Photogrammetry set-up in a bid to deliver detailed replicas of people

Overly has launched a portable photogrammetry set-up in a bid to deliver detailed new age replicas of people, animals, clothing, and 3D objects for heritage conservation, archaeology, museums, educators, artists, marketers and game devs.

Headquartered in Latvia, Overly's team is equipped to deliver photogrammetry services across Europe. Its portable 3D capture rig is made up of 36 Canon 18-megapixel cameras and uses a combination of art, science, and technology to capture numerous 2D images and precisely interpret the results in 3D.

Unlike expensive laser scanning equipment that generates point clouds or a grey mesh, photogrammetry allows for photorealistic 3D copies with crispy textures to be captured. These are immediately transferable for use within virtual reality contexts with little editing required. 

Overly's CTO, Gatis Zvejnieks, highlights that the set-up is an excellent tool for heritage conservation: "Local museums have taken great interest in using photogrammetry for the maintenance of their archives. Another area that we have entered is education and virtual reality, as we delivered a photogrammetry session capturing various human facial expressions for an upcoming book by Anatomy Next, a business that provides anatomy learning tools for students and teachers.  And it is not only facial expressions, we can capture the whole human body or that of animals, which could come in handy in virtual reality games or training software development."

Overly's solution uses software that incorporates "Structure from Motion". It locates identical feature points in every photograph and establishes where these are placed in a 3D space. After the feature points are placed, the "Multi-View Stereo" technique is used to compare neighboring photographs for more feature points extensively. When the dense feature point cloud is made, the 3D mesh can be generated, and high-quality 3D replicas can be projected with the tiniest details insight. The whole process takes just a few minutes.

Personalized quotes are issued for each individual project, but to give a taste of what the cost is, Gatis revealed that creating one virtual 3D replica with Overly ranges between 100-300EUR + VAT. "Each project is unique, and the final quote will depend on the number of captures required as larger quantities will lead to a reduced price per one model. Other aspects that are considered include the complexity of the object that needs to be captured, how much post-processing is necessary  and a client's location per se."