This is the third in a series of posts on bringing 3D scans to the browser. in this post, I'm getting very specific - looking at the difference between Autodesk's consumer scanning solution (123D Catch) and their new enterprise solution (Recap). 

To illustrate the differences, I'm using the same input images to both services. Then I'm running the resulting meshes through our Verold optimization tech for display in the browser.​ Going to keep this post pretty lean, and let the results do the talking.

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I wrote yesterday about some new features we've rolled out to the Verold Studio API, allowing integrators to send high resolution sculpts directly from scanning applications to Verold Studio. We optimize your models, producing a real-time ready mesh that can be displayed on the web using our tools. From there, you can add the static model to your blog or website, or turn it into an interactive app or game using our tools.​

I mentioned that my current favourite scanning solution is 123D Catch. It's free, very approachable, and the provided tooling makes it straightforward to prepare your models for printing or to be displayed online. ​The downside of Catch is that it's a consumer application, and the mesh quality is not good enough for higher fidelity applications. In a general sense, this is good, if you need a lightweight model for real-time rendering. But when you've got tools to do the optimization well yourself (as we do), you want the best possible input. Thankfully, there are other great scanners on the market. Ian and I have been experimenting with several of them over the last few days. Go! Scan 3D by Creaform uses a custom laser scanner, and produces great results that look awesome in our viewer. We're also impressed with the scans produced from Agisoft's photogammetry solution. The pace of innovation in 3D scanning and printing is exhilarating, and I look forward to having lots of other demos and samples to share in the coming weeks.

At Verold, we are committed to letting you bring any professional 3D content to the web. This means, if you work in 3D Studio Max, Maya, ZBrush, Blender, SketchUp, or any other 3D modelling package, you will be able to bring your work to the web. We also recognize that there's another way to get content - by scanning it. Verold Studio has always supported uploads in STL, PLY, and OBJ formats - the standard formats for 3D scanning and printing. However, results have been a mixed bag. 3D scans capture a point cloud using photogammetry or lasers, then stitch these points together. As you can image, the resulting meshes are not nearly as concise and beautiful as what an artist would produce manually. Consequently, uploaded scans are often clunky and slow. 

We've set about to address these issues, with new features that are just now rolling out to Verold Studio. We're well positioned to do this: our history is in geometry processing, and we at one point had our own photogammetry solution. We bring the same diligence  to this challenge that we brought to solving quad remeshing in ZBrush last year - and the results are awesome! You can give us your clunky scan data, and we'll give you back a runnable, viewable version of your model rendering beautifully in your browser.

Read on to learn how...​

​Verold Studio provides CG artists will tools to collaborate in 3D on the web; upload your models, discuss them in real-time 3D with collaborators. Over the past few months we've been working to engage a new audience on the platform, animators. You may have noticed that last week we uploaded the first animated project to Verold Studio!