I would like to take a 3d image of an actor and import it into Blender, so I can play with the 3d image. Anyone have any ideas of the best (or adequate) 3d camera to rent or buy to make that happen? Thanks!
What exactly do you mean by “3d image”? Are you talking about 3d scanning/photogrammetry?
Good question. For example, if I create a 3d character in Blender using meshes and such, I can scroll around it, rig it, transform it, etc. I want to do the same with the image of a real human being. I can import a photograph as a plane and work it into a full 3 image of sorts, but would prefer to take a 3d picture of a real live human being, import it into Blender as a 3d image, maybe convert it to a mesh, and work it like I would an image I created from scratch in the software. Is that possible?
Maybe, but probably not. Again, I’m not entirely sure what you mean by 3d picture. If you mean a photograph with depth information (a depth pass of that photograph), then yes, but with limitations, because a single depth pass can only displace along the normal vector, and since a photograph is two dimensional, you could get a displaced plane with the contours of whatever you were photographing at best. However this requires a camera rig which can capture a depth pass and i don’t think that’s something you can easily get your hands on.
If by 3d image you mean 2 images with slightly offset angles with which you create a 3d reconstruction, that is technically possible, but likely not available for you, because as far as I know that is sort of cutting edge technology, which is under development and not all that great yet.
I don’t really understand the workflow you are imagining, so again, I think your best bet would be photogrammetry…
1 Like
The usual process would be to use photogrammetry to convert a large (and I do mean large) number of images into a mesh. These are physical rigs with arrays of high-end cameras as well as properly controlled lighting. It’s very difficult to do this with a single camera as few people can hold still enough to get enough pictures from different angles. You can home-brew a multi-camera rig, but it’s still probably cheaper and faster to get this commercially done (even the studios contract this out out rather than doing it in-house).
1 Like
Thank you, greenorangejuice and dgorsman. I was hoping to find a way to basically create a 3d mesh of a real person that I could utilize as if it were a character created in Blender, but that doesn’t seem doable at this time. The photogrammetry is interesting and I’m going to look into it. If any other options seem doable, I’ll post them here. Probably my best bet would be to create the character in Blender, then work on making the image look as realistic and close to the original as possible, which is sort of what I’ve done in the past. Thanks much.
SOLUTION: Mini Me is a franchise that takes 3D scans of people and then 3D prints figurines based on the scan. However, you can just ask for the 3D .obj file. It works.