Messages

46

General / Re: Generating specular maps

« on: March 12, 2014, 03:09:02 PM »

I think you can't skip generating proper UV map step. When you create proper UV map (in 3d app like Blender, Max, Zbrush, 3D Coat...), you can project texture in Photoscan on that UV map and get usable and editable diffuse. From there you can extract micro bumps and generate spec/gloss maps.

Admir

47

General / Re: How deal with buildings an trees

« on: March 09, 2014, 12:01:13 PM »

Admir: Yeah I just assumed if you used many cameras to do some side of the building, that alone could add up to so many cameras that if you tried to do the whole building with that kind of detail, it would be 100's of photos and PS would die (its died on me when i push it too hard)

I guess if he used sparse coverage like I said, it might be ok

I took session of large piece of quarry, with 140 images using that technique and my laptop (i5 with 32gb of RAM) managed to solve it well on High settings. Got ~500 000 points in sparse cloud. Also did similar building (all sides not just one) with ~80 photos using Canon 1100D and PS havent had any problems in single chunk.
When you do aligment, visually check cameras that overlap or that PS asume are taken from "same" place, they will be positioned in 3D view in same location, try removing some of them without loosing details or to much points in spare cloud. This will help speeding building dense point cloud and mesh and less RAM usage.

Admir

48

General / Re: Artifacts/sparklies in mesh (3dmax)

« on: March 08, 2014, 05:20:43 PM »

Yeah.. I was never well versed in UV mapping, especially on a complex object, Ill have to figure it out!
So no matter what cameras you choose to use to generate texture, itll follow the UV layout specific in the re-imported mesh?

You can use all cameras, just when building texture, in Mapping mode select Keep UV.

Admir

49

General / Re: Artifacts/sparklies in mesh (3dmax)

« on: March 07, 2014, 11:47:39 PM »

Im currently trying to scan some jackets and I cant seem to get away from these bright grey/white pixels in the model when i render in 3dmax, I assume they are located along UV seams? Any idea what they are and how to get rid of them, I'm exporting to a 16000 pixel jpeg for the texture and using spec map

http://imgur.com/zunIco8

Any other help on how to lay out better UVs out of photoscan or general texturing advice would be appreciated! Thank you

Is UV map default from Photoscan ? How did you created spec map, by hand in Photoshop from color map ? Tried rendering without spec map to see if errors are in color.

Best practice is to export mesh from Photoscan, UV map in Max or similar and reimport uv mapped mesh in Photoscan for texture projection.

Admir

50

General / Re: How deal with buildings an trees

« on: March 07, 2014, 11:44:44 PM »

its funny, I view the world in how easy it would be to scan it or hard in this case.. Taking closeup photos I agreed with but the quality may not be the best unless you do it section by section and connect the chucks together. Otherwise try sparse, closer coverage. If the trees were further back you could try taking more photos but masking out trees in each section but these branches are too small and numerous..

You dont need to do in chunks, place all photos in single chunk, Photoscan will do the miracle

Admir

51

General / Re: How deal with buildings an trees

« on: March 05, 2014, 07:12:32 PM »

Thanks for the replies 

Cutting trees is no option but would solve the problem ...

I will try this part of the building with a lot of picture from as many different angles as possible and I its enough to get an acceptable but not perfect model

greetings
Martin

I think you will get much better model (precision and less noise wise) with many close up pictures, rather than taking pictures from distance as your example.

A

52

General / Re: How deal with buildings an trees

« on: March 04, 2014, 11:20:40 PM »

Admir
Also, cutting down the trees could be an option
[/quot
Nah, we are all nature lovers... finding building without trees would be better

53

General / Re: How deal with buildings an trees

« on: March 04, 2014, 04:32:47 PM »

Hello,

I've got a general question about shooting an building with a lot of trees in front of it.

How do I manage to shoot, for example, this building of the attached photo? Because in most similar cases I get a very very noise point cloud. Is there any way to deal with?

Thank you.

Martin

Can you approach very close to building so your view is not obstructed. Then, you will need to shoot building from more photos (top left corner, middle left, bottom left corner etc...), shoot global photos of building with trees in front and trees from building side. Photoscan will use both all 3 "sets" of images for aligment. Since you shot volume, you can remove trees from dense point cloud when building mesh. Disable images like one you posted when creating texture and use only close up ones.

Hope this helps,
Admir

54

General / Re: Photo Realignment

« on: March 04, 2014, 01:31:11 PM »

I am doing human scans, with a similar issue.  On particularly difficult subjects that have very bland clothing, I get say 10% of the cameras that won't align.  After the initial solve, I try to right-click "Align Selected Camera" on these NA cameras, and they still won't align.

Is there any other way to deal with this?  Is this one of the situations that coded targets are meant to help with specifically?  Can one load a camera XML from a previous solve, with this initial positioning being a 'suggestion' of where to start?  Could one hack the "ground control" system to allow this?

Are you using masks ? In some cases when cameras won't align (i am doing human scans also), i delete masks from non-aligned photos and do realigment and it works in 90%. Another thing to try is to use Generic pair selection (in aligment stage) or Disable if you are using pair preselction.

Hope it helps,
Admir

55

General / Re: Reimporting Mesh

« on: February 25, 2014, 11:10:02 AM »

You can load your mesh back to Zbrush and under Transform->Info menu check XYZ coordinates. Export original mesh from PS, import it in ZB and check its coordinates. If they are different, place cleaned mesh in Zbrush on same coordinates as original and export it again. Also, you can load both meshes in ZB and check if they overlap properly.

Admir

56

Face and Body Scanning / Re: Studio Flash suggestions...

« on: February 24, 2014, 11:18:22 PM »

Quantuum is a Polish brand, are they even distributed at all outside of Poland?

One brand that should definitely be on your shortlist is Paul C. Buff with their excellent Einstein line or the more affordable Alien Bees. They also produce dedicated portable power source bricks.

Cheers,
Andrew

Yup, got them pretty cheap here in Croatia for ~350 eur each with stand, umbrella, extra soft panel, nice bag Technical spec papers are baaad tho and incorect.

Admir

57

Face and Body Scanning / Re: Studio Flash suggestions...

« on: February 24, 2014, 11:32:43 AM »

Are you using multiple cameras or turntable ? In any case, from my experience 2 factors are important in studio setup: recycle time and synchronization delay with shooter. if using turntable or want 4d scans long recycle time can give you a lot problems. Sync with shooter is important as you want to sync camera(s) with flashes otherwise you will get dark blurry photos.

I am using cheap 4 Quantum SQ flashlights btw and i am very happy with 2 things mentioned above. Also color temperature they are giving is better suited for our needs.

Hope it helps narrowing your search,

Admir

58

General / Re: Object Origin

« on: February 18, 2014, 01:12:44 PM »

Thats similar workflow i am using with Modo, move/rotate/scale mesh as item in scene and reset all transformations before exporting back to PS. It works best for me as i can replace mesh in Modo scene after editing in Zbrush or reprojecting textures in PS.

Admir

59

General / Re: scan a room

« on: February 17, 2014, 06:23:56 PM »

Hi,
it really depends on objects in your room, colors and shines of objects. For example glass materials (windows, vases....) and shiny metals can not be recreated so it would be better to remove them.
If walls are empty and single color (white) it  will be difficult to recreate them in PS. The best would be to take pictures of one side for test (not from same spot/position) and try in PS to see results.
We have scanned interiors with success but they were old, derailed rooms of unfinished buildings and some broken parts of buildings. The walls were dirty with graffiti, plaster missing etc so it was easy for PS.

If you can explain what kind of room you want to recreate people here can give you hints and tips.

Admir

60

General / Re: should I see the whole object with all camera? can I zoom?

« on: January 28, 2014, 01:58:29 PM »

It all depends on your cameras (resolution wise). I think you need to experiment but if you have 30 cameras, 20 being minimum (5 above each other on 4 sides) you have 14 to spare for zooming in for details.

I would setup 5 vertical cameras on 6 sides so you get enough horizontal and vertical overlap or 4 vertical on 8 sides.

A