If you’re a 3D or VFX artist, 3D printing hobbyist or game dev looking to bring photoreal real-world objects into your projects, the KIRI Engine 3D scanning app may be just what you need.
The photogrammetry app reconstructs objects in 3D from the photos you take, with the processing happening fast on KIRI’s servers. The app is available on iOS, Android and web browsers.
Here, KIRI CEO and co-founder Jack Wang describes how KIRI works, and provides insight into the free and paid versions of the app, plus future plans to implement a scan-to-earn program with KIRI.
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If you had to explain what KIRI was to someone who didn’t know much about 3D scanning or photogrammetry, what would you say?
Jack Wang (CEO/co-founder, KIRI): “3D scanning is a technology that can ‘copy’ objects from the physical world to digital 3D worlds. For example, when you play a video game with ‘really good graphics’, chances are that the game devs used 3D scanned assets in the game so they’d look just as good as in real life. And that’s what you can do with KIRI Engine. You can scan a road, a figurine, furniture, a plate of food, decorations…just about anything you need (with some exceptions, but that’s a whole different subject) as a digital 3D object.”
What are some of the future plans with KIRI, especially for artists?
Jack Wang: “We have an exciting roadmap up ahead. While I can’t disclose everything in too much detail, I think one of the most exciting projects that we are currently working on is the Creator Program. It’s basically a scan-to-earn program, where users can earn some extra money by selling us their 3D scans.
This system is different from other 3D model sharing platforms which are often royalty-based, i.e., users get a percentage of the sales when someone finds and pays for the 3D model. With the Creator Program, creators can submit their scan and if it meets the minimum standards, they’ll receive payment for it right away.
And this leads to our next major project ahead: we’re aiming to build the world’s largest, themed 3D scan library. There’s a limited number of photorealistic 3D assets on the internet, so it can be hard to find just the right object or just the right texture. By leveraging the Creator Program, we hope to offer a more complete and diversified library of photorealistic 3D assets to all users.”
Analysis
This article was interesting to me because it introduced me to a technology I have had little prior knowledge of. To create a 3D model file completely from submitted images is extremely interesting. I wonder if this technology can be applied to 3D printing concrete and I wonder at what level of detail it can capture. I also wonder if the models it creates are internally structurally sound and could be imported into a splicing program or if the program model only serves as an exterior canvas. I can also see the use of a program like this as a good business venture. The creative uses of a technology like this are nearly endless.
Take-Aways
Other technology can be utilized in the model development phase to create realistic representations of existing forms.
