As you know I am a huge Project Photofly freak as the technology to capture photos from a digital camera and transform them in to 3D models is a game changer. There are several solutions out there, but nothing comes even close to the free technology Project Photofly preview hosted on Autodesk Labs. You can take photos using your point and shoot camera or DSLR then upload in Project Photofly and you get a 3D textured model and that can be exported to many industry formats, or even a video to YouTube.
I was one of the people that was eligible for a phone upgrade and brought down the Internet with preordering the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S has all new optics and the best on a mobile device. Were the all new camera optics the main reason I was upgrading my iPhone 4 to the 4S, without question.
The photos this iPhone 4S captures are quite remarkable. I used testing the optics as an excuse to go fishing in the high Uinta mountains Mirror Lake.
So naturally one of the first things I was gong to do besides talking to Siri was take some photos and see how well they worked to generate 3D models in Photofly.
The results were nothing less than awesome.
I just created a quick image showing the statue I photographed with my iPhone 4S and then automatically generated a 3D model. This took minutes and even though I am a 3D modeling ninja, there is no way I could accurately to scale this statue complete as a mesh with textures any other way as fast and easily.
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The model is almost a digital copy or reality capture with only a few small faces missing where the lighting was low or I did not get a photos with an angle to see that portion of the surface. I could have manually placed points to most likely resolve them.
For this example I wanted a simple almost autopilot mode from taking photos, uploading them, the resulting 3D model, and then an automatic animation based on the automatic calculation of camera locations. Simple and to the point <pun intended>.
I created an automatic video to YouTube using the automatically generate camera path option. I could have manually defined the key frames but I wanted a fully automatic from photo to 3D model.
Animation video on YouTube: http://bit.ly/nv9Bnt
A couple tips;
- Less is more with photos. Don't go take 200 photos, just take a photo every 5-10 degrees around works at about 30-60 photos.
- Check out the tutorial video and documentation available.
Watch the Photo Shooting Guidelines video (YouTube, Download)
Watch the Autodesk Labs Project Photofly v2 A to Z in 7 minutes: http://fb.me/vgyPHFJ2
Review the Getting Started Guide (PDF) http://autode.sk/iGVloq
Check out my Photofly Tips & Tricks http://bit.ly/kcI0aj
Search and participate in the peer to peer Photofly discussion forum http://bit.ly/r3aOFA - Have Fun!
My team in Autodesk Labs is planning to update Photofly into another level of awesomeness, soon.
Now I need to get back to preparing for Autodesk University which is only 37 days from now. Only so many late nights remain.
Cheers,
Shaan
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