1 Topic by Heartlander (edited by Heartlander 2013-12-08 17:04:18)

  • Heartlander
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Topic: Setting up a photo booth for 123D Catch Photo-to-Scan-to-3D Model

http://www.123dapp.com/howto/catch

I am pondering a simple but accurate way to photograph objects for upload to Catch and subsequent conversion to 3D model.

123D Catch is a free system and, it seems to me, if you do a good job feeding it accurate data, it should send back a good STL or whatever. For a lot of folks and a lot of projects it might obviate the need for a scanner.

My plan is for a ball-bearing turntable that the object will sit on, something like this: http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/Rubberm … MgodOFUA8Q

A digital camera will be tripod mounted and remain stationary as will a CFL light. The turntable will have numbered degrees and colored rings similar to a dartboard for reference points so Catch can "stitch" them together into a 3D sequence. After each photograph, the turntable is rotated one segment (360 degrees / 60 photos = 6 degrees per segment, for example).

The object of the game is to send a set of precisely shot pics that the Catch software can easily interpret.

Before I make it, has anyone already done this? Any tips?

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2 Reply by justsomeguy (edited by justsomeguy 2013-12-08 17:26:07)

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Re: Setting up a photo booth for 123D Catch Photo-to-Scan-to-3D Model

The best solutions for photogrammetry I've seen used multiple cameras in order to catch all of the images at the same time.  Like this one:  http://www.instructables.com/id/Multipl … D-Scanner/

The disadvantage of your proposed scanner is that it is difficult for the subject to maintain exactly the same position from the first shot to the last.  For non-living subjects it should work reasonably well.

If you want to do people on a turntable, I would suggest something using the Kinect such as Kinectfusion or Reconstructme over any of the photogrammetry methods.

3 Reply by justsomeguy

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Re: Setting up a photo booth for 123D Catch Photo-to-Scan-to-3D Model

I have a real dislike for "cloud" apps where they can change the terms of service at any time.  I've had some success with VisualSFM http://ccwu.me/vsfm/.  You have more control and privacy though it's certainly less polished.  One thing is you can use higher res pictures than some of the cloud services allow.

4 Reply by Heartlander

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Re: Setting up a photo booth for 123D Catch Photo-to-Scan-to-3D Model

Yeah, my intention was for small inanimate objects. Its cool to think of making your own replacement vaccuum cleaner parts or whatever but you have to get a model first.

123D Catch is also available as a download for local operation. I've not used it, though.

Good points, thanks.

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5 Reply by techbuilder2175

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Re: Setting up a photo booth for 123D Catch Photo-to-Scan-to-3D Model

It's not a great program to create water tight models which you need in 3d printing
you'll spend hours trying to get something printable depending on the object.

I've messed around with it using my Canon 5D Mark III and that doesn't make much of a difference.

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6 Reply by justsomeguy (edited by justsomeguy 2013-12-09 20:27:28)

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Re: Setting up a photo booth for 123D Catch Photo-to-Scan-to-3D Model

Heartlander wrote:

Yeah, my intention was for small inanimate objects. Its cool to think of making your own replacement vaccuum cleaner parts or whatever but you have to get a model first.

123D Catch is also available as a download for local operation. I've not used it, though.

Good points, thanks.

To my knowledge, the local version still uploads the pics to "the cloud" for processing. 

There are tutorials for cropping your scans and making them water-tight using freely available software.  That has worked for me without spending hours at it.  I did, however, spend hours trying to get a model of a person that looked anything like one using 123D Catch.

smile

7 Reply by techbuilder2175

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Re: Setting up a photo booth for 123D Catch Photo-to-Scan-to-3D Model

justsomeguy wrote:
Heartlander wrote:

Yeah, my intention was for small inanimate objects. Its cool to think of making your own replacement vaccuum cleaner parts or whatever but you have to get a model first.

123D Catch is also available as a download for local operation. I've not used it, though.

Good points, thanks.

To my knowledge, the local version still uploads the pics to "the cloud" for processing. 

There are tutorials for cropping your scans and making them water-tight using freely available software.  That has worked for me without spending hours at it.  I did, however, spend hours trying to get a model of a person that looked anything like one using 123D Catch.

smile


you'll spend hours trying to get something printable depending on the object

I agree that's why I said depending on the object

The software is easiest to use for film developers or game developers as you don't need a water tight model.

Not saying you can't get that just takes more work depending on the object

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8 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Setting up a photo booth for 123D Catch Photo-to-Scan-to-3D Model

Agisoft Photoscan is very good, if you don't like the idea of using catch.  However the rotating turntable won't work for photogrammetry because the object will change in relation to the background.  The light needs to stay the same on the object so each point looks the same from each angle.  Changing shadows will screw it up.  It's best to have several cameras that can fire at once, and maybe have them on some kind of ring that can rotate around the subject rather than the subject turning.