Photogrammetry Zephyr Pipeline Tests

Work In Progress / 16 December 2019

Doing some quick, photogrammetry pipeline experiments with Zepher.
The objective was to blast through the pipeline, to experiment how quickly can an asset be created using this pipeline.

The Pipeline:

Photos -> Zephyr (Computing) -> Agisoft Delighter (Delighting) -> Maya (Retopo) -> Marmoset (Baking) -> Substance Painter (Cleanup) -> Engine

Using the tutorial video and the images supplied. (https://youtu.be/17UTelgZqBg)
Threw them through Zepher Free Trial, which allows 50 free images. 

Alignment: 5 Minutes
Pointcloud/Meshing: 15-20minutes
Export and Texture: 5 Minutes. 

Dropped the raw scan from Zephr into De-Lighting tool and painted a 20-second mask identifying shadow and lit areas. 

The final results for such a quick job turned out great. The delighting tool works wonders compared to other workflows I've used in the past.
Delighting: 4-5 minutes

Here are some more quick breakdowns. 

I mocked up a low poly model in Maya, which took about 5 minutes. And baked it it marmoset toolbag. 

Stock standard preset settings so far are alright, seeing how much effort is put into the process. 

Finally threw it through. Substance painter to remove the baked grass and other artifacts. (This took another 10 minutes, due to fiddling with some normals from the projected grass). 

Cleaned up the model in substance painter ^ 

Finally, here is the Sketchfab model to check it out. I've chucked it up for free to download. The final texture res is 2k.

Final thoughts:
The pipeline is unbelievably quick, and affordable considering the other options out there. Zephyr, allowing 50 images free, 8k export is amazing. considering the other free alternative 'Meshroom', which is open-source. It takes double the amount of time process and there is a lot of cleanup involved before you can even consider baking.
The Agisoft delighting tool which is free is a game-changer, as the direct sunlight that was present within these tutorial images would have easily been too much effort for what it was worth. 100% introducing this into my pipeline, however, considering the texture did become a tad bit overexposed in this test so it would be good to explore if there are ways tweaking it.
Substance Painter's clone stamp tool was essential in covering up the projected grass on the stump. However, the normals were the most challenging as I ended up painting over a generic normal intensity over problematic areas. So There's probably room for improvement there.  

All n all pretty successful took just under 1.5 hours in total. with some experimentation in-between stages within the pipeline. *coffee etc.

- Finn 

Dennis Turbeni, England 1937 (FireTruck) - WIP

Work In Progress / 19 June 2018

Hey All,

Just posting up a work in progress, that I am currently working on for a personal project.

It's a firetruck I saw a few years back, in Malacca, Malaysia. I was fascinated by its design and took a ton of photos during the trip. I modeled some pipes at the back of the vehicle back in 2016 for a class demonstration but nothing really more after that point.

Only about 2 months ago I picked up the project and started modelling again. I have been squeezing it in during my spare time after work. The main objective is to practice my hard surface skills and go through the entire pipeline. So I am looking forward to tackling the texturing for this truck and then rendering after that.

Below are some reference images I am using within PureRef to support the modelling/texturing process. I kinda wish I took more photos of the vehicle as there are certain parts I don't have a lot to go on. 

Picture from the front

Picture from the back

If you wanted to see the high res images up close you can check out my Flickr album which have all the originals available to download for free if you are looking for similar hard surface references. 

Below is what I have so far, 

I have a few things to finish but its approximately 80% complete on the modelling side of things, with the unwrapping only at 25%

I aim to have modelling/unwrapping complete early July 2018 (Next month).
I have got to take into consideration of other side projects and work/life that usually eats into my time I can put towards the project.

I am really excited to be calling modelling side done soon,
Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas,  Always keen to hear other people's thoughts. 

- Finn