Farm House is one of the oldest themed living options at Carleton, promoting a sustainability oriented community living. The old farm house was replaced last year with this new house that boasts of being green and more modern. It is located very close to the old farm house and the actual fields, on the east side of campus.
I first used Metashape for my model and although it had a lot of gaps and the texture was very grimy, I didn’t think it was too bad for a first try since the interface was a bit hard to understand. A lot of it was probably because the lighting when I took the pictures was not great and some of them were very dark ad some of them were very light. My biggest problem turned out to be embedding though, I just could not turn it into a file that could be embedded because the files were so large that they couldn’t even be compressed to fit 100MB.
Then I tried Polycam, and I was extremely surprised by how well the AI Rendering option turned out. I didn’t even have to use all of my pictures and the model was finished perfectly. It disregarded some of the windows but I was happy with the texture overall. Once again, I found the export options very confusing, but at the end, I managed to get it into Sketchfab.
Modeling a building feels very different from just looking at it through photographs or maps. When you model something, you have to think about how parts actually connect in space, proportions, depth, textures, and structural relationships, instead of seeing only a flat image or an overhead layout. It turns the building from something you observe into something you actively reconstruct, which makes you more aware of how it is put together and how people might move through it. Photogrammetry definitely encourages closer looking. Because the model depends on many overlapping images, you start paying attention to small details you might normally ignore, like surface textures, irregularities, shadows, or slight changes in material. The process slows down observation and makes you notice things not just as visual features but as information necessary to rebuild the object accurately.
After recently visiting Farm, I’d say this is a very accurate model. I also agree with you that the interface was a bit confusing at first, and if we didn’t do it in class, I would be spending all day on it. You really do have to consider how parts connect and interact with each other because the software isn’t perfect. Having a good sense of how your building is shaped is essential.
I’m really impressed with the texture you achieved in your metashape model. Your Polycam scan is also very clear. How close did you take photos from the building to achieve such a complete scan? I’d love to redo my scan with whatever techniques you used! I also found the export options very confusing. Nice job
I used Polycam as well, and I am so impressed with how your model turned out! It seems like you got a lot of good pictures that made it easier to put together into a detailed building model. I would love to hear more about your methods of photographing the house. You make great observations about the photogrammetry process and the importance of small details.
I am very impressed with the completeness of your embedded Farm House model. It is one of the few that seems to have very few flaws. I would like to see how you were able to get such a clean view of the roof. Were you able to access a higher angle? I do think that the openness around Farm House may have contributed to the very clean scan, as there aren’t as many trees or other houses preventing you from getting good angles. Nonetheless, this model looks great.