
My primary goal when diving the Piper off Catalina was to practice my photogrammetry skills and have another project to explore some of the features and functionality of the Metashape software.
I took a LOT of photos knowing that I would have overlap but I also didn’t want to miss any key angles. This was also “practice” for eventually building a model of the Dauntless in San Diego.
Sketchfab Model
The model turned out really well. There is one major “hole” in the back section of the cabin interior, but overall it turned out well. Due to size limits on Sketchfab, I can’t upload the high resolution model but I have uploaded a lower resolution model that people can investigate.
Link to the model on Sketchfab: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/piper-warrior-wreck-catalina-island-c2ae4ca202364aa2b1e8ec35f511e62a
Some of the highlights of the model are below along with actual pictures:
Overview
Engine
Cockpit Control Panel
Starboard Wing Section
Additional Information
I wanted to do some tests with my Nauticam WWL-C lens so I used that instead of my “normal” Sony 10-18mm with dome combination. I definitely like the WWL-C but there is some barrel distortion and I prefer the rectilinear lens for photogrammetry.
There are 647 pictures in this model (Note: this could be a LOT less by using the Metashape tools to reduce overlap and also to remove photos identified as lower quality). This is something I will test the functionality of over the next couple of weeks just to compare.
- Camera Alignment – N/A, I would guess 3 hours (I aligned pictures by adding, aligning, adding, etc. and never aligned all photos in one go)
- Depth Maps – 10 hours, 26 minutes!!! (Medium quality, Mild Filtering mode)
- Dense Cloud – 57 minutes
- Mesh– 2 hours, 8 minutes
- Texture – 1 hour, 21 minutes (8192×8192 texture size)