Photofly
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Hi Guys,
I am not sure if Photofly has been mentioned on the forums before. Anyway I thought I'd mention it as it something FREE from Big Daddy AutoDESK!
The blurb goes,
'*Photofly, A Free App, Makes 3-D Models Out Of Your Snapshots
You gotta see this to believe it.
Remember that scene in Mission: Impossible 3 where a spy walks around a bad guy at a party, surreptitiously snapping photos, which the IMF team then uses to make a 3-D mask of the bad guy's face? If you've ever wished you could do that in real life, Autodesk is going to blow your mind with its new experimental application Photofly. It does exactly the same thing, and creates an interactive 3-D digital model on your screen. And it's free. Here are some demo models made from nothing but amateur photos and consumer cameras (and Autodesk's automagical genius)*'
Not exactly shy in else praise with the last part
The link is here, http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/photo_scene_editor/ Mac users (like me) are again not facilitated!Mike
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(You can try it in Crossover or Wine, works fine
)Photofly is great news! I've been waiting for something like that for long. I had tried Insight3d, which is opensource but has only one developer. I couldn't use half of my images and it crashed. I could create a point cloud and import it into SketchUp, but it crashed with the autotexturing feature. So the point cloud was not that much win over SketchUp's photomatch.
I'm curiously uploading and I'll show the result here
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Aerilius,
I would be keen to learn how you get on with it.
Mike
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Are there any similarities here with Photosynth? Would there be a need to send it back to Sketchup? I know the voiceover did not mention Sketchup.
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[quote="Mike Lucey"]Hi Guys,
I am not sure if Photofly has been mentioned on the forums before. Anyway I thought I'd mention it as it something FREE from Big Daddy AutoDESK!
Mike, It came up in sketchucation a few months ago.
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=179&t=29926I saw a post elsewhere yesterday, that they have upgraded to version 2.0 and extended the beta trial to december 2012. I walked around my old house this morning and shot a series to see how it works. I will post the results a.s.a.p.
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WOW Mike this is nuts!!!!!
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As I wrote, I tried it out, and here are the results:
I used 52 photos that I had already taken earlier for another project (they are maybe not optimal for Photofly, but it was the only big photo series of a complete building that I had).
The program has two modes, one for uploading everything and one for the resulting model.
First you upload all photos (they are automatically analyzed for camera and focus) and then you can either choose to wait or to be notified when the model has been created.
The creation of the 3d model happens really fast and then you download the file and open it in the second part of the program.
There are basic navigation tools, selection tools and measurement/axis tools.
The model is available in three level of details, the lowest "mobile" version is loaded first (here: ~30000 triangles) and if you choose a more detailed version, you have to wait until it is generated on server-side. Selected faces can be deleted, or replaced by a higher level of detail.
Then you can align the "real world axis" to the model and set a scale for a certain distance (you have to add pin points first before you can align the axis).It appears there is no undo function. I didn't find tools for filling holes.
And one thing to add: If you once used this, you'll never say again that SketchUp is slow...
The program offers five export file types, first Autodesk's own format. And luckily also obj, which imports fine into SketchUp with TIG's obj importer plugin.
And the texture map (original 2048x2048px):
All in all, the model is in some parts too complex for me and others could have sharper edges and details. Due to the height of the tower and the narrow space around it, my photos didn't cover the whole surface so that I would have to fill some tiny holes (but there are less holes than I expected).
I didn't expected magic from the texture map, but I would really not like to edit this in a graphics editor. If I start from perfect photos and the whole model comes out perfect, then the texture map doesn't matter. -
I tried out this software, and it works pretty well for some objects. When the object presents a distinctive profile at different angles, Photofly does a good job even on a first pass. If the object is very uniform and symmetrical in shape and color, Photofly seems to get confused.
Still, it's amazing that it works at all, and it's free!
I was pretty happy with the results.
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Now called 123D Catch Beta.
http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/photo_scene_editor/
They obviously ain't selling it, based on the promotional meat.
The video of the filming of the headquarters, a sad thing in itself, although undertaken by an octo-drone or something, is really quite boring. Results shown, at least that I saw, are truly underwhelming.
I shouldn't be so grumpy; musn't look a gift horse in the mouth, however fleeting its presence be.
Thank you, Arelius, for your review, which is infinitely more useful.
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I don't know what I've done wrong but I've took some pics of a chair in different angles but the software wasn't able to create the model.
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