With our selection of objects we could begin the scanning process. The technique we used is called photogrammetry.
Essentially this means taking a lot of pictures of an object, from all possible angles, and using software to calculate a 3D model from the images. his technique is especially good for objects with an extremely high amount of detail.
For this purpose we have built a custom, fully automated, rig which operates the camera and always gets the same angles. With the help of this rig, we make sure that the quality of the images are consistent and suitable for our purpose. Basically, our scanner consists of a rotary plate and a mechanical arm holding the camera and a light source.
Once the object that we want to scan is placed on the rotary plate, it is rotated around its Z-axis at 10° increments. Simultaneously the camera arm places the camera at 7 angles over the range of 120°.
The camera shutter is triggered automatically at each step, giving us 252 images per object in total.
We use polarizing filters on both the camera lens and the lights that illuminate the object.
These filters help us greatly reduce glare and reflections on shiny surfaces which makes the 3D models a lot cleaner as they appear more evenly lit.
Additionally we also use very diffused lighting to avoid hard shadows so that the objects can be seen in a neutral light, also giving us freedom to set creative lights in the post production process.