You can pick your scanning parameters, and depending on the settings, your scanning can end quite early with the data hitting some limiting factor. With the video plus lidar fusion option being unavailable, I resorted to the lidar fusion. You can pick from various scanning methods. I heard a lot about Everypoint, so I was eager to give it a go. You can refine the results and based on the amount of polygons before and after processing the app does a lot of work in that phase. Depending on the setting you picked - for the high res version - it warns you if you are getting close to the limit - I suppose that is based on memory consumption so could vary with different iPhone models. The scanning is fairly straightforward, the app creates an AR overlay to show you what had been scanned in both the low and high res versions, the high res being much more refined, obviously. I used AirPlay to send the packages to my laptop to simulate the on-set circumstances. After you finished scanning, the app offers you a couple of post-processing options and when that is finished, you can export your mesh, point cloud, or even the whole package in a lot of formats, from xyz point clouds to fbx and so on - including the photos the app took whilst scanning. ![]() Without going too much into detail, there are a few parameters that could help with fine tuning the app to achieve better results. Selecting the high res method the app offers you various additional settings. You can chose between low-res and high res scanning, the low res option being the same, or very similar to, other lidar based apps. The first app is the one I use the most, called 3d Scanner App from Laan Labs. I purposefully I avoided the ones that require you to sign up/pay for processing - more on that later. The apps I used were freely downloadable from the App Store, as far as I can tell they were free. The second set of tests were done outside on an overcast day - so the circumstances were quite close to ideal from a photogrammetry point of view.Scanning a car is always a tricky task to do, so it looked like a tough test to put the apps and the iPhone through. Using my office for the test is interesting: it has a lot of detail, but there are featureless areas that photogrammetry is always having trouble with, and I deliberately did not use anything more than the outside light spilling in through the window. The method I used to test these apps is simple: I used them to scan my home office, a paved courtyard and a parked car, and try to simulate the circumstances on set - time pressure, having to navigate around obstacles, crew etc. ![]() ![]() I decided to test some of the relevant apps I came across in the recent months, and see whether having that in the toolkit is helpful, or it is more of a gimmick as some people think of it now. That is why I was super excited to get my hand on an iPhone12 Pro that has a lidar sensor. Having a good quality DSLR and being on top of the methods and best practices of photogrammetry is a must these days, but the reality is that quite often there will be no time to do a proper photogrammetry capture or simply the circumstances do not permit it. On the other hand, sometimes you find yourself on set without having that luxury, and when you are a freelance supervisor - who quite often needs to handle data gathering as the production does not have the budget for that - it is highly likely you do not have a spare Faro or Leica Lidar in your toolkit. Traditionally, this process is outsourced to companies that specialise in this area.With their lidars and highly trained staff, they are well equipped to handle the tasks and challenges well, especially when it comes to larger and more expensive productions. Regardless of the nature of the project, environment and prop scanning is a tool that is always featured heavily on set, whether we are talking about a blockbuster or a small commercial. If you work in the visual effects industry, chances are that you know what photogrammetry and Lidar means, and how crucial it is to have data from the set/props available in the pipeline.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |