Creating a new part of the pipeline is also the opportunity to introduce the people behind the new technologies. Today, we hand the mic to Romain Rouffet, our newest Creative Technologist and photogrammetry expert. Romain has kindly agreed to get out from behind his DSLR for a few minutes, close Substance Designer and show us the process.

Hi Romain! Can you tell us more about yourself and your background?

Hello I joined the Allegorithmic team in Paris in June of this year. I’m curious about many things: I studied Electronics because I initially wanted to work in the field of robotisation/automation. Then, I discovered 3D creation with professional CAD software and photogrammetry with retro-engineering.

Diploma in my pocket, I started working with a small team to design and make a camera rig with a dedicated production pipeline for body and head scanning. I freelanced a lot in that area before finally ending up in a company that digitizes archeological sites all over the world. Thanks to this experience, I discovered the domain of UAV and large-scale mapping (we’re talking whole islands, for example). Now I’m part of Allegorithmic Labs, where we’re taking on (among other topics) the future of scanning and thinking about how Allegorithmic will be a part of it.

How did you discover and start to work in photogrammetry?

I started photogrammetry as a hobby when the 123D Catch software appeared on the market. I used it in engineering school to retro-engineer a carseat, and since then I continued to practice every day. What started as a hobby grew into a real passion for computational photography.

Can you tell us more about the shooting? Where did you go? What did you wear? Did you get sunburn?

I’ve been to Ile de Ré, a small island near La Rochelle on the west coast of France. Unfortunately no sunburns because in order to get a diffuse lighting on your outdoor subject, you will need to wait for a cloudy day. Note that not all the lighting are removed and this is why our team at Allegorithmic developed a de-lighting filter to remove the ambient light (keep reading :)).

What was the setup for the shooting? Which camera and hardware did you need/use?

To shoot I used a 36Mpx DSLR, a 5m pole (expandable), a remote trigger, many lenses and a color checker. Nothing more, nothing less. For the lens it’s mostly between 20-50mm.