Photomatching
-
I've been playing around with photomatching exteriors of buildings. When you photomatch from one photo, of course just two sides of the building, and half the roof, get textured. How do you complete the un-photomatched part? Do you bring in a second photo and then repeat the process exactly on the model you just photomatched? If so, seems like taking a "symmetrical" pair of photos would be difficult. Maybe mirror the first photo in Photoshop, if the building looks the same on the other side -would that work?
eta -I mirrored the photo and tried to follow the same steps, but it didn't work, just made a mess on the first model. It projected the textures on the same surfaces. Any thoughts?
-
You need photos of the building from other locations (taken under similar conditions is best). You tie it into your first axis. I've done it, but I think if you look at the basic Google SU videos and the SU for Dumbies, they explain best.
-
Thanks, pbacot. I have watched photomatching videos, but none I've seen discuss photomatching the rest of the building. Could you clarify what you mean by tying it into the first axis?
-
I just copied the roof and wall textures, rotated them and stuck them on the other sides. The "flip along axis" doesn't show up in the context menu, so I had to rotate. Not sure if this is what I'm "supposed" to do, but for a symmetrical building it works. Of course, I don't have a proper back; it looks just like the front.
-
oh yes. Certainly once you get the building started you can finish it by your own knowledge and copy textures if they work. Flip by is only for multiple entities and groups or components, maybe that was it. I'll take a look, if I can find the video. You have to be able to accurately locate the point for your second axis, in relation to the first.
-
Once you are done with one "corner" (as PM is best whan the photo is taken from a corner and you can model+texture two. adjacent sides), you can import a new PM photo. By now, you have the basic "mass" of the model. All you need to do is toplace the axes onto the opposite corner for this second PM session and you can carry on with building the other two sides.
-
Go to this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw4TDjjDYYE
At 2:22 they begin to discuss importing a second photo and how to align the model.
-
Thanks, Gaieus and pbacot! A couple more questions -
The video says don't use cropped photos. I've used cropped photos and they seem to work fine ...what is the problem with them?
A more general question. Sometimes when I'm trying to attach two pieces together in a model, I have great difficulty. The smaller piece won't snap to the larger. I move it closer and closer, but there's always some distance between them; I can't just snap them together. When I finally do manage to snap them together, the smaller piece acts "wonky" - that is, I can only snap an edge of it to the larger piece and can't intersect them. Other times I have absolutely no problem manipulating the two pieces. Is this something that you've experienced, and if so, any thoughts as to what's happening?
-
As I understand it, you are changing the dynamics of the point of view in the photo by cropping. Perhaps you were lucky. Match Photo uses principles of photographic optics to recreate the point of view in the model, so when you don't give it the full picture you could have difficulty creating a correct perspective. It commonly causes problems (from the comments here on the forum).
I am not sure on your second question. Can you post a file with two problem pieces?
-
I understand that MatchPhoto is recreating a perspective drawing, but once you put those orange and green bars on the photo's parallel features, seems to me that IS recreating it; it finds the vanishing points from those bars. Well, I'll do more photomatches with other photos and see if it still works.
I've deleted the problem files! Argh ...when it happens again I'll upload. Thanks!
Advertisement