[itsallgoode9]

This is something a friend of mine has been developing over the past few years and thought you might be interested in following it as it progresses. It's called surface mimic and he has basically created a 3d scanner that uses a standard dslr camera (multiple cameras i think). Using different angles and an algorithm, the images are converted the images into depth, diffuse, spec, and normal maps. I've personally never seen anything this accurate.

Here's a link to the blog:regarding the project:http://blog.surfacemimic.com/
link directly to flickr page showing sample and progress images:

below are some of the captured depth images brought into zbrush. very cool stuff imo...

[Maximus3D]

I saw this at ZbrushCentral recently and it looks great, a bit soft results but that could probably be tuned. It would be nice if it was released so one could play with it at home.

/ Magnus

[itsallgoode9]

yeah, i'm sure it will be continue to improve. He's been working on it for at least three years now and has been constantly improving the quality, speed, and ease of use. I'm not sure if he has timeline for when he wants everything to be complete or not.

Although i'm pretty sure it's not something he could easily release for people to use due to the camera setup needed. I think there is a rig with multiple dslr's setup to shoot multiple angles. maybe he's working on that, but i'm not sure.

[Mihai]

WHEN?

He could sell the software and the rig. Do you really need a dslr or could a compact with a reasonable MP work? The examples are very nice...

[sandykoufax]

very interesting!

[Hervé]

same thing here...?

http://www.photosculpt.net/

displacement map
Normal maps
Ambient occlusion maps
Specular maps
Diffuse maps
2 Bump maps

Make texture seamless tileable in one click. Click to see the video here
Increase / decrease depth in one click
Handy "flat mode" to correct flatness of texture in one click in case you have shot your texture in awkward position
crop texture
Perspective crop
square crop
Fixed 2n texture size (256,512,1024,2048 ...) in one click
Browse subdivisions: Increase / decrease model or texture size in one click
"save multiple" function to save different maps, different sizes and 3d models all at once
Alpha transparency: Remove unwanted areas on your model using a black and white alpha map

Don't need any kind of calibration of camera
Don't need to manually select points before creating a 3d sculpt
Don't need for a high end camera (minimum recomended : a 5 Mp point and shoot camera)

Full support of png, tiff, jpg and bmp files
16 bit tiff support for displacement maps
Save models as .obj (textured) and .stl (untextured) files


what about a free one...?

http://www.agisoft.ru/products/stereoscan/

[sandykoufax]

Right, I remember that two tools (photosculpt and photoscan) too.

[Maximus3D]

That it requires multiple cameras can i understand but i would like to see what his setup looks like. I have a feeling it's based on more than two cameras and combined with flat lighting from a softbox and/or in a tent or something to eliminate any directional shadows on the surface.

Photosculpt is not bad at all, but it's limitation is two offsett shots from eachother. A application like that should be capable of recreating a full 360 degree model and not just what's infront of you.

/ Magnus

[itsallgoode9]

I talked to Paul today and asked a few questions, here's what he told me about the method of what he's doing:

The technique is called Photometric Stereo. The basic idea is you have a camera and a light, and you take 3 or more photos of the surface with the light in different positions. Using lambert's equation i = pN.L you can determine the normal of every pixel in the image.

If you take more than 3 photos the system becomes overdetermined, and you can start compensating for outliers like shadows and specularity.

The biggest strength of the method is that its per pixel. Got a 24MP camera? Then you have a scan with 24mil verts, the detail is great. The downside is that it breaks down for low frequency positional data. For example, scanning faces will result in some poor results for the overall shape. This is because the normal map generated from this method needs to be integrated into a height field. Since normal maps lack true depth, such as sharp discontinuities, low freq shapes get distorted.

BUT, medium frequency details and high frequency features like scars, skin pores, hair will all be incredibly crisp and accurate. If you're painting depthmaps, in my experience, the positional data isnt really needed (or wanted), bas relief data is easier to work with in mudbox and zbrush, so its a non-issue.

Also, in addition to a normal map, and depth, you get a flat shaded diffuse map. I know that artists painting face models love models with ambient lighting to reduce specularity and shading, and thats exactly what you get here.

All summed up, the method has its flaws, but its a perfect fit for painting bas relief high-res geometric details in apps like zbrush/mudbox.

As far as what is plan is to do with this, he said he's not really planning on releasing it publicly, but to create a texture site consisting of these surface scans, similar to cg textures, except having the various maps, instead of just the diffuse.

[Mihai]

Thanks to him for taking the time to explain this in more detail, it all sounds so simple
Seriously this looks like a very useful tool and I haven't really seen anything yet that can capture this high frequency detail with so much....detail, using common photo equipment. On top you get a totally diffuse color map. If he needs some standardized parts for a typical photo rig modeled in CAD and laser cut in plastic, please tell him to get in touch with me

[itsallgoode9]

Thanks Mihai, I'll pass that along!

Do you guys have any ideas about some sort of surfaces that could test out the limits of his system or to find shortcomings? I'll pass along one or two suggestions for him to try and bring back the results. Not necessarily anything that has extreme displacement, because it looks like this setup can definitely handle that, but just some things that it might be hard to create an accurate displacement for.

One thing that i'm thinking about off the top of my head is terrycloth towel/carpet/microfiber type of things. I know we've seen some pretty good materials for that around here, but i'm curious how this system would pick up something like that...seams like it might be a challenge for his setup?

Throw in a couple challenges and I'll see if he has time to test it out.

[Polyxo]

Do you guys have any ideas about some sort of surfaces that could test out the limits of his system or to find shortcomings? I'll pass along one or two suggestions for him to try and bring back the results. Not necessarily anything that has extreme displacement, because it looks like this setup can definitely handle that, but just some things that it might be hard to create an accurate displacement for.

I'd be interested in a whole array of Industrial Design Materials. Very subtle Detail, certainly a good challenge.
Here it goes:
Furniture quality wood (including End-Grain!), wood based materials (MDF, OSB etc), Plastics with all sorts
of Micro-Structures for Consumer-Products, Metals with different Surface Treatments: Directional Grinding, Sandblasted,
Angle Grinder (with anisotropy map please:). Furniture Fabrics.

[dmeyer]

Also very interested in seeing any fabrics with very small details.

[Mihai]

Fabrics too, woven, big threads, smaller threads. Also more skin examples. Maybe a scan of a face showing also the diffuse map.

[itsallgoode9]

I've been using my friend's site quite a bit lately and thought I should keep this thread from getting buried since you guys might be able to a ton of use out of it. When I posted about the site originally, it was in beta but in the last year Paul has fully opened it up. It still doesn't have a VAST amount of maps, but there are many (maybe a few hundred) to be used. He is a one man crew, which is why it's slow to build his library, but it's still useful. check it out, the displacement maps are very reasonably priced (5 USD for a map, i think) and he's open to requests, should you need something for a project that you don't see on the site.

btw, those request of small frequency fabrics are now on there (i was really surprised he was able to capture corduroy so well). he doesn't have any subtle grain wood yet but it's definitely doable...he has been able to make a displacement map from the texture of a plain white sheet of printer paper. Regarding anisoptropics, the last i heard he wasn't able to do that, although that may have changed since I talked to him. since the last time i talked to him, basically anisotropics are the only thing that breaks his algorithm

http://www.surfacemimic.com <--- website address
http://blog.surfacemimic.com/ <--- blog that updates his experimentation process and what will be coming in the future. he updates that about every two weeks.

(btw, not a shill, just a site and a process that my friend made which seems like it would be useful to you guys)