Objective

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW), under the CHERISH project, sought post-production on hi-res drone photogrammetry imaging taken of significant coastlines in Wales. The CHERISH project aimed to bring awareness to the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage sites along coastlines and within the sea. Through Sketchfab models available to visitors online, these historically significant sites could be shared as interactive digital models.

Approach

The high-resolution imagery was transferred to us by RCAHMW, at which point we began processing through Agisoft Metashape to begin building point clouds, meshes, and finally 3D models. Because hi-res imagery was used, highly dense point clouds resulted. Therefore, part of our process was also reducing the final models to a size that could be easily uploaded onto the Sketchfab website (50-200MB per model).

Finally, they were looking for the final models to have a polished and clean look with flat, closed edges. This required further 3D modeling post-production work using programmes such as Autodesk 3ds Max and Blender, as well as texturing work within Blender and Adobe Substance Painter.

Outcome

The final product was 4 highly polished 3D models of 4 Welsh Landscapes ready for uploading onto the RCAHMW sketchfab site. All required PBR textures (Physically-Based Rendering which simulates the way light would interact with textures and materials) were tethered to the final model files for easy upload.

Innovation

Photogrammetric models of large areas of landscape are a great way to help audiences interact with and understand these culturally historic areas which might otherwise only be viewable from the air. By making them available through their Sketchfab page, RCAHMW brought accessibility and awareness to these significant spaces.