HI,
Does anybody know the different methods that can be used for 3D scanning an item so that I can use it as a base model in Zbrush?
I have seen actual 3D scanners but they can be 5k +, though have heard that there are Apps people use? or cheaper options?
does anyone know of these and which is best for interacting with Zbrush?
Thanks
Brad
Since the query was for “3D scanning an item” one of the best results would be photogrammetry. Use a decent dSLR, shoot a TON of images around the object in question; high, middle, low angles… feed the images into a photogrammetry program, and the PC (or off-site cloud server) analyzes the image to build an accurate point cloud that gets exported and saved to a mesh.
For a while, Agisoft’s PhotoScan had been most popular. Available for Windows and OSX, it was reasonably priced at $180 while competitors were at $2k-$10k price-points. I tried it as a 30-day evaluation. After watching a few YouTube tutorials and familiarizing the best-practice techniques, was able to 3D scan a lime in excruciating detail down to every divot in the rind. It scales up as others have demonstrated 3D scanning large public sculptures using the same basic technique.
A more recent entry is the open-source Meshroom project. Videos show a workflow roughly similar to PhotoScan but even faster. The potential dealbreaker? It’s entirely reliant on and will only work with a PC that has a recent-model nVidia graphics card capable of CUDA processing.
If I had to regularly scan objects, it might be worthwhile to build a $1200 PC with an nVidia card just to run Meshroom on it. This very notion is what’s keeping me from pulling the trigger on PhotoScan.
Now, if the original question was “how can I 3D scan someone” the answer changes. Sequentially shot photogrammetry relies on an inanimate object being absolutely motionless. There’s no way that’s happening to a breathing subject throughout the duration of 50-70 shots. The slightest facial twitch or shift by a fraction of a millimeter could render that frame useless. To remove the temporal element from this equation when shooting live subjects, the 50 shots has to be acquired instantaneously — same point in time. That’s done by building a large walk-in cage and lining it with 50+ cameras all aimed at the center. Cameras all fire at once to get the subject from overlapping angles. Some commercial 3D scanning operations use this method.
The now-discontinued Autodesk app 123D Catch let folks walk around an object to capture multi-angle views on an iPad. Data was pushed up to Autodesk servers and the processed mesh was returned after a while. Their community gallery showed mediocre scans at best with the worst being attempts at human subjects. Remove the low-res image-map and the underlying 3D mesh was a sad useless blob. You’d get better mesh results handing a Wacom stylus to an elephant.
Structured-light scanners like the DAVID scanner throws a series of projected light patterns while an off-axis camera captures contour lines. Moving a contraption like this around seemed troublesome, so never gave it a deeper look.
The Kickstarter EORA scanner can possibly be categorized as a structured-light scanner that sweeps a green laser pane across an object while a smartphone camera reads the laser-line profile from an off-axis angle. It promised to be a slick rig but manufacturing, fulfillment and development delays had backers losing confidence before it reached the starting gate.
Again, these last two introduce a temporal lag between scans and each scan itself moves at a glacial pace making them unsuitable for fidgety subjects.
Another Kickstarter scanner was the Fuel3D. It held the most promise of a face scanner as the capture was done in one single click of its button. It used xenon flash to illuminate the subject so there was no risk of getting blinded from a laser. At $1500 retail, it was comparatively more affordable than a $19k Arctec but Fuel3D’s business model of charging $8k to offer advanced (smoother) stitching on their cloud service was never divulged until the campaign ended and went over like a lead balloon to those that received their units. For its one-click ability, the scan was limited to a face-sized object 18 inches away. It had to remain tethered to a computer. The name changed to Scanify, they’ve discontinued the Fuel3D and migrated their tech toward medical imaging.
None of the low-cost gadget type scanners have taken off or taken hold. This is why I led with photogrammetry as the candidate that warrants the most investigation.
I have a question. What is the best way to scan QR codes and documents?
You can use your phone camera to scan QR codes. In general, it does an excellent job. I have tried the CamScanner app and various online services to scan documents. CamScanner did a pretty good job scanning a document and turning it into PDF format. But I wanted to find a more feature-rich app to scan bank cards, different files and with OCR function. A friend of mine recommended me that I try to install an app to scan everything I need from https://smartengines.com/. To be honest, I was shocked. This app really includes all the features you need for quality scanning of anything.