Nov 28, 2005_21-29
________________________________________________________
Inverse panorama photography
We're trying to make high quality texture maps for game models. Using an FX-1 psuedo HD Sony camera, (its 1440 pixels, which is Sony's anamorphic short-hand for a 1920 16:9 image,) placed sideways, I filmed Yoshi as he rotated on a turntable in front of the camera. The bank-robber cap was his idea. This resulted in about 1200 frames of a 360 degree pass around the head.
I wrote a program to grab the middle row of pixels in each frame and add them to another image progressivly. Damn! The camera is interlaced, so using multiple pixel rows is not helpful. The end result is a 1200 X 1440 image of all sides of a head. Cool! Not an original idea, it is simply what we call in Maya or 3D Studio a "cylindrical projection texture map." Nonetheless the results are promising.
Next, we're going to cross-polarize the lights and camera filter, and think of some ways to get a higher res. Multiple still DSLR frames maybe. The end result is kinda cool on its own, though.
