Create a 3D Environment by SCANNING Objects (Polycam)

Published on September 8, 2021

Unreal Engine Tutorials

3D Scanning

The process of 3D scanning is not new, but the technology today is very accessible. In the past you would need expensive equipment. In the video above, I demonstrate how you can scan real life objects using a simple app on your phone.

This app is called Polycam. You simply walk around an object as you scan it with your phone. Next, the app will process your scan and you have a fully textured 3D model. This model can be exported to various file formats, which can be used in your favorite 3D program such as Unreal Engine, Cinema4D, Blender,…

LiDAR vs Photo AI

Polycam offers 2 methods for scanning objects; LiDAR and Photo AI. With LiDAR, the app will make use of the LiDAR sensor in the latest iPhone. It’s great at detecting distances and depth, but it struggles with details.

By capturing photos and sending it over to their cloud processing server (Apple’s Object Capture API), it will generate a 3D model from your batch of photos. Surprisingly, this method works much better than LiDAR. In fact, it works so great that we could actually use these models in a 3D production.

Polycam

Big thanks to Polycam for sponsoring this video. Visit poly.cam to download the app for IOS and try it out yourself!