The New Scrumture

Last week’s class was all about the introduction of scrum and weighing its pros and cons. This week’s focus is all about using scrum and learning a new type of workflow, new tools and how our team functions within this “new” structure or as I’d like to call it… scrumture. 

Our sprint this week launched us into the unknown. Similar to when the Saturn V rocket used to carry American astronauts to the moon and back. I somehow felt like I am on a journey towards something unfamiliar yet I am too eager and curious to discover what it is.

Client Introduction

On Wednesday, we officially met our client, Isabel Stauffer, Director of Collection Strategies and Special Projects at the Crow Museum of Asian Art. She introduced us to a selection of artifacts available for documentation which immediately helped ground the project.

Seeing photographs of the artifacts activated my imaginations and all the creative possibilities we can achieve with this project. However, this also brought up some constraints that we must acknowledge. These artifacts hold historical value so the scans must be completely accurate. While there is a lot of creative freedom in the final animation, we must remain true to the form and texture of the chosen artifact.

This is why…

Practice makes… better

Thursday, we practiced photogrammetry and photographed our selected objects. This addressed a core backlog task which is to collect "usable" images for reconstruction. To what seemed to be a simple task, I quickly learned that angles, lighting, and spacing matters. After trial and error we managed to find a spot in the courtyard with bright but soft lighting. 

The results?

Friday, after watching the photogrammetry tutorial, I attempted my first reconstruction in RealityScan. Consider this as an early test in the sprint. The results were mixed. Some areas looked really good and solid while other parts of my objects are missing geometry. The texture made it “better” in a sense that I can identify what I am looking at. Overall I would call this a learning lesson. It made it clear that we need to take more pictures so that way the program can identify more points to reconstruct.

Planning the pitch

Monday, the team created a PowerPoint presentation outlining our plan on how we should effectively present our pitch to the client. As grad students, myself, personally, has had many experiences presenting a pitch as well as public speaking. But in the spirit of scrum, I think this helped the team communicate and be on the same focus of interests. 

Moment of truth

Tuesday, our team met in the Open Labs and worked together on completing the reconstructions. This was a very productive sprint as we all sat down in front of a computer while we shared knowledge and helped each other fix discrepancies in our scans. Comparing results made it clear that consistent and controlled lighting with tighter photo spacing yielded much better results. 

The takeaways

Photogrammetry is heavily front-loaded. Improper and lack of shots during the capture stage cannot yield a proper mesh during reconstruction. Moving forward I plan on applying what I have learned. Slow down during photography, double-triple-check lighting, capture additional tighter passes. I will continue to share progress work and all the knowledge I have learned so far, so the team can benefit from it.