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Using photogrammetry to 3D scan photorealistic environments and tell stories in VR
"Digitizing the World: Photogrammetry Manual for Journalists" is a book and guide which I wrote in the second semester of 2018. It served as my graduation project in Journalism from Latin America's top university (the University of São Paulo). With it, I aimed to teach fellow journalists about the potential and practical use of photogrammetry technology, which allows photorealistic 3D scanning of environments using nothing but a regular camera - even cellphones will do the trick.
The project mixed theoretical and practical insights into the technology itself, its uses inside and outside of journalism and hands-on how-tos. As a case study, I scanned and digitized Batman Alley, a popular graffitti hotspot in São Paulo, whose art is everchaning and where the spatial relationship between pieces is as critical a part of the experience as the visual art itself. This made it a perfect candidate for preserving virtually and presenting in VR, which I did as part of the presentations around the book.
In this page, I showcase some images and videos from the project, and make the PDF available for download.
Technologies involved: Photogrammetry, VR, Unity, C#, mesh optimization
Gallery
The printed edition's cover
A small section of Batman Alley after being scanned in
A shot showing how many different pictures can generate a high-quality 3D model
This may look like a photo from a real scene, but it's a digitally rendered recreation
This point cloud shows another angle of Batman Alley and gives insight into the process
An overhead view gives an idea of the scale of the scanned area
A textureless model shows off the level of detail and some of the early issues with noise
An extreme closeup shows the level of geometric complexity achieved
Dynamic illumination allows us to see the same scene in different lighting conditions
Videos
A test showing a walkthrough of the real-time scene in Unity
Another test showcasing nighttime conditions with dynamic illumination
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