3D modelling
Why?
On the basis of the co-operation with Chris Robinson - a local historian, a virtual tour of St. Andrew’s Church in Plymouth was designed. The interactive tour of the church consists of five panoramas. St. Andrew’s Church was destroyed during the Blitz in 1941 and rebuilt in 1957. The unique part of this presentation is the artistic drawing of the building and the reconstruction of the interior of the church just after the Blitz. Such presentations can only be viewed in a panoramic viewer. It is not as compelling as it should be, even though there is a voice narrative in the background. To build an interactive narrative, video objects and interactive video panoramas could be applied.
The researcher realized that only by creating a 3D model of the church, the past, present and future state of the building could be displayed in a more appealing way. Generating spherical panorama in a 3D environment could result in an improved panoramic image which would not be possible in other image editing software. Having a 3D model of the interior, the researcher can create immersive animations and video panoramas that form the beginning of interactive storytelling. This photorealistic 3D model could then be converted into a historical 3D model of the church. Without finding proper images in archives, it would not be possible to create a reconstruction of the site. Historic images from the interior of this church from the time preceding World War II were found in various Plymouth archives.
The researcher will develop the 3D model of Charles Church to create an arena for all of the virtual experiments. Interactive panoramas and video panoramas will be generated in 3D modelling software, merged with a spherical video that will be recorded with a spherical video camera. The video panorama from the reconstructed site will form the background for the interactive storytelling.
The process
I started by creating interactive panoramas inside Churles Church in Plymouth. Then Realviz VTOUR 1.1 was used for generating a draft 3D model of the church. Realviz was bought by Autodesk in 2008 and the latest software is called Autodesk ImageModeler 2009. This software enables the creation of 3D models of interiors. Five 3D models were exported to the MA format, which is Maya file. Then one 3D model of the church was merged in the 3D modelling software (Autodesk Maya 2008).
Navigable environment
The next step of the research project was to make the church navigable. W3D file was exported from Autodesk Maya. SPi-V3D viewer is the panoramic viewer based on Adobe Shockwave plug-in and was created by Aldo Hoeben.
Navigable 3D envorinment of Charles Church (plug-in: Adobe Shockwave)
Rendering
The first rendering wasn't very good. It only shows the draft 3D interior of the church. I knew it could be done better.
I then met Klaudiusz Wesolowski from Warsaw. He is a very creative and talented student from Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He specialises in 3D modelling. 3DstudioMax is his prefered modelling software. Please visit his website to view his portfolio. I asked him about continuing to work with 3D model of Charles Church that I had started to create in Maya. Klaudiusz decided to use 3DstudioMax in this project. Please have a look to his excellent renderings.
Klaudiusz reconstructed the church based on old photographs. This is one of the first rendered image from him.
Two photographic panoramas and two panoramas created in 3D modelling software (plug-in: Adobe Shockwave)
More renders with stained glass and new lightning created by Klaudiusz in 3DstudioMax.
Concept: Karol Kwiatek
3D modelling: Karol Kwiatek and Klaudiusz Wesolowski
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Copyright 2009 Karol Kwiatek |
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