Mesh

[Nacy Nightfire]

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/photo_scene_editor/overview/

[bodzette Coignet]

That is exactly like archipelis does.

The difference between that and archipelis is archipelis integrates better to SL because it has a sculpty exporter already built in and can also export collada.

[Failed Inventor]

here I am hand doing models and people willl just be taking pictures... once again the painter is defeated by the photographer.. you clever little bastards you... bwhaha

[Nacy Nightfire]

Well actually there still is alot of clean up work and retopologizing that needs to be done, I think. Here are some videos from Youtube that someone posted on the ZBrush Central forum site:

HD Part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyL8g1tlMMY
HD Part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm9MJKWiyuU
HD Part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPuuEIkGKUw
HD Part4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJdwefzdobU

[Ashasekayi Ra Advisor]

From what I can see, it doesn't look like Archipelis it all. The program that Nacy posted seems to automatically create a 3D object based on a set of photographs taken in 360 degrees around an object.

@Nacy: The tech looks very interesting. Thanks for the link Nacy. I could see it as an interesting companion to Zbrush in certain use cases. But yea, it would need to be retopologized to be usable in a SL or any other game engine.

[Nacy Nightfire]

I just finished watching the tutorials...they are fantastic, even if one has no intention of making use of this tool but uses Zbrush. Good stuff there.

[DanielRavenNest Noe Member]

There are freestanding programs to do similar tasks, such as Strata Foto  and Photosculpt

If you are just getting into 3D graphics, theres a ton of cool tools out there.  My favorite is the one that puts 3D snow on your models, for winter scenes.

[Nyx Linden]

These kinds of programs are always interesting and can be very handy tools! I'd be excited to hear if anyone has any first-hand experience with them and can report back on what kind of results they generate.

My guess is that it probably creates a pretty high-detail mesh, that would need a non-trivial amount of cleanup to make it suitable for upload to SL. The reason for this is that automated tools like this don't know what details are important to the overall look of the object, which details can be covered by texture detail, and whidh details can simply be optimized out. It would also be interesting to see how such tools generate their textures and UV maps, and if optimization is needed there as well.

Its a similar problem to the reason why automated tools to generate levels of detail are going to continue to be less quality than if you generate your levels of detail by hand. Automated algorithms can use some statistics to make semi-intelligent decisions as to what details can be removed while causing the lowest impact on the overall shape, but an artist will be able to know which details are less visually important and can be greatly simplified, while others are more important and should lose detail less quickly.

Definitely interested to see some results and hear back as to the suitability for import!

 -Nyx

[Medhue Simoni Advisor]

Yeah, these programs are pretty cool, and they might even save you some time. In the end tho, any1 with knowledge of the basics of making mesh can make just about anything in a day or 2, some in just an hour or so. Plus, you choose where you want your detail, and what is important visually. I've not played around with alot of these automated programs, but even if you have to spend an hour optimizing it, you could have make the whole thing exactly how you wanted it in probably the same amount of time. I find texturing and maps to be more time consuming than actually making the mesh. I guess the automated programs might help you there, but what if you have to edit it? I doubt you will have a cool detailed UV map to edit it with.

[Nacy Nightfire]

It actually spits out a highly accurate texture.  The youtube video author mentioned other similiar types of photo to mesh programs but he has found the texture results from this program to be superior.  Also the process gives you some opportunity to edit the mesh results before you commit to having the obj processed.   Processing happens on Autodesk servers.

There is absolutely more work to do with the model, but the realism is quite impressive.  The youtube tutorials are excellent and really nicely goes thru the process step by step.  Retopology, reprojection and decimation are necessary, but it seemed to be a relatively quick process in Zbrush.  I'm sure other programs have similar capablilities, but the ablility to transfer the image into "polypaint" (which I think is just a fancy name for vertex paint), is a great thing  since you can retopologize and change your uvs, then re-transfer polypaint back to a new uv texture arrangement.