Photoscan high heel model for open use

[MarkPlourde]

I've been learning about and testing "photogrammetry", wherein you take a crapload of photos of an object from different angles, stick it into a computer program (I'm most likely using Agisoft), and generate a 3D model of that object.  It just hit me the other day that I can use this to rectify a MASSIVE pet peeve I have with adult modding: High Heels.  The only high heels asset I've seen for any game anywhere that looks anywhere near realistic is arison_c's Charming High Heels for Skyrim.  Just about everything else either looks like a blob with a stick glued at one end or has some extreme unrealistic angle.  It occurred to me recently that I can use photogrammetry to "put my money where my mouth is" and fix it.

Here's the idea: I want to get my wife to model a few pairs of heels for me while I get a ton of photos of them, then generate 3D models out of them.  I would then release these models for open use by ANYONE ANYWHERE FOR ANY GAME ANY TIME as a reference for their own models.  This way people making these assets for their own mods/games have a model of a real shoe to reference and modify as needed, instead of "eyeballing" it and getting some monstrosity.

It's important to note that photogrammetry usually results in models that are far too rough and high-poly to use directly in a game.  The idea of this model is it should be used as a template or mold to make a game-ready assets over top of.  You can't just take this model, texture it, and chuck it in game.  As such, you will still need to know your way around 3dsmax or blender to get something useable in game.

I will update this post later after I have made the models and released them.  In the meantime, I wanted to get the community's thoughts and see if any modders out there would actually use this resource, before I go to all the trouble of doing this.

[RomeoZero]

I can only wish you the very best of luck for this, I too had this idea when got a cracked Agisoft PS long ago.

Soon I realized its kinda impossible to make a good mesh rendering ( rotated single pass shots are looked crappy) without good light sources and multiple digi cams.

Marvelous Designer 6 could help a lot for your endeavors ,specially if ur wife can make sewing patterns.

[MarkPlourde]

My wife is actually a photographer by trade, so she has some equipment that might help with getting the lighting right.

Another thing I thought of is having her model them might be an issue, as there's no way I can get her to stand perfectly still while I take 20-30 photos of her feet.  Since the goal is only to get a reference for other modelers, I may just shoot the shoes themselves.  We're not trying to get that specific shoe in a game, rather we're trying to make a template or mold that shows the exact angle and shape the sole and the heel should be.  Pic below:  The green bit is what's important for other modders, the red bit is what they're going to make on their own.

 

 

[Vortec]

 Wish you luck with that, maybe upload some Object files?. Have to agree that many "High Heels" look like contorted banana shape thing, even though the Armor or clothes are awesome- big turn off.

[MarkPlourde]

Wish you luck with that, maybe upload some Object files?. Have to agree that many "High Heels" look like contorted banana shape thing, even though the Armor or clothes are awesome- big turn off.

That's exactly what I'm thinking. Generating the obj files and throwing them out for anyone to use however they want.

[Vortec]

 

Wish you luck with that, maybe upload some Object files?. Have to agree that many "High Heels" look like contorted banana shape thing, even though the Armor or clothes are awesome- big turn off.

That's exactly what I'm thinking. Generating the obj files and throwing them out for anyone to use however they want.

 

 

Well shoes are one thing, but having good looking high heel feet itself be another, as well.

[MarkPlourde]

 

 

Wish you luck with that, maybe upload some Object files?. Have to agree that many "High Heels" look like contorted banana shape thing, even though the Armor or clothes are awesome- big turn off.

That's exactly what I'm thinking. Generating the obj files and throwing them out for anyone to use however they want.

Well shoes are one thing, but having good looking high heel feet itself be another, as well.

Unfortunately that's something I'll have to leave to the modelers out there. I don't know jack about 3D modeling other than how it pertains to photoscanning. Although the more I consider this project, the more I'm motivated to learn.

 

Does anyone know where arison_c got the feet mesh for Charming High Heels? I've seen that mesh used on other assets.

[Zor2k13]

Uh, get a mannequin for this stuff? All kinds of mannequins for clothing displays exist now I would think.

[MarkPlourde]

Okay so tentative plan:

 

There are a couple of pairs of heels my wife has that she doesn't wear anymore (one is beat up, the other turned out to be the wrong size). What I want to do is get two versions of several different kinds of heels i.e. sandals, round toe pump, open toe pump, short point toe pump, long point toe pump (think louboutin vs a court shoe). One model will be the shoe itself, then I will cut the material that covers the foot off so its just the sole, platform, and "spike" part of the heel left. This way people using these as reference material can see the exact shape and angle of the "base" of the heel as well as how a finished shoe should look.

 

When we get the chance we'll start with a pair of pumps she'll probably never wear.

 

I was also wondering if anyone knew of any software that lets you "morph" a complete mesh without having to move and place individual vertices? Trying to see if I can get the Charming High Heels foot mesh to morph to fit different heel heights.

[Vortec]

 I don't know about morphing, but i use Blender and i can change the shape of my high Heels. Not very good with Blender.

 

[MarkPlourde]

Update:  Wife and I took the pictures and today I spent most of the day figuring out COLMAP and how to get everything to work.

Here's the shoe we used:

 

And here's the result after generating a dense map and importing to blender:

As you can see, this model isn't that great.  We used a small turntable to turn the object with not very good lighting instead of keeping the object in one spot and moving ourselves around it.  In the future we will probably do the latter.  The holes in this model probably stem from the changing lighting on the object (since we were rotating it).  Also it seems COLMAP can't generate normal maps or textures (or maybe I've missed something).

 

In any case, we learned a LOT and future experiments should hopefully yield more useable models.

EDIT:  On further review, the Dense, non-meshed point cloud seems to have turned out much better than the mesh itself.  It might be worth having a look at.  This is a ply file that should be useable in blender.  You definitely need to zoom in to make out the detail, and it can use some cleaning, but you may be able to use this as a mold for making a model, for sure.

PinkHeel_Dense_PointCloud.zip

Please download and fire up in blender, and let me know what you think.

[markdewis]

Acute 3d is the best to photogrammetry.