0%

In this tutorial we will explain how to open and use our Face Scan products. We aim to offer you a lot of control, which makes products in this category a bit more complex as they come with a set of photographs and a Reality Capture project file that you can use to project high quality textures. Further down we will explain how to unpack downloaded products, basic knowledge about standard scan processing workflow, how to open photogrammetry project files, import your own models for texturing and then export your own textures.

7z Product Files and What’s Inside

All our products come archived in*.7z format for which you need to install free to use 7-Zip software that can be downloaded here 7-zip-download. Please download the first entry from the top “64-bit Windows x64”. Then install downloaded file and now you should be able to unpack our products. You will only need to do this once. Alternatively, if you already have WinRAR installed you should be able to unpack *.7z files without downloading anything else.

Now that you've installed the software, please locate your downloaded product file(s) from our website. Select one or all of them, right-click with your mouse, and from the menu choose "7-Zip" and then "Extract Here."

After that is done, you should see same name folders created next your 7z product files.

Short guide into what’s included in each Face Scan product folder:

OBJ – This folder contains a raw 9 million triangles scan in the *.obj format, a raw 8192x8192px texture in *.png format, and a technical *.rcInfo file that has details on how the model was exported and helps with importing modified models back into Reality Capture.

Photos – In this folder, you'll find photogrammetry photos in *.jpg format. These were carefully converted from the original *.cr2 photos using a Linear Color Pipeline and available to you in full quality. Among these photos, you'll notice black placeholder images. The photo sets provided with the Face Scan product are intended solely for texture projection. To save space on our server and optimize file sizes, we've removed extra angles that were necessary for mesh reconstruction. We've kept only the photos needed to create high-quality textures. Please note that Reality Capture software will ignore these black photos during the texturing process.

RC – This folder contains the original Reality Capture project files that will allow you to texture your cleaned and retopologies models.

Standard Face Scan Processing Pipeline

To understand why these files are included with products and how to use them, let's briefly explain the standard scan processing pipeline.

Raw scan stage. Picture above displays what a RAW scan looks like when you open it. Many factors affect the quality of it, for example, factors that negatively affect the scan include younger skin with not many visible features, skin peach fuzz, brows, eyelashes, and places where hair cannot be covered with a hair cap. Usually older people look much cleaner on a RAW scan as the skin has more visible features, wrinkles, and not as much hair.

 

Scan Cleaning Stage. This is where we see many different creative approaches, but the most commonly used method is manual artist work, carefully removing and smoothing all imperfections. The goal is to have a smooth skin surface without any hairs or other artifacts that were on the RAW scan. This is also the crucial stage where it's very easy to overdo it, which can result in a loss of realism. This stage is the most important and requires skill and patience to execute correctly. Hopefully, in the near future, we will see AI tools developed to assist with this task, as no matter how skilled the artist is, it is still an artistic interpretation rather than a 1:1 real copy.

Retopology Stage. RAW scans contain millions of polygons. These models are too complex for real-time rendering in video games or applications. They typically have limited applicability in practical scenarios. Retopology helps in creating a lower-polygon version of these models, which are easier to render in real-time. This process has become largely automated, with numerous tools available that allow to speed up the process and get consistent results. But the purpose is the same to create a new mesh with a cleaner and more efficient structure while preserving the original shape, details, and features as closely as possible. This process is crucial for several reasons:
Animation and Rigging: For a model to be animated smoothly, its topology must have a flow that allows for natural deformation. Retopology is used to create a mesh that deforms correctly when animated, especially around wrinkles and areas of high movement.
UV Mapping: A cleaner topology makes it easier to unwrap UVs (the process of projecting a 3D model's surface onto a two-dimensional plane for texturing). A well-organized topology leads to better and more efficient texture mapping with fewer seams and distortions.
Level of Detail (LOD) Creation: In many applications, especially games, models are created at multiple levels of detail, where lower-polygon versions of the model are used when the viewer is farther away, improving performance. Retopology is a key step in creating these LOD models.
Workflow Integration: Retopologized models are easier to work with in various stages of the 3D production pipeline, including sculpting, texturing, and shading. They allow for easier modifications and edits, which can be crucial in iterative design processes.

Sculpting Stage. This is the final stage in our 3D model creation process where after our new topology is done and cleaned scan details projected onto it, we can project colour information from photographs and create highly detailed texture. From this texture, various maps essential for an accurate shader setup can be generated. Also, this is when we place eyes, add eyelashes, brows, insert gums teeth and tongue.

Reality Capture

After cleaning and retoplogy is done, it’s time to create a texture for it. For this you need to install Reality Capture software that can be downloaded here RealityCapture This software is not free, but their PPI (Pay Per Input) license option allows you to cheaply process textures from our input files.

Please browse to you extracted Face Scan folder and open *.rcproj file located in the RC folder. On open, it will display this message saying that photographs are missing, this is because Reality Capture stores absolute path’s into *.rcproj file and if moved they will have to be retargeted. Please press “Yes” to continue.

In opened Explorer window please browse to where downloaded and extracted product files are located, then browse inside Photos folder and select first photo from the list. Your explorer window at this point should look like this:

Please press “Open” button and it should now automatically retarget all photos in the scene and open the project without any other errors. When the product project is opened, it should look like this:

If it is the first time you are using this application, it might be good for you to learn the basics of it to better understand how it works. Please use this link this see tutorials RealityCapture-Tutorials But, if you have no interest in doing that, its ok, please read further as we will explain as simply as possible what to do next to create and export your texture.

Importing Model and Texturing

Now we need to import cleaned and reopologized model into our project. To do this, find the “MESH MODEL” menu option I the top left section of the window marked 1 on the image below. Then press the button saying “Import Model”, marked 2.

It will then open Explorer window where you need to browse to where you cleaned model in *.obj format is located. Import dialog should appear and look like below. Make sure Coordinate system is set to “Grid”. It should, by default, look exactly as on the image below so its best not to change any settings here. Now please press press “OK”. 

When done, you should see your model imported in the scene and visible inside the point cloud that you saw before the import. If for some reason your model is offset from the point cloud it means that either you moved the model during cleaning stage, or it was rescaled on export. You can see how on the right image below point cloud is out of sync with the imported model. If this happens it will cause textures to be projected incorrectly. 

Always inspect imported model in the viewport from multiple angles to make sure no mistakes were made on the previous stage. If this did happen, you will need to realign your model to the original raw scan. This is why its important that you keep it as is so you can always go back and check if required.

If everything is correct, please make sure you are still in the “MESH MODEL” menu section. Then press Settings button marked 1 on a picture below. On the left it will open a dialog where you will be able to set custom texturing parameters. Drop down menu marked 2 is where you set the resolution of the texture. Select “Visibility Based” in setting marked 3 and “Visibility based” in setting 4 (you can try experimenting with Experimental “Mosaicing Based” option).  When all is set please press F9 on the keyboard or “Texture” button in the menu, its marked 5 on the image below.

When the texture is done, it will be applied to the model and displayed in the viewport. Please note the section marked 6, this is where you will see information about all the items in the scene, from photographs to models and textures. Press “+” icon next to where it says Model1 and do the same for “Model Textures” Color Layer2 is your newly built texture, make sure its resolution is what you’ve selected previously, if it isn’t please save and restart Reality Capture software, and try building the texture again. If you press “Texture” button again, it will create ColorLayer3 and so on. Please note that model imported in this example had premade UV’s, if your model doesn’t have UV’s Reality Capture will automatically build it for you, but this is not recommended and we advise that you prepare proper UV’s before importing models into Reality Capture.

Exporting textures

Now we just need to export the texture, to do this please press “Dense Mesh Model” Button in top menu “Export” section. Its marked 7 on the previous image. This will open export settings Explorer windows from which you can select where you want to save created texture and below from the “Save as Type:” drop down menu you can also select type of data that you wish to export. In our case we only need to export texture so please select “Just Textures” option, then type in the name of the texture and press “Save”.

This opens the final dialog, allowing you to choose what to export. Main fields to check here is the Texture File Format and which layers you would like to export. Other than that, for texture exporting nothing else matters.

Reality Capture PPI License

At this point when you press OK it will display this message asking you to sign in.

When signed in, it will prompt you to acquire a license. As of the day this article was written, it costs around $0.57 (229 credits) for one of our photo sets. You only pay it once and can process it as many times as you require until you reach desired results. Please learn more about it here RealityCapture-PPI 

Note that you will be charged this fee for every face scan you purchase, as you pay for for input images and each new scan has a set of new images. At this point it is the easiest and most reliable way of giving you the control over how you use our data. It allows you to set your preferred texturing settings, import own new topology or fine tune your outputs by disabling photographs from texture process and project only a few. You always the access to the raw texture that is supplied with the scan, but its important to remember that it was projected on a raw uncleaned scan.