell right from the initial alignment and sparse point cloud if you are going to have a good time or not. There is a huge difference between having a good time and traversing the seven levels of hell. I use a masked workflow and have avoided a lot of marker and chunk merging.
For an Agisoft PhotoScan tutorial, I would recommend videos by these 2 clever ladies:
Stacey H: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uI9_5T3d5U
Brittany Johnson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uny9nTr22go

Take it to the Max

Inside of 3ds Max the model was imported and posed. I have been learning V-Ray so I set up the materials for that renderer and created a ground object using a displacement workflow that I have been developing. I knew that I was going to be adding a splash and felt that cobblestones would offer some interest with water interacting with the highs and lows of the pavers.

RealFlow

RealFlow is a whole 'nother beast. I animated a low resolution model to be used here and then sculpted the result to get something more in-line with what I was after. Lynda's 'Up and Running' course showed me more than enough to create a simple splash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5kAdydIEMY

Next 'Step'

No idea! You need to be open to surprises. Within photogrammetry and definitely within fluid simulations you don't quite know what you are going to get. I will spend 3 hours and end up with a disaster. This is the process. Do not despair and identify the potential in what is before you. Sculptors give themselves a piece of mud to start with!

Sketchfabulous

Check out these 2 models which were also captured using my cheapo set up which are a Robot Soldier I picked up from the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo and an old ornament of my Mum's. They were optimised for real-time and uploaded to Sketchfab, a truly awesome site with great content.

Contracts / Commissions

If you would like a product visualisation created or would like to contact me regarding a project, please do so at: lucasmilner3d@gmail.com