Miguel Bandera is a software engineer and programmer with about 20 years of experience. For the last few years, he has been developing VR and AR applications which was his start of experimenting with photogrammetric visualization of places, items, and virtual environments.

“I think I’ve scanned about 80% of the urban area around my home just for fun.”

His specialty is to capture cultural heritage, motorcycles and large environments. He says he creates 3D models of things he likes as he knows he is going to spend a lot of time processing the model.

He likes to change from small objects to very large ones and play with different inputs, like videogrammetry or crowdsourced photogrammetry.

“I like to interchange datasets with other people from different places and try to create a model from that datasets.”

Also, a great source for creation are datasets from Open Heritage. This way he has learned how to use laser scans and photogrammetry together while working with amazing places.

These models are available for free in his Sketchfab account.

“I love cultural heritage, so it is fun for me to scan places and spend few hours capturing and making 3D models of those places and items.” 3D models of cultural heritage are a great tool for spreading awareness amongst people or make remote places more accessible. Things you cannot do just with photography.

As his tool kit, he is using a Nikon D3300 camera mostly with pack of lenses and also a Sony full-frame camera. In the last 3 years, he was intensely using RealityCapture so he came up with a good workflow for creating models.

“When I am taking pictures, I am already thinking about how it will align and what photo is needed for texture, model itself or which pictures connects the areas in between.”

He takes a lot of pictures as the processing time is not important for him and RealityCapture software can handle any amount. He processes the models on his MSI Laptop with 1070 GPU and it takes from 2 to 24 hours to get a model depending on the size and detail, but on average the models he makes take about 4 hours to complete.

“I redo a lot of models as I learn something new. I take another dataset and try to create a better model. There are some statues or bikes around my home that have been scanned 20 times.”

He has switched to RealityCapture because of the big number of photos he can process and the wide spectrum of models he can create. In VR photogrammetry, it is a great tool as you can create a realistic environment in a small amount of time and bring the feeling of a real places into virtual experience. For 3D artists it’s a great starting point to create assets.

Discover more of Miguel’s work on his Sketchfab or through his website.