stereo photography help file

[Steve Truscott]

I have searched for an up to date help file for stereophotometry version 3.02. The tutorial I found on Youtube is from last year and does not look any thing like my version.
So far I have managed to make two medallions and none since. I think I have misremembered what I did however I have not been able to make another one since. I go wrong with the save and convert to stl operation.
What does the trim button do?
My stl raft does not  align with the model, sometimes it is not even in the picture.
Where do I trim the picture down.
Tnx
Steve in Newcastle, Australia

[ArtF]

Hi Steve:

  Your timing is pretty good, Ive been playing in the photometrics myself this past couple weeks..

    First, make sure you test with low res, before switching to high res, it helps save time. Second, the quality of the bas relief will heavily depend on the
quality of the light and photos used. I was experimenting the past week as I switched to a new 43" monitor. It does far better than my older 27" monitor.

    So once you have the 4 photos, you use "Calculate Normals" to make the
data for the math module. Now, leave off zero noise gradients and Ambient correction, those are experimental and shouldnt be used generally.

  Also, leave fisheye correction off, this can be used to tilt the horizontal
and vertical axis to correct some for cameras not in center of the monitor ( liek laptops where the camera is on top.. but dont use them till you have a 3d image to see if they are required. )

  Save your photos , you may want to reprocess several times playign with settings. Create the 3d with the Create button to start. Leave off the negative setting unless you want an inward facing 3d. Leave off texture as well, it just adds photo detail, not really required.

  The output size will by default show the camera res, change it to a reasonable output size before trying to save an stl. Clip is used to set a clipping in the Z axis, usually zero is fine, but sometimes you may have to increase it to clip off data in the background. Pedestal closure will add a
background thickness for 3d printing.

    Depthmap output is used only for laser engraving for greyscale image output, you can ignore it.

  When you get a good image, then switch to hires and use created 3d again.

Now, the thing to remember about this is that the light quality is everything. With a typical 24" monitor you can get a pretty good bas relief, with larger monitors you get thicker, deeper images more like 3d than bas reliefs. It does take some playing around.

Ill post some photos here of some of mine to show you what to expect..but if the images dont seem to work well, or are tilted badly, look to the light or camera placement for fixing it up. Make sure the room is dark as hell when you do this, extraneous light hurts the process badly..

  These are hard to photograph, they look pretty awesome in person, but cameras just dont seem to do them justice. So keep the room dark, use as large a monitor as you can find, and try to get the camera in the center of the monitor looking out at you.. Youll find its finicky, but does really excellent high detail 3ds when its done right...



Art


 

[Steve Truscott]

I am still having no success with the photometry. I have reinstalled ver 3.012, restarted the computer (I7 windows 10).
When I create a model I cannot get it to appear in the project. If I set output to STL the model disappears. This also disappears if I go to projects and does not reappear if I go back to tools.
Is there any chance I can get a sequence of keystrokes so that I can follow?

[BobL]

Steve;

Lets try to break it down, did you get the 4 photos once you hit Fire?


Cheers
Bob


   

[Steve Truscott]

I fire and get the 4 photos.
Then generate the normals.
The banner generating normals does not go away until I put the mouse on the photo screen.
Then I press the generate 3d button. The progess bar moves across and the image appears.
The image handle does not appear on the project tree.
I have generated some circular gears and they work as they always have. Place the gears and they also appear on the project tree.

[BobL]

1)-I fire and get the 4 photos. OK
2)-then calculate normals.  This part takes a bit time to do on any fast computers, so rate your computer's speed and be
    patient to how long it takes to do. Once it is finished, the rendered image should appear automatically without clicking your
    mouse, does on my computer anyway. 
3)- Set output size in X,Y and Z coordinates to the desired size you want this object to be, the bigger the longer it takes,  then
      set final step parameters prior to generating the output stl, or better know as (Create 3D) button.

I just repeated these steps to test stereo photometic on my computer, took about 10 minutes to do on my fairly fast computer from start to finish once pictures were captured, worked perfectly using size x50, y50. Z20


Cheers
Bob

[Steve Truscott]

I went through my notebook collection which includes a gen 1 I7 windows 7, a gen 7 I7 windows 10, an atom windows xp and a I5 windows 10.
I deleted all the gearotic installations and reinstalled 3.02.
When I use the photography I get the same result, no model appears on the project screen. Regardless of the notebook the progress bar takes about 1 second to do the normals and add stl. The model appears in about 5 seconds. This is even with the atom netbook. This computer is so slow it was quicker to do anything with a pencil and paper.
I still cannot save or generate the stl model.

[Ya-Nvr-No]

I just did a quick test of 3.012 on my laptop of my hand, held up in front of the screen

using the defaults, it was click click click with no delay for stl output
guess if you cant get any output then  ???
if your images appear and the Confidence level is as high as possible then your results should be good.
After that its about setting size and detail for the stl

Note: Not sure where you got 3.02 version, I thought 3.012 was the latest.

[BobL]

Hi Ya-Nvr-No;

Version 3.02 is our current developer version, while version 3.012 is our latest release version.



Steve Truscott;

Interesting problem, I have a fairly fast pc with Win10, so when I use Gearotic's Stereo Photometry, I first fire the photo shot, (2seconds) then I calculate to normals (3 seconds) each time I press it, then I Create3D (40 seconds) then object appears on my screen. From there I set a size for this object, then Add STL (25 seconds). If you've followed these steps and still not getting anything, I can only suggest you wait until Art gets back, he may have some insight to why this is happening to you and not others? I too am using Version 3.02...

Cheers
Bob
???

[Ya-Nvr-No]

Thanks Bob

Sorry, I just go by what I read  ;D

Downloaded 3.0201 and still seems to work fine on this laptop

[ArtF]

Hi Guys..

Im back.

  Well, Steve, looks like by your description something strange is going on for sure. I may need to make some diagnostic for you to try to track it down.
  SO am I right in the reading that you CAN generate a model, but when you send it to the project screen it doesnt appear?

Art

[Steve Truscott]

Yes that is what happens, plus what I see is only the front layer. When I add the stl it is still only front, not a solid.
I had tried it on 3 computers and got the same result.
I did see the message generating normals comes up after the photos are taken before I call them.
My Wife and I are in our caravan (trailer?) close to the geographic center of Australia. Mobile coverage is not reliable where we are.

[ArtF]

Hi Steve:

  When you say only the front shows up.. Im not sure what that means.. Can you possibly post a snapshow of that project screen? The 3d model should be flat backed, it only extrudes to the front, BUT, it is possible what your getting is a very low profile bas relief. If so, things are probably working normally.

  The module is a bas relief generator, to do what it does it uses whats called the "Shadow ambiguity" of
a set of images. The Shadow ambiguity is what allows for bas reliefs like you see on greek building and such, a very low profile shape who's shadows make the object "look" like its much deeper or in some cases fully 3d.
 
  The more shadow data in the images, the deeper and more fully 3d the result will actually be. This means the differences between the 4 images must be huge for a truly thick sculpture like the examples  I show.

  You need total darkness in the room for example, and the larger the monitor the better. You need the camera to be close to center of the monitor ( though if it isnt the result will simply be tilted up or down some..). Most important is total darkness, you want the only image to be from the light cast by the
monitor as it flashes its various quadrants to create the shadows.

  The more similar the images, due to room lighting or whatever, the lower the profile down to the point
where it looks more like just a photo with some edges. This type of problem may look like a flat photo
if sent to the project screen? Could that be what your facing?

Art