To create the 3D model, we used a method combining photographs and measurements called photogrammetry (Papadopoulos, n.d.). This technique is often used to capture and measure buildings or landscapes in 3D models (Papadopoulos, n.d.). Specifically, we used close-range photogrammetry to capture our toy dragon, which means that the camera was close to the object during the process. Therefore, we took pictures of the toy from multiple angles. Here, we made sure that the pictures have a high amount of overlap to avoid distortions in the process. A big disadvantage of photogrammetry is the amount of light needed to create a successful result (Papadopoulos, n.d.). Accordingly, we made use of lightboxes to ensure sufficient light during the picture-taking process.
Further, we made use of the photogrammetric technique, Structure from Motion, to image the object computationally (Papadopoulos, n.d.). Therefore, we reconstructed the position of the cameras by aligning the photos using the software Metashape Pro. As the programme had trouble recognising and reconstructing the camera angles, we divided the pictures into two chunks. This way we could mark where the overlaps between the pictures were to help the programme to create an accurate model. We uploaded the pictures and created a first low-quality model to create Masks from the object. The masks allowed us to remove any background that we did not want in our final 3D model. Once we were satisfied with the low-quality model, we were able to apply the masks we created to create a higher-quality model, which is the model you can see on the side.