Monday, December 8, 2014

123D Catch the Lego Tank

Yesterday, I tried making a 3D model of the Lego Tank.

My first attempt was using natural light with the camera (Panasonic DMC-ZS19 at manual mode - no zoom with fixed exposure. It did not work particularly well. I saved it as Tank 2.

In the evening, I tried it with artificial light - that is with all lights in the room on. I set the zoom to 3X and stepped back far enough to just fill the image. I shot the first ring from my chair which I moved around the image. I then stood and did another ring and then I shot while holding the camera over my head.

I noticed a problem when there was a light source directly behind the tank. I reshot those images, changing the shooting angle just enough so that the light source was not directly behind.

The results of this effort were much more satisfactory. Still, the cannon itself did not come out very well.

Next, I did a save and then selected the Generate Mesh icon. I selected "Standard" and "let her rip". It took a while, but I then ended up with a nicer image - with a much fuller barrel / cannon.

Since that worked so well, I tried looking at the tank from the top and then selecting the tank and a bit of the surface on which the tank was sitting. I selected the most detailed mesh and "let her rip". I think it is better, but it is somewhat difficult  to say. Restricting to just the tank and a small amount of what is underneath was certainly a good idea, but the cannon / barrel is still not great. I should probably have taken more photos around this area.

Now, after all this processing, I am not really sure that the more detailed meshes are any better than the less detailed ones. The cannon / barrel is not all that great in any of them. All of them show blurring at the top of the tank. I took about 8 - 9 images per quadrant going around at the base and fewer going around with the camera raised. I think that might have been the problem with the image of the top of the tank.

This morning, I tried to get a better set of images. I went around the outside - paying particular attention to the gun. I then shot from higher up making sure I took plenty of pix. The initial result was TERRIBLE - probably because the software failed to stitch the upper row of images. So I manually stitched a couple of the images and resubmitted. It managed to stitch the rest. The result was that the top was more clear, but still not perfect. Gun barrel might have been better, but was still not great.

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