3D Models.. from Camera to Paper

I’ve been playing with “structure from motion” / “photogrammetry” apps for a bit.  Lots of stuff still to figure out, but here’s a possible interesting path.   Note that none of this is optimal – wrong camera, wrong print medium, etc – but its fun.

1.  Start with a Video of walking around The Dude Abiding.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkrIkdK0kjI&w=448&h=252&hd=1]
He owned the copy of Lebowski that I watched, so I associate him with the Dude

(His name is Joel, he’s one of my coworkers, he also teaches kids how to code)

2.  Using VLC, play then Shift-S to snap, then plan, then Shift-S to snap, to extract a bunch of frames.

2014-04-18 14_32_47-F__2014_3dmodels_joel

3. Load them into Agisoft PhotoScan ($179, or you could go 123D Catch from Autodesk, that one is free, but possibly less accurate?).   Run “Align Cameras”, get point cloud.

2014-04-23 16_27_44-joel.psz — Agisoft PhotoScan

4. Crop in the model box, hit Build Dense Cloud.  This is where it starts to look really interesting.

2014-04-23 16_28_03-joel.psz — Agisoft PhotoScan

5.  Build a Model .. Build Texture.  This is what the result looks like at “medium” resolution:

2014-04-18 14_32_30-Untitled_ — Agisoft PhotoScan (demo)

Not the greatest, but that’s because of the camera I used (video compression = artifacting = bumps) plus camera lens distortion etc.

6. However, that doesn’t work for what we’re doing next.  I don’t own a $10k color 3d printer.  So instead.. paper!

Build a model at lower resolutions:

2014-04-23 16_28_23-Build Mesh2014-04-23 16_28_49-joel.psz — Agisoft PhotoScan

Don’t forget to close holes! (tools menu) …  build texture…

2014-04-23 16_29_00-Build Texture2014-04-23 16_29_51-joel.psz_ — Agisoft PhotoScan

7. Export the model.  This is the $179 pay for step in Agisoft PhotoScan.

2014-04-23 16_30_16-Export Model - Wavefront OBJ

Note that this saves both a .JPG and a .PNG texture.  JPG on the Left.    I might be mistaken, but I think they were saved at the same time.   Actually, the .JPG might be the overall “build me a texture”, and the .PNG is the “export my model to wavefront”.   It’s a little freaky.

joeljoel

8.  Load the .OBJ into Pepakura.  $39, I totally plan to buy it.

2014-04-23 16_31_47-joel - Pepakura Designer 3

9. Unfold, and Print:

2014-04-23 16_31_55-joel - Pepakura Designer 3

10.  Print it out on cardstock, cut, and fold ..

I haven’t done this part yet.

These screenshots were from my second attempt.  Here is Joel holding my first attempt, which was 500 faces, a bit too complex:

2014-04-23 14.25.40

Author: sunnywiz

Me.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *