Should an already Virtual Model be modelled?

Abstract

Three-dimensional models are made by creating digital objects that contain spatial depth and detail. These models are used in a wide range of fields, including computer graphics, game development, architecture, product design, animation and many others. There are many types of modelling as a process. We can talk about manual modelling, script-based modelling or even modelling with three-dimensional modelling programs. However, as a result of digitization, in most cases we usually use the term model to refer to a three-dimensional virtual copy of a real object. This paper, however, deals with an extreme case where a virtual model is already given, which we try to recreate using a traditional photo-based technique with the Pix4D modelling software. The method used is to maximize the overlap between the images that make up the object to be modelled, so we needed to find a virtual model that could be accessed from all perspectives during the image creation process. For this purpose, we used the PokémonGO game database developed by Niantic, which makes virtual models of characters of different shapes available. Our results suggest that traditional methods of image collection are not the most useful for virtual models that are already virtual by default. For comparison, we have modelled a real object in our paper. The reports obtained by the modelling software show that although we used the same device to capture a series of
images of both the real monument and the virtual model, the images of the virtual model used the camera system of our device in a different way. The results clearly show that the general photography method is adequate for real object modelling, while it produces incomplete results for the virtual model. Based on the method studied, however, it cannot be generalized that re-modelling virtual models is impractical, and we therefore propose to investigate other types of methods in the future.