too many sketchfab models on web page 2018

Manufactured objects are usually more complicated then sculptural/hand-made things, so our models of sculptures tend to be quite forgiving as they’re one mass, whereas machine-made objects like the baby weighing scales or carbolic sprayer are not. A couple of the objects proved challenging owing to their complexity. Having captured high-res images of all the artefacts we began the job of processing them into models using Agisoft’s Photoscan (now Metashape). We love going behind the scenes at different museums, in fact it’s a large part of why we started the company in the first place, so visiting was a real treat for us! Charlie capturing photos of the beautiful Leeches jar, fortunately it’s not so beautiful content has long since been removed! Making the digital models It was great to get up close with the objects and be surrounded by so many other wondrous artefacts in the Blythe House stores. The chosen objects varied massively in size and complexity from a large wooden 18th century barber-surgeon’s chair, to a box of matches, to a cast iron baby-weighing scale. We set our gear up in a corner of the stores and did image capture over two weeks, averaging about 3 objects per day. The parquet flooring proved surprisingly helpful for image alignment!

Inside the treasure trove that is Blythe House where we did the image capture.

There are two major steps to making 3D models: Photogrammetric capture, and making the digital models. Seeing images of the objects in advance really helps with that initial selection, but seeing an object in the flesh is even better, so it was useful to arrange a site visit at Blythe House to preview the objects. We looked at material, reflectivity, and size while Josh and Emilia came at it from strength of curriculum links. We worked closely with Digital Learning Producers Emilia McKenzie and Josh Blair, whittling down a list of possible objects from the Medicine collection based on their ‘scan-ability’. This was a little different because the resulting models were to be viewed digitally (and not printed), but we still used the same photogrammetry techniques. We’ve created over 20 commissions now, and many of them have included 3D digitisation as a service.

Too many sketchfab models on web page 2018