Photo Scanning Bionicle Canister

[Toa Philo]

I decided to try photo scanning a Bionicle canister,
specifically one that would be harder to 3d model from scratch.
This is the result:

Total of 176,494 polygons. 


Next I decided to try optimizing the model as much has possible to the lowest possible polygon amount by modeling a rough low poly canister (only 108 polygons) in the shape of the photo scanned version. Then I baked the Texture and Normals of the high poly photo scanned onto my low poly canister.
Here is the result:



Comparing the two models side by side:

In the future I'll probably make another optimized version with some more polygons
that would give a little more geometry while still having a low polygon amount.
Overall, this little experiment (from start to finish) took less than an hour, so I am pleased with the results.

[Master Inika]

That's really cool. Literally cannot tell which one is real at the end.

[kawaii kitty]

what inspired you to do this?

[Toa Philo]

5 hours ago, kawaii kitty said:

what inspired you to do this?

I've been working on a VRChat world that has a lego store filled with Bionicle sets. Its surprisingly tricky to make.

The models themselves aren't to difficult, but getting the texturing right is. Recreating a box (like a titan set) is simple due to each side being flat. You can also find clean images of the box side to which you can make clean textures from, with very simple UV unwrapping.
Bionicle Canisters are difficult mainly due to their curves. While some are easier than others, such as the Ignika due to the art being a relatively flat sticker on each side, Others like the Toa Mata, or Metru, or any that have artwork that is being curved around a more cylindrical canister, its hard to get a texture of the artwork that would unwrap cleanly, without someone taking time destroying their canister to scan the artwork as its own file. I neither own most canisters, nor would I want to destroy what ones I have.
Photo scanning allows me to get the artwork that wraps perfectly around the model, while also getting more interesting and complicated aspects of the canister, example being the lid of the Mistika canister. This also gives me overall the best result possible for such a project.

[Toa Philo]

I did it again, this time with Onewa.
I wanted to this one specifically because its a cylinder.
Here is the result:



Just like the Bitil canister, I went and made a low poly version, but this time I made 2.
One lower poly and more simple, with the minimum polygons need for a general shape.
Ver quick and easy, took me just a couple minutes to model/bake the textures from the high poly photo scan.


While this was a quick and easy model and useable, I wasn't to pleased with the lid.
It could use just a little more geometry, so I spent a few minutes modeling a new canister, added the extra details to get the shape to be more accurate, and got this:
 

Here is an comparison of the 3 Canisters next to each other:

 

Edited January 5 by Toa Philo

[Toa Philo]

Well here is the third canister I scanned, and by far the most difficult to model.
One thing I have learned from all this is that the Mistika canister was possible the best canister to photo scan.
The next one, gave me the biggest headache of the 3 canisters, the Phantoka canister.
I spent more time working on this one than the other two combined.
To start off, here is the photo scan of Toa Pohatu (the best Toa) Phantoka:


The Raw result with the Phantoka turned out pretty nice in my opinion.
One fun detail that got added from the scan was the instruction manual being visible through the clear plastic.


Though, even though it look pretty good, the scan still had some problems, specifically with the gap between the canister and the orange decorative plastic piece. For the photo scanning process would fill in that gap in some (most) areas. As shown here:


Now later I'll be addressing this issue, but before then I show how I baked this to a lower poly model, one being the lowest possible, and one that has a low poly amount, but has some added details to make it significantly better.
First the super low poly count, almost as low as just a simple box:


Here is the one with a little more geometry while still being very low poly:


While this does look better it is still lacking compared to the photo scan.
Here is the comparison of the three versions:



While I could've called it a day there, I took it a few steps more.
Since the canister is multiple pieces, I am able to scan the two pieces separately.
This also addresses the problem motioned earlier.
Here is the plastic orange decretive piece:


While this looks pretty cool, its probably obvious, the model didn't scan correctly. It's more noticeable newt to the photo scan with it on.
  

Next I scanned the canister, this turned out much better than the external piece.


Now with both pieces together:


Comparing the two:


Now to model the Canister using these two photo scanned parts.
First the canister:


Here is comparing the low poly to the photo scan:


Newt part took me several hours to model, it was more tricky than expected but I got it done while still being low poly.

Now we have both parts modeled and textured


Now we can combine them



Now we can compare the low poly version as one object to the one with two pieces and the photo scan:



Overall, I'm please with the end result, it was a good amount of work, but a satisfying payoff.


 

[Master Inika]

These are insanely good. I barely understand the technology talk and to be frank all three end results look the same to me but they look gorgeous.

Is this possibly inspired by the old Supersonic RC racer game? The Lego store reminds me of that welcoming but weirdly empty Lego store you drove the car around.

[kawaii kitty]

2 hours ago, Toa Philo said:

best Toa Phantoka:

the best of the worst. not a high bar at all

[Toa Philo]

1 hour ago, Master Inika said:

Is this possibly inspired by the old Supersonic RC racer game? The Lego store reminds me of that welcoming but weirdly empty Lego store you drove the car around.

It isn't. Its based off real Lego stores, specifically the ones you see at malls.
Though, I guess it does feel more like a real store when you are in there with a group of people. I found that people like going around and looking at the boxes/canisters. It is a little surreal sitting in front of a bunch of Bionicle boxes/canisters on a shelf.

[kawaii kitty]

Just now, Toa Philo said:

Though, I guess it does feel more like a real store when you are in there with a group of people. I found that people like going around and looking at the boxes/canisters. It is a little surreal sitting in front of a bunch of Bionicle boxes/canisters on a shelf.

you might push me over the edge for getting a vr headset, that sounds great!

[Toa Philo]

1 minute ago, kawaii kitty said:

the best of the worst. not a high bar at all

Are you saying Mistika > Phantoka?

[Toa Philo]

1 minute ago, kawaii kitty said:

you might push me over the edge for getting a vr headset, that sounds great!

If you do, you should hang out in the VRChat Bionicle community, there are some really creative people there.
One guy has a world were you can build Bionicle mocs, and has been recreating all the Bionicle sets in the style of the Bionicle Heros game.
Another guy made a world where you can "play" with all the sets and place them in a diorama. Though you can't pose them unfortunately.
There are also several avatar creators that made Bionicle avatars.
One newer thing has been PVP Avatars, which are functional. So basically, in PVP worlds you can have actual fighting Bionicle (with ability's). And its a system compatible with other pvp groups, so we can fight Warhammer groups, Star Wars groups, Daleks, Helldivers, etc. 
Though there aren't many Bionicle PVP avatars yet, only and handful.

I don't know if its worth getting VR for, but if you do, defiantly check the community out.