Stone to Wood Carving with 123D Catch

[Design Dude]

I posted this in a thread over on the message board but thought it made more sense over here. This is a little project we tried using the new software from Autodesk called 123D Catch. (formerly Photofly). The video is pretty self explanatory. Of course we picked a carving that was a little challenging to photograph.

The final piece was only 4 x 7 inches carved into walnut with a 1/8" ball nose. I think i would have gotten more detail if I did a final pass with a V bit, but this was pretty good considering the model was generated from still photographs. :eek: 2ips final pass 10% stepover 30 min.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvJWRvcpGxw

[myxpykalix]

Chris,
The photo capture and result 3d video looks great but the resulting obj file isn't nearly as crisp with details. What it seems to me is that the program is creating the underlying obj file only as a placesetter for the wrapping of the photos in an overlay. I don't know if when they made the program the intent was to make a 3d obj was secondary to just having a form to wrap it on.

None the less you have made the nicest quality scan and carving example i have seen. Great job, keep it up.:D

[bobmoore]

Nice job Chris. Maybe you could post what you run for machine and software. Also if you had time a comp with a v bit would be interesting.

[Design Dude]

I have a PRS Alpha 4x8 Running Aspire. I probably won't circle back around to V carve, looking closely at the resulting file in aspire you don't have the detail of the text for example.

Here is an image of the aspire file.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/104276294945528804271/albums/5680781347666570113

I agree Jack that this seems to be more about the images mapped to a model. For asset creation in a digital environment it is perfect because you just need enough geometry to get the point across and the mapped image takes care of the rest. I suppose there is a reason that 3d scanners are 20K huh. Still a lot of fun to play with.

[dana_swift]

Chris- looks like a fascinating thing to do! I like the camera holder you rigged up to "scan" the original with.

Your experiment has gotten me thinking about if it is possible to do that with any other technology that might provide better results for that application. I cant think of anything that could be done for as little effort or investment as this required.

The difficulty of accessing the "model" makes your results seem fantastic! I don't see how to get a laser scanner or other digitizer to the subject without an expensive scaffold or crane. They might provide better resolution, but for your investment in a camera and a gin pole that is excellent results!

Well done-

D

[Design Dude]

Thanks Dana! The camera rig was simple a tripod. Benbo is the company, it does some funky moves, and when combined with a ball head did the trick. We were lucky that there was a rampart right above the carving, and that it was so close to the roof. Not possible without serious scaffolding otherwise. Fun challenge, great results.

[CNYDWW]

I would from there, refine the obj file in aspire with smoothing and adding details. Filling it the text the reproducing it with a v carving applied to the 3d model along with other details to refine it.

Nice Job
Randy

[zeykr]

Has anyone looked at the Lytro lightfield camera? http://www.lytro.com/camera

Looks like interesting possibilities for the future whether by itself or combined with something like 123d catch.

[myxpykalix]

Dana I think you should look up on youtube and google "kinect hacks". I think that might be where the next exciting developments come from for us regarding 3d capture.
I believe these hacks will cause the sales of the kinect module to outsell the use of it as a xbox addon shortly. I think we will probably have a stable application to use the kinect as a 3d scanner within the next year.

As a computer guy I know you are probably up on a lot of these things and probably understand the innerworkings of what it might take to make it work and i can see the quality may be better then my older non contact 3d digitizer.:)