Category: 3D Laser Scanning

This is the sub-category for 3D Laser Scanning posts. Any posts within this sub-category will be displayed under the 3D Laser Scanning header on the Services page.

Photogrammetry and 3D Printing in “The Power of Place”

IDIA Lab 3D Laser Scanning, Arts, More Arts, Services

Long on the cutting edge of emerging technologies, IDIA Lab has gained a reputation for unique skill sets. Providing their photogrammetry and 3D printing services, IDIA Lab joined several departments in the production of the new exhibition at the David Owsley Museum of Art. The Power of Place: 100 Years of Architecture at Ball State University

“The Power of Place: 100 Years of Architecture at Ball State University”

“The Power of Place: 100 Years of Architecture at Ball State University” showcases the ways Ball State’s campus architecture has changed and how the past still shines through.

“The exhibition embodies the idea that even though Ball State’s built environment has greatly changed over time by way of adding new buildings constructed with modern materials, our past is forever present,” says Rebecca Torsell, archivist for architectural records at Ball State University, who organized the exhibition.

Running from September 27 through December 21, 2018, the exhibition is part of a campus-wide celebration of Ball State’s Centennial.

“The museum is an ideal place to celebrate the University’s Centennial,” says Robert G. La France, director of the David Owsley Museum of Art. “For more than 80 years the museum’s building — the Fine Arts Building — has stood as Ball State’s palace to the arts. This show displays the University’s long-standing commitment to distinctive architecture and introduces visitors to its vast architectural archives and special collections.”

Photogrammetry

Part of the history of Ball State architecture includes unique tiles used in the Fine Arts Building itself. The museum wanted a way to display these ornate, relief tiles without removing them from the wall. Using their photogrammetry techniques, IDIA Lab first recreated the tiles as a virtual 3D model.

IDIA Lab Modeler, Trevor Danehy, explains the process, “We take at least one hundred photos of each tile, everything from straight on shots of the tile to sharp angles in an effort to expose the levels of depth in the crevices of the tile. The photogrammetry software algorithm requires that each photo has at least 50% overlap compared to the last photo taken in order to stitch together a mesh.”

“It can be a very trial and error process, so the more images taken, the better. That is why we prefer an DSLR camera that can take several images rapidly. Quantity over quality works best in photogrammetry. Once the software stitches together a crude mesh, we do a small amount of digital cleanup and export it for 3D printing.”

3D Printing

After the virtual mesh has been created, the next step is to recreate the tile using a physical medium. At IDIA Lab, this is accomplished using 3D printing. IDIA Lab’s Adam Kobitz, who manages 3D printing in the lab, describes the printing technique. “We printed the tiles using an Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printing process, in which the physical objects are built up by extruding layer after layer of melted plastic. This process allows us to produce accurate recreations of the tiles relatively quickly, permitting viewers of the exhibit to observe and interact with them in a manner they’re unable to with the original works.”

After the tiles are printed, they are ready to be displayed as a portable replica of part of Ball State’s architectural history.

Tile Photogrammetry
3D Printed Tile
3D Printed Tile

Museum Scanning Project

IDIA Lab 3D Laser Scanning, Immersion Projects, Projects, Simulation and Visualization

The IDIA Seminar’s current project focuses on virtually recreating the original settings of various sculptures found throughout the Ball State University Museum of Art. The project focused on scanning five different sculptures using a 3D laser scanner.

This project has allowed Ball State students to get involved with 3D scanning by learning the method, techniques and limitations involved with accurate scanning procedures.
The museum scanning project was initially a way to not only digitally archive a few select sculptures, but to place them in an animated video to visualize the art in their original context, before they found their way to the Ball State Museum of Fine Arts.

Sculptures such as Adolph Alexander Weinman’s “Descending Night” and “Rising Sun” originally were meant to be viewed at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 in San Francisco. The students intend to visually replicate that scene along with how the artist framed them for viewing with the help of a  Zcorporation Zscanner 700 at a high resolution. Scanning typically takes the class around six hours (for a human sized sculpture). The ZScanner has the ability to scan any object in the tightest spaces and do it in real-time with one continuous scan.  Once the scan data is acquired, there are a large variety of mediums that it can be transferred to both digitally and physically. Students then place the models within an animation using AutoDesk Maya. A high-resolution viewer and interactive touch screens are also used to view the models. Students are also investigating a method of 3D prototyping the models to a smaller, more reproducible copy.

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3D Scanner Technology

3D Point Cloud Laser Scanning

IDIA Lab 3D Laser Scanning, Home, Projects, Simulation and Visualization

From a seashell to auditorium, laser-scanning can capture the objects and spaces we inhabit and convert them into a digital model. The IDIA scans a range of small or large scale 3D objects using facilities and equipment shared with the SimLab in the College of Architecture and Planning and supported by the Office of Information Technology. Three-dimensional geometry is captured in terms of millions of points that outline the scanned object. These points are converted into polygons to be used in the resulting animation workflow.

In 2009, the IDIA Immersion Seminar in Virtual Worlds worked to simulate the original settings of several sculptures in the collection of the Ball State University Museum of Art. Students where trained professionally to use the ZCorp 3D laser scanner using archival museum methods.

This project has allowed Ball State students to obtain skills in 3D scanning by learning the methodology, techniques and limitations involved with accurate scanning procedures. The museum scanning project was initially a way, to not only digitally archive select sculptures, but to place them in an live three-dimensional multi-user virtual environment that immerses viewers in a simulation of the works in their original context.

This significance of this project was to address the fact that pre-modern sculpture was typically originally designed to be an element in large-scale architectural, public or natural setting. IDIA developed a workflow that is now also a service that can be provided to external clients in the sciences, industry and the arts – employing emerging digital tools to illuminate a viewer’s understanding of context.

FARO and Z Corporation’s scanning technologies are used in applications such as reverse engineering, accident reconstruction, forensic science, historic preservation, entertainment and virtual simulation.