Cylindrical UV Mapping (or Unwrap) with Relax solution and Blurry Texture issues

[Infinite]

**EDIT**

The point of this post, isn't so much to highlight and share workflows (although useful) the point of this post is to find a way to automate the whole process, as it shouldn't have to happen. An automated solution to cut workflow times from 12-15 hours down to a 5-10 minutes is hopeful outcome.

****

Hi, I wanted to put together a complex post explaining the issues currently related to UV mapping and texturing. Specifically Faces and Bodies. This is related to Multi Camera Arrays and Single Camera Capture, as well as capturing Objects and Artefacts.

Currently, Agisoft's best UV Mapping option is Generic (Atlast Mapping) which is OK but can produce very bad optimization of UV spaces:



To solve this you have to go through a very complex process or re-meshing (Dynamesh) and re-uvmapping a highres scan (UVMaster) the only way to do this is in ZBrush (effectively) this takes some time. Or more recently I have been using an external UV mapping application to Cylindrically map a 360 Head Scan with 200% Relax. Not ideal but faster:



Once this has been complete, you can import back to Agisoft and bake texture keeping UV's. This works great but then there is another issue present. Blurry Average Texturing (Mosaic and other methods wont solve this, as they produce other issues) Average is the best method. But the blending isn't ideal, especially on skin, as edge fresnel can cause clipping.

Custom Unwrap UV:



Average:



So to fix this, you have to bake Average, Left and Right one by one, then masking using layers in Photoshop to get a super sharp, crisp texture

Left:



Right:



PSD built by hand, blended using Masks in Layers:



Final Sharp Custom UVMapped, Custom Cleaned Texture:




Compare the 2:



So this solves the problem, but is time consuming. One FACS scan can take about 45 minutes to 1 hour to process. Multiply that by 90 FACS. Well you get the idea.

I propose two things

1) Better UVMapping tools built in for Humans. Either some kind of Un-wrapping solution or at least Cylindrical UVMapping, similar to UVMapper application. Along with Relax controls by %

2) A better Texture Solution. For Sharper Textures, maybe by allowing the user to specify priority Cameras to force their details over all Camera images, to produce sharper textures:

[kris3d]

Very good guide. Thank you very much
I noticed that your camera is set to stereo.
Is the stereo setting gives better quality?

[Infinite]

Very good guide. Thank you very much
I noticed that your camera is set to stereo.
Is the stereo setting gives better quality?

This isn't so much a guide as a bug fix, feature improvement request post. But some useful information can be extrapolated.

Some Cameras are stereo others are just witness cameras to improve resolution.

[Infinite]

Proposed method for Average Blending of Priority Photographs for texturing:

Z-Depth calculation and percentage falloff control:

Scan:



Showing aligned projection:



Useful, Normals:



Z-Depth or Screen Distance Calculation (even possible using a simple fogging technique from Camera position to calculate mesh falloff from Camera position, to average blend textures):



Falloff Projection techniques:

[Infinite]

With built in Unwrapping tools such as Cylindrical or something similar we could achieve far superior 4D sequencing, with high resolution textures, also useful for tracking:

Mockup 4D mapping with UV viewer:



Example unwrapped texture output of 4D face data:



Related to this research:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoRhXFoGsXs

[Mr_Curious]

+1

I would like to add my vote for what infinite has suggested, it would make life so much better!

Greetings,

Mr. Curious

[Infinite]

+1

I would like to add my vote for what infinite has suggested, it would make life so much better!

Greetings,

Mr. Curious

The Agisoft team have just implemented a new Texture Blending method for Mosaic, it works amazingly well! very sharp and well blended details. I'm not sure if it is Live on the forums yet. Worth checking out.

 All we need now is a new mapping method other than Generic/Atlas. Or something that can at least optimize the texture space properly and evenly.

[acind]

This sounds awesome, is this version with the improved mosaic available somewhere?
I have been doing some reprojection in maya, but this would certainly speed up workflows.

[Mr_Curious]

+1

I would like to add my vote for what infinite has suggested, it would make life so much better!

Greetings,

Mr. Curious

The Agisoft team have just implemented a new Texture Blending method for Mosaic, it works amazingly well! very sharp and well blended details. I'm not sure if it is Live on the forums yet. Worth checking out.

 All we need now is a new mapping method other than Generic/Atlas. Or something that can at least optimize the texture space properly and evenly.

I'm looking for this improved build, any idea where one can find it?

Greetings

Mr. Curious

[Infinite]

+1

I would like to add my vote for what infinite has suggested, it would make life so much better!

Greetings,

Mr. Curious

The Agisoft team have just implemented a new Texture Blending method for Mosaic, it works amazingly well! very sharp and well blended details. I'm not sure if it is Live on the forums yet. Worth checking out.

 All we need now is a new mapping method other than Generic/Atlas. Or something that can at least optimize the texture space properly and evenly.

I'm looking for this improved build, any idea where one can find it?

Greetings

Mr. Curious

It might not have been released yet, as the Agisoft guys have just got back from a tradeshow.

[kris3d]

hello infinite 

what program do you recommend to unwrap.
It actually improves the texture thanks for the tutorial

[Infinite]

hello infinite 

what program do you recommend to unwrap.
It actually improves the texture thanks for the tutorial

You can use UVMaster in ZBrush or Google UVMapper.

Agisoft REALLY needs a better UV Mapping algorithm. Something that can evenly space UV islands. At the moment it is very random and wasteful of texture space 

[Mr_Curious]

hello infinite 

what program do you recommend to unwrap.
It actually improves the texture thanks for the tutorial

You can use UVMaster in ZBrush or Google UVMapper.

Agisoft REALLY needs a better UV Mapping algorithm. Something that can evenly space UV islands. At the moment it is very random and wasteful of texture space 

+1

I second this.  I'm really hoping that this can be addressed, for many of us this is a matter of critical concern.

Greetings,

Mr. Curious

[FoodMan]

+1

with latest build it's even worse, now for a pretty complex model, Pscan creates only 2 charts (islands) and the texture has artifacts and visible stretches...
f/

[FoodMan]

ermmm... recently I also get a lot of overlapping UV on complex models.. not good..