Constant failures with 3df zephyr lite and turntable setup

[remy]

i just decided to drop the $180 or whatever it was to buy 3df zephyr lite because i had some larger data sets to process and needed a larger photo limit. My setup is a turntable with canon 6d, 50mm lens and a light box with black velvet backing and several lights coming from the camera direction. I have tried masking and cropping the pictures as well as using custom settings and im still having very little success. Most of the time is fails to process, when it does..i usually get half of the object or less and all the camera locations are in one spot on top of each other. These same picture sets process perfectly in reality capture without any masking or custom options. I would prefer to use zephyr since i just paid a good amount for it..and i like the way the photoconsistency process works to provide a nice final model.

first images shows 3df zephyr results given a photo set of a bell pepper. The sparse point cloud consists of a single point..all the cameras are on top of eachother, the software isnt detecting the obvious object in the center of all black ..and doesnt use any turntable algorithm even when using the "circular" option in the custom settings. (ive tried with and without masking..which adds a lot of time to the process, shouldnt be necessary)

https://ibb.co/dmw3Xsf

so then i assumed maybe it needs to see a little more to detect the turntable is moving, so i put some markers on the turntable and i used a much larger object that would fill more of the frame. Zephyr failed to even produce a result.

https://ibb.co/P1M9f9J

reality capture didnt require any masking and processed all of the photos very quickly with no custom options chosen.

reality capture success with shoe photo set: https://ibb.co/k3hVLcz

reality capture success with bell pepper photo set: https://ibb.co/994dDJH




here are examples of the photos used as input;

https://ibb.co/JCYv3b6

https://ibb.co/t3dB2Zq

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi remy,

In your case, you'll have to mask your background. I suggest using masquerade - for a setup like that it should only take few seconds to mask the background using the turntable mode or the color backdrop removal tool, and will generally give you faster and better results than other software that instead treat those points as noise.

That said, you will always find some datasets that work better in software X than in software Y as they run on complete different technologies

If you want to share the dataset I'll be happy to assist.

[jupp2000]

I had the same problem. Don't worry, Zephyr is pretty nice and can do it.
Like Andrea wrote, masking is important.
My recommendation: (i had to go that way...)
- calibrate the lens in zephyr, if the online database gives no acceptable results.
For your shooting environment:
- white background for that green paprika should work better.
- shot about 20 images or more from diagonally above. (move the turntable 1cm every step)
- shot about 20 images or more from the horizontally lined position ("")
- put the paprika on the side, take again 20 or more photos from diagonally above.
- put it on the other side, take again 20 or more....
- use at least f10, better f16 to get sharp images from front to back.
With that method, on my last photoset i had 132 images to work with.
----------
Masking in Masquerade should be easy and fast:
I get the best results, when i create one mask for each position (horizontally, diagonally...)
Create your mask, start automasking (i get better masks without that turntable function) and stop, if you get to the next postion of the model.
Repeat the mask creation and the masking for every position.
Finally do a quick check if the mask fits (no 100% presicion needed)
Load the generated masks in the beginning of the alignment, load your lens calibration (if you made your own)
Good luck!

Jupp2000

[remy]

I understand that masking will possibly give better results, but the whole point of the turntable setup with solid background is to streamline the process and avoid masking. Its not needed in any other software but zephyr. I am unhappy with zephyr lite right now and feel that I threw away $180. I hope the lens calibration is part of the problem, i have used zephyr trial and was able to come up with good results using my drone and iphone for image capture, for some reason the results dont even turn out most of the time when using my 6d, all of these same photos produce great results in other software.
I recently tried to do a building scan which was 249 total images..i got a garbled mess from Zephyr, and Reality Capture gave near perfect results with the same photos, masking wouldnt apply in this situation. Hope there is something wrong with the calibration for a 6d with 50mm lens..or i threw away $180.

[cam3d]

Hi remy - Is it possible for you to share a download link to the photographs you have struggled with? Without working with the images themselves here is some feedback:

- The most likely reason the camera orientation is failing is because Zephyr is detecting features in the background because it's not truly black. Different photogrammetry software have different baseline settings so you'll always find that some datasets work better in other packages because a different approach may be needed to get the results you want.

- There are a couple of ways to navigate this:
a. Frame your shots so more of the subject and less of the background is captured.
b. Adjust your camera orientation settings in the initial stage of processing (For example, lowering the key points sensitivity)
c. Quickly mask by colour - Only a couple of clicks to mask a folder full of images like this, and by selecting the black background you'll be eliminating and sneaky features which are causing problems.

It seems odd that you're having issues with your 6D specifically. I also have a Canon 6D (& 50mm) and have no issues. Again, if you can share your failed photos I'll be able to give you some more direct feedback.

[KenmoJr]

Remy. were you able to resolve your issues? I've been using a turntable as well. I was considering on purchasing Zephyr but I have too many issues. I've posted some questions but never any thing that resolved them. I too am having issues with masking via Zephyr's masquerade and found masking via Photoshop was the only solution that worked for me but it is quite timely. Masquerade's color detection option did not work to my satisfaction.