3D track bed
Project Duration: 3 weeks
Team: solo
Software: Agisoft Photoscan, Autodesk Maya, Unreal Engine 4, Substance Painter
Theme: 3D digitization of a track bed
Main Feature(s): seamlessly tileable mesh, due to the irregular nature of the track bed
Workflow: gathering photo data, 3D digitizing data, baking high poly texture onto low poly model, importing and arranging in UE4
Summary
This digitized track bed was a sub-project to a current project, which consists of building a modular train station Maya to be rendered in Unity. The track bed is a wonderful example of something that is way faster and easier to 3D digitize than to build with conventional 3D modelling techniques, while still producing very good results.
Workflow
After I decided to 3D digitize a track bed I had to look for a place, where I could collect data without risking to get run over by a train. Fortunately I found the place on the photo, which is at Gleisdreieckpark in Berlin.
I used Agisoft Photoscan to generate a mesh and a high resolution texture from my photo data set.
A photogrammetry data set is generally a series of photos shot from the same angle and distance, with consistent focal length. The photos should overlap significantly, so you have multiple angles on each detail and to ensure the software can align your cameras correctly. Diffuse lighting also improves the result of the scan, which means waiting for a cloudy day, if the object is outside, as in my case.
Then I decimated the mesh from about 3 million faces to a little under 5,000 and baked the high poly details onto it. I also slightly edited the mesh to make the seams easier to hide, when tiling it later.
Outcome
