The second trial turned out to take more time and patience than anticipated. With the third set of pictures that were taken, Metashape was finally able to align the images and create a point cloud. However, our challenges did not end there. The main reason for this was Woody’s face was quite textured. Large parts of his face had holes and could not translate well into the model. Instead of replicating the smooth plastic surface, the model turned Woody’s face into some type of abstract art. By looking at the masks the model created, it was apparent that they were the reason for Woody’s facial mishap as they did not follow the outline of his face at all.
We attempted to target this by manually creating each individual mask and this took two full days. In hindsight, this was not the most time-efficient approach we could have taken but it honed our masking skills tenfold. Unfortunately, using the masks to build another model did not solve our issue. Instead, by trying various approaches to create the model, it turned out that using the depth masks to create the model provided us with the most solid model. It still was not ideal, but by smoothing specific problem areas, we were able to counteract most of it. Additionally, we could not remove the ruler that stabilized Woody entirely from the model. By trying to remove it completely, it left irreparable holes in Woody’s cowboy hat. When trying to fill the holes and smooth them out, the program was not able to accurately fill the holes, which is why we decided to leave the ruler partially visible.
Another challenge was Woody’s boots. We were not able to turn Woody completely around and used a green styrofoam block to prop him up. This was later removed in processing and we filled the resulting holes with the tool and smoothed it out afterwards. To conclude, the Woody doll is not an ideal subject for 3D image processing, primarily because it does not stand on its own, this makes it impossible to capture him from all necessary angles. Additionally, the reflectivity of the plastic could not be fully counteracted with powder, and the main difficulty of capturing his face left us with a version where his cheeks are more hollow.