Photogrammetry guide for minis by OOProject v1.

You will need

Camera (preferably a digital DSLR camera with a macro lens, where you can set the focal length and
exposure time) but any Camera can work. Try your mobile phone or webcam. Video cameras can work to but i
have not tried them.

I use a entry level Cannon EOS 1200D with stock lens 58mm and 12mm macro ring. This was however
created with a iphone 12 and agisoft

Photogrammetry software
I use 3df-Zephyr-free but i have seen better/very good result with other software too, most have a free trial and
a dumb down freewere version and there are cracked versions of some software to but be very of viruses.

https://www.3dflow.net/3df-zephyr-free/

https://www.agisoft.com/downloads/installer/

https://alicevision.org/ (don’t understand the settings but its open source and others have had a good
experience with it)

List of many others.

https://all3dp.com/1/best-photogrammetry-software/

Computer with a NVidia graphics card - Most photogrammetry software needs a NVIDIA video card
with > 2GB vram and CUDA capabilities >= 3.0 or similar.
Some don't so check around the software to see what would work for you.

I use a nvidia geforce GTX 1060 6gb

Light source - Preferable a ring light you can take pictures through. But any diffuse lighting will work (light
from all around the mini). You don't want any sharp shadows or it to be too dark. Camera Flash is not
recommended.

Minis - You will need to paint your minis a matt color preferable white. Painted minis are doable but much
harder to do as reflections and transparent parts will mess with the photogrammetry software.

What is good to have.

MacroRings - Only for DSLR cameras where you can move the objective out from the camera creating a
cheap alternative to a macro lens. With it you will be able to get closer to the mini and get more of it in frame.

Tripod - (or some way to keep your camera still when you take the photos) Any movement of the camera or
of the model when you take a photo will decrease your results.

Remote - for triggering the camera to take pictures, if the camera moves when the picture is taken you will
have a bad picture.

Turntable – Preferable one you can set to move wait move. But a 3d printed one or any rotating flat surface
will do.You can also move the mini around by hand but a turntable is a real back saver.

Photo Tent – (unsure if this is a good tip now) for reflecting the light around the model and making it easier
for you to trick the software that you are moving around the model.

Zero info background / GreenScreen - Zero info background would be a totally black for contrast with
light mini, a single colored backdrop like a green screen can help to with software like 3df zephyr
where you can use there built in tool to check the background color and remove it from the photos
that will go into the software.

General tips

Get in close
Do try and get as much of the mini in all the frames, Here are two photosets i did the one on the left i
maximize the mini in the frame and got much better results then the one on the right where i was
shooting in landscape with more of the turntable and stuff i don't want to scan in the frame. If needed
rotate the camera as more minis are taller than wider etc.
Camera settings
If you have a camera you can set the Aperture and other settings on its better.

These are the setting i use.

Aperture f/32 (you want to have the whole model in focus as if

parts are blurry you can get bad results)

Shutter speed 0,6 (you want to get a bright photo without over
exposing it)

Iso 100 (I have this on auto)

You want the model in the middle of the photograph and no

grainy photos
Workflow Photoset
Preferably you will have noted down on the turntable lines to show how far you need to turn it for each shot if
you move it manuely. Mine has 26 lines to show I should move the turntable 1/26 after each photo to take 26
photos all around the mini.

After I have done one rotation I move the camera up/down so I am shooting at a slightly different angle of the
camera in the z axis (upp down) compared to before.

Example here of the first two top rows being one rotation on a slightly higher elevation with the camera angled
down and the bottom two rows are more straight at the model with the camera facing straight forward.
You can add in more photos if needed (and if your software allows you to) and try with zoomed in photos of
more detailed areas too.
The software will need at least 3 photos of the same part from different rotations to be able to compute the 3d
model.

After i am done i copy the files to my PC and run them through the photogrammetry software.

Workflow photogramic software.

- 3dfZephyr
The settings I use in 3df zephyr (quite old from 2021 so mess around and see what works for you)

i use the auto masking tool to mask away the background via the color key.

Camera orientation

Urban and Exhaustive

Dense point cloud

Urban and Ultra

Surface reconstruction

Urban and High details

Texturing

General and Default single texture

You might need to go into Tools -> options and choose “Enable Ultra Preset” to get my settings,
it can take up some disc space too when its working so make sure you have some available. Around 40gb ish?
Bit unsure could be less.

when its run you hopefully have something like this

the blue dots is where the software put the cameras so you should have rings around the model where you
took the pictures.

Agisoft-

Cleanup
I prefer to use Blender as my go to software to clean 3d scans. Its free and very powerful.
There are of course loads of other software you can try for 3d modeling but Blender and Zbrush are probably
the most known.

To edit the file in blender you need to open blender choose import – wavefront (.obj) then find the file.

My go to fix for the models are first orient it via selecting the object then pushing “n” to get the Transform menu
on the right side and setting the models Rotation to 0 on all the three values.

then pushing 7 on my numpad and rotating the model to face downwards.

To get rid of the excessive parts of the turntable that came with the model I first press 3 on my numpad.
Then go into edit mode by pushing tab

Then go to wireframe mode pushing the letter “z” then selecting wireframe mode.

Then try and select as much as the mini without selecting too much of the stuff you want to remove via the
drag box tool. When it's selected you can press “ctrl” + “I” for inverting the selected are and press “x” and
choose delete verticals, then you need to go around all the model and delete the extra parts that you don’t
want.

To fill holes under the model you can go into edit mode then choose edge select and hold down “alt” and
double left click the lines that are on the edge of the hole, it should select all the edges around the hole and
you can press “f” to fill it. You might want to “poke face” and subdivided It if your planning on editing the area.

for scaling I use the Transform menu and move the decimal one step so instead of 2m its 20m etc on all three
axis. Then I use the base as a measurement to cover 2x2 of the grid scales and it seems to work pretty good. I
photogram all my minis on there base so i have a reference for scaling without needing to measure the mini.

When you have cleaned up the model don’t forget to save it and try out the sculpting part its pretty intuitive and
relaxing going around increasing parts and using the crease tool to crease stuff.

Use “f” for brush size and shift f for strength. Hold shift for the smoothing tool

A tip is to click to enable dynotope and use constant detail with a pretty high resolution if your pc is up for it
and smooth shading. There are hundreds of “learn sculpting in blender videos” on yt.

Here is a sample set of pictures I took for a IG stormtrooper

https://ibb.co/album/FgJCS9

further reading

https://www.instructables.com/lesson/Shooting-for-Photogrammetry/

https://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/a-guide-to-camera-settings-for-photogrammetry-routes-in-ugcs

https://www.vertexlibrary.com/guide-to-3d-scanning-outdoor-photogrammetry-tips

https://blogs.autodesk.com/recap/what-makes-photos-good-for-photogrammetry/