Photogrammetry: Bringing Real Life Objects to 3D Models and 3D Prints
Photogrammetry is the science of converting thousands and thousands of individual pictures into 3D models on the computer. This has applications in research, engineering, art, media, etc. One company that we will be showcasing is Eight Diving located in Des Moines, WA. Eight Diving offers an advanced diving class that centers around using photogrammetry to obtain 3D images of sunken air and water craft in and around Puget Sound. With Eight Diving’s permission, I took a whack at 3D printing their model of a tugboat called Louie that currently sits at the bottom of Lake Washington at a depth of about 10ft. I think the print results speak for themselves showing detail captured by both the photogrammetry and the 3D printing. The print was done using SLA style printing with a Form 3 using Formlabs’ standard white resin. Some parts of the model needed to be cleaned up, and I did so using Blender. The model did not have a 3D “floor” to it, so I added it in myself also using Blender. (Although, after the print was handed off, I was told that it sits on flat ground, not sloped. Oops!)
Process from 3D model to 3D print! Model courtesy of Eight Diving - Des Moines, WA.
Of course, this blog post wouldn’t be complete without offering a piece of software you could use right now to get started with photogrammetry. There is an open source application called Regard 3D that should be able to get anyone started in the world of photogrammetry. Of course, it’s not a perfect software, and any anomalies in the structure of the model can be cleaned up easily with the ever popular Blender application using hard surface modeling.