Moviesandbox

news about the 3D realtime moviemaking tool "Moviesandbox"

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Milkscanner V0.9 BETA



The Milkscanner is a tool that allows the scanning of objects and creates a Displacement map for use with Moviesandbox or any other 3D App that would allow for displacement mapping.

Ingredients:
1 Webcam
1 Tupperware Bowl
3 cups of Milk
1 custom LEGO rig

How it works:
You fix the webcam above the bowl and put the object to be scanned in it. Note that the Scanner can only scan half an object at a time.You then cover it half in milk. The milk basically "slices" through the object. You can subtract the white part form the picture the webcam takes and the rest serves as your "slice". You then add some more milk and make another picture. That way you slice through the whole object, three spoons of milk at a time.

After creating a Displacement-map from your scanning, you can use it with the Trace-Tool and bring it into Moviesandbox, as shown in the video.

Here are a couple of pictures describing the device:






and some of the pictures you can create with it:




and finally, the "finished" model in Unreal:



i know, it's not super pretty, but it's still in the beginning...

6 Comments:

Blogger ck said...

Wonderfull!!
Thats such an amazing idea!

Will immediately search my Lego stuff and
build a such a scan rig!

2:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What's more than wonderful or amazing... Stupendous? No matter how you slice it, that is pure genius! Great work!
-Klpper

6:48 PM  
Anonymous Buddy_DoQ said...

My mind is blown just trying to comprehend the awesomeness of this setup. You're really doing some wonderful and creative things these days Fiezi, I really can't wait to see what you cook up next!

Best use of milk ever! (Well, right after mixing it with chocolate.)

-Buddy

5:05 PM  
Blogger krahd said...

hats off!

11:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This approach is rather cleaver... is there a chance that you could use a video camera and a steady stream of milk to get a similar result in less time?

1:50 PM  
Blogger Kernon Dillon said...

That's pretty awesome!

Idea:
How about doing the process in reverse? Start with the container full of milk and slowly drain it while the camera is set to take pictures at a rate that gets you the desired slice density. This could automate the process considerably and also allow for faster test cycles while you continue to develop this great technique.

7:50 AM  

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