Hi everyone,
today posting the whole process of 3D scanning, editing and post-processing of a bronze sculpture. The sculpture has fine details, undercut, dark colour, shining surface. In sum, this is a challenge to evaluate how far the potential of the POP 2 scanner can be pushed. Furthermore, I have decided not to treat the surface to “facilitate” scanning.
Scanning was done using handheld mode.
I have been asked to make suggestions for using Meshlab for editing and creating the mesh. This work was done using HandyScan software for scanning, Meshlab for cleaning the scans, aligning them, and finally creating the mesh. Last (but not least), with Meshmixer (another software that many will know) I made the post-processing of the 3D model and the creation of the base of the sculpture.
The 3D scanning, as I wrote, was carried out by taking several shots from different angles, varying the brightness and gain values to optimize the scan.
The various scanned parts were aligned with Meshlab.
Two meshes are aligned at a time, marking on both homologous points. The more points marked, the faster and more accurate the alignment.
After aligning the various scans, the point cloud was obtained (in the following image).
The next step is to create the mesh. In the image below the settings are used.
In the image below the obtained mesh.
After examining the result, I decided to perform a scan to improve the resolution of the face and to eliminate an artifact present on the right leg (see the images below).
To do this, it was necessary to first prepare the model created by carrying out some editing operations with the Meshmixer software.
After eliminating the parts to be replaced (I also eliminated the base which I subsequently digitally reconstructed with Meshmixer) I performed two new scans of the face and the right leg.
Then I loaded the model with the deleted parts and the two scans to align in Meshlab.
Below is the result of all these operations for the realization of the 3D model and with the base reconstructed in Meshmixer.
A few final considerations. It took about 3 hours to complete the entire process, from scanning to editing and post-processing.
The result is truly excellent and the characteristics of the scanner allow results that, when properly processed, can also be used in the professional field. I would like to underline that the editing and post-processing process of a scan is (and point up IS), always necessary and inevitable, whatever scanner you use.
For consumer users, however, it has some characteristics of use that allow obtaining results “without too much effort”.
The original 3D model have more than 1.000.000 vertices, the model uploaded on sketchfab is a decimated version (300.000 vertices).
In the image below, the 3D model measurements displayed in Meshmixer.
Happy new year
