Photos are last gen, 3D scans of my recent holiday

[facePuncher7]

Somewhat spontaneously took 3 weeks off work at the end of 2017 and travelled to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

No real knowledge of the place besides a bunch of friends saying it was an amazing place to visit. It definitely lived up to the hype, even for a curmudgeonly being like me, after the first week I didn't want to leave.

Great place, great people, great food, culture, sights, you name it.

I had a plan while I was there to attempt to make 3D models of places I visited instead of the common 2D photo.

The process is known as photogrammetry, and involves systematically finding common elements in images and then projecting their distance by intersecting their pixel offsets through the projection matrix of the viewport (camera). Not as complicated as it sounds when you can picture it, and there is software to do it, though generally expensive.

The only unfortunate part of the trip was that quite a few of the models came out poorly, because I couldn't test anything until I came back, so didn't realise I needed more data in a majority of cases. That being said, the resulting models are fairly accurate, most points/vertices are likely within 2cm accuracy.

Anyway, here are the ones I managed to salvage:

Some of the wood carvings and sign at the entrance of Chiang Mai zoo:
https://sketchfab.com/models/2bbfc634899942cf868e99b8589eb801

A sleeping hippo, probs my favorite one. FYI I measured him out of the model, he's about 2m long from nose to tail:
https://sketchfab.com/models/f23b72d3d0af49baa4d66d0cea05146e

Lastly, a sign + statue at the end of the street I was staying on. I don't know why the camera is so difficult to control on this one, like one axis is locked or something, but I like how well it came through:
https://sketchfab.com/models/1ac8f6473ac04a8c9930d67e1c058a4a

 

[Eazy123]

- Quite a few models came put poorly

- Photos are last gen

 

[facePuncher7]

- Quite a few models came put poorly

- Photos are last gen

The models are generated out of collections of photos, but if there is not enough confluent data between the photos, the 3D model won't come out well.

 

[Eazy123]

The models are generated out of collections of photos, but if there is not enough confluent data between the photos, the 3D model won't come out well.

Ah. Interesting idea but there are way too many gaps

 

[chickenluver]

That's cool, thanks for sharing.

I visited Chaing Mai a couple years ago for a wedding anniversary. I had a great time, really nice place.

Was the nationwide curfew still in effect while you were there?

 

[facePuncher7]

Ah. Interesting idea but there are way too many gaps

Worth noting that photogrammetry is commonly used with aerial imagery to generate terrain models. You are limited to modelling what you can see, and what you see must not be moving.

For example, if your target is a field that is partially dirt and partially long grass that is waving in the wind, likely there will be a gap where the grass is but the dirt will come through fine. That being said, any dirt behind a tree or other object won't appear either.

With those restrictions there is somewhat of an art to it when it comes to taking photos. You can get all encompassing 3D models of things, but it takes time, patience and skill. I'm a bit of a noob, my forte is laser scanning.

 

[My name is]

I don't get it

 

[facePuncher7]

That's cool, thanks for sharing.

I visited Chaing Mai a couple years ago for a wedding anniversary. I had a great time, really nice place.

Was the nationwide curfew still in effect while you were there?

Not to my knowledge. I was out on quite a few nights at the night bazaar and people were everywhere at 11-12. Wasn't the curfew like 9pm?

 

[chickenluver]

Not to my knowledge. I was out on quite a few nights at the night bazaar and people were everywhere at 11-12. Wasn't the curfew like 9pm?

I believe it was midnight when I was there. Some bars and clubs paid a bribe to stay open a couple hours later, like the ones on top of the mall.

 

[GSP_37]

I tried Autodesk's Recap 360 free low res version for free to use camera taking pics from multiple angles to produce 3D model and it was terrible. Maybe because the object was black. I might try again but using software to flip the black images to white. I did use colored shapes in the background to give the software extra reference points, but still came out terrible.

 

[facePuncher7]

I tried Autodesk's Recap 360 free low res version for free to use camera taking pics from multiple angles to produce 3D model and it was terrible. Maybe because the object was black. I might try again but using software to flip the black images to white. I did use colored shapes in the background to give the software extra reference points, but still came out terrible.

There are a a small handful of things you can do to make a model better, but a million ways to mess it up. Things that can ruin it:

* Glare
* Reflective surfaces
* Moving objects
- even in the distance
* Images spaced too far apart
* Change in shadowing from moving light source
- even the sun over 20-30 mins can have an effect
* Target object having minimal variance in texture and colour

With practise you can for sure get better, but it is a somewhat limited method. I've actually written software to do photogrammetry so I understand how it works behind the scenes, and it's very hard to get right.

 

[Graves The Elder]

what even is the point of this?

 

[Simian Raticus]

I don't get it

for you

Neither.

But Chiang Mai is a dope city.

Good for you TS.

 

[Cheese]

thought this be about those 3d family protaits I see at the mall.