As part of the testing stage and pipeline refinement, I need to work out the best way to take photogrammetry scanned stop motion sets and characters and create a 3D model with a workable mesh. I also need to learn how to clean up further and refine the scans I collect to create finished models. To do this I took the scan of the house that I had a good result from through this pipeline.
I took an OBJ file that I had exported from Agisoft Metashape, through to Zbrush first to create a mesh and also block up any holes in the model.
I first put the model into Maya so that I could see the result and also see if I needed to patch it up. Sometimes I will need to first put work into Maya and patch up holes with simple polygons but because this scan is a fairly good quality I decided that I could go straight into ZBrush and fix it there, this works better for the initial tests for me as I am much more comfortable in ZBrush than in Maya. In ZBrush I used dynamesh, to create a mesh for the object (I have since spoken to a friend who uses ZBrush a lot for work and she has said that there is a better way to get the model into ZBrush that will help with this process and give me better results, I will be trying what she has said in another test using the same model).
I then experimented with ZRemesher and the amount that the mesh was decimated, for this project I had to have a copy of the original subtool of the house which I duplicated, one of these will be left untouched, and the duplicated one will be used to clean up the sculpt and create a clean and workable mesh. I then will use the new mesh and will project it onto the original subtool, so that then I have a clean mesh but the original subtool still has all of the sculpts details. You can see below some of the initial tests where I learnt how to use ZRemesher and also to create UVs as well as projecting the meshes onto other models.
I found that creating the UVs in ZBrush kept crashing the software, in the end, I decided to take the UVs over to Maya so that I could see how they worked. Unfortunately, the maps didn't work well and most of what you can see below were random small areas of the model that weren't even supposed to be there.
After this test, I decided to go back into ZBrush another day and learn how to correct and refine the model, including removing all the random sections of the model.
This is the model in ZBrush with all the sections filled.
You can see here that underneath the canopy at the front of the house (that wasn't picked up in the photogrammetry scan) has been filled, but it has been filled with a large bulky section, I will need to sculpt this back.
I started using the different brushes in ZBrush to get this section back, in the end, I used a mixture of the Damstandard, ClayBuildup, Standard, Move, Smooth, Flatten and add texture brushes to get this section back right. I also used the selection and visibility tools, which enabled me to hide sections of the model so that I could get into the area I needed to work on better.
I used the same selection and visibility tools to get rid of the random excess pieces from the scans, which you can see below, I did this by selecting the pieces, hiding them using the visibility and then in the geometry panel deleting hidden. I also smoothed and neatened up the edges of the model.
I then decided to tidy up the windows, because they have a reflective surface they had come through rather bumpy so I used the same brushes used above and made these clearer.
I then started to try and separate the front sign as this had merged with the house.
After this, it was getting quite late in the day, so I have currently saved this work and will continue to work on it over the next few weeks. Before I saved the work I decided to try the ZRemesher, purely to see what the mesh would look like, below is the new mesh, I did decide to undo this for the time being and I will remesh again once I have tidied up the model further.
This process is taking me much longer than I originally anticipated, I think that because I don't work in 3D digital often I didn't understand all the elements that would be needed to make this work, also the fact that I don't work in 3D digital often slows me down as I have to remember how to do things in the software. However, I do feel that even spending 1 day working in ZBrush has improved my confidence and skill with the program even more, at the start of the day I was unsure of where anything was as well as what was the best to do, by the end of the day I found myself working in the software without a great deal of thinking, it had become very automatic. This is a very good sign as I am wanting to become competent in 3D programs so that I can add to my skill set and can eventually work in digital 3D in the industry, seeing how big of a difference even 1 day has made to my skills gives me confidence that I can get my 3D knowledge and skill back up to scratch.
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