Archive republication: This article was originally published on 24 February 2021. It has been translated into English and lightly updated for clarity while preserving the original reporting and context.
This article originally appeared in DP 02 : 2015.
What 3D artist doesn’t dream of placing a material sample in a magic cube that spits out half a dozen high-quality textures at the touch of a button that can be used in any standard 3D programme? The scanning system from Vizoo comes pretty close to realising this dream. We visited the inventors in Erlangen and tested the innovative product with the associated software called xTex.
Reinhard Meier and Martin Semsch met a few years ago at Adidas and were already a well-rehearsed team in the field of visualisation.
In October 2013, the two experts founded Vizoo GmbH in Erlangen with the aim of simplifying and improving the texturing workflow. What began as a night-time job with a soldering iron, saw and laptop on the kitchen table has since been continued in a professional environment. For the two pioneers, it was particularly important to make the scanning process as simple as possible. The xTex software therefore had to be designed in such a way that every user could intuitively achieve very good results in a short space of time. The development of the hardware and software through to CE labelling took a good year. Reinhard Meier designed the physical components and Martin Semsch developed the software and the connection to the 3D applications and Photoshop.
Solid hardware
True to the motto “form follows function”, the xTex scanner is simple and functional in its appearance. A drawer provides space for a material sample, which can be approximately A4 in size. Textiles can also be held in place with magnets to prevent creasing. An SLR camera with zoom lens, which is part of the hardware bundle, is attached to the top of the box. The sample is backlit from below in order to also record the transparency of the material as a separate map.
The xTex scanner is currently available in two versions, which differ primarily in the cameras used. There is a model with the Nikon D800, which offers a whopping 36 megapixels and USB 3.0. The second version includes a Nikon D5200, which also has a reasonable resolution with its 24 megapixels. Even the finest structures can be captured thanks to the zoom lenses included. The camera has to be refocussed for thicker material samples. This only takes a few seconds. The lens is temporarily set to autofocus and focussed on the new material sample with the light switched on. Then switch back to manual and you can start scanning.
The materials for the test
In search of suitable materials for the scan test, we contacted the Munich design agency designaffairs. In the material library, visitors will find material, surface, colour and technology samples, which are regularly updated with the latest and most unusual materials and production technologies. Two forward-looking areas are dedicated to the topics of sustainability and smart materials.
The studio in Munich was kind enough to provide us with a collection of material samples. We also received interesting leather samples from Gö Ledermanufaktur. With a box full of materials, the scanning can begin.
User-friendly software
The software is easy to use. All functions are clearly arranged vertically according to the work steps. You start at the top with the preview and then carry out the capturing. Here you have the option of limiting the capturing to one area so that the calculation of the maps runs faster. After one or two minutes, the textures are ready for further processing. Tileable maps are then created from the textures in the Tiling Editor. The first step here is to manually define a selection frame to compensate for distortions. The texture tiling slider then offers the option of automatically eliminating the seams of the tiling.
With the “Contrast Balancing” option, single-colour textures can be tiled even better. If the normal map still has creases, they can be adjusted with the smoothing slider. The xTex software also offers an intelligent interface for manually fine-tuning textures in Photoshop. With the “edit all” button, Photoshop opens all maps as channels in a file. This applies changes made with the clone brush to all maps. The Photoshop file is then saved and can be edited further with xTex if required. Most of the surfaces tested can be captured very well with the scanner, but there are also hard cases. The scanner reaches its limits with highly reflective materials and angle-dependent colour effects. However, the quality of textiles, leather structures and rough plastics is convincing. The data consists of colour, normal, specular, bump and displacement maps and is saved as JPEGs or 16-bit TIFs.
Connections to other 3D applications
xTex does not use an integrated 3D viewer to visualise a preview of the materials on geometric objects. However, common 3D applications such as Blender, Maya, VRED Design, VRED Pro and 3ds Max are supported with V-Ray materials. The developers are currently also working on a connection to Modo. The textures are visible in the 3D application at the touch of a button via a web interface. VRED Design proves to be a particularly successful application for viewing and refining the materials in real time.
Sales and service
The xTex software is currently only available in conjunction with the scanner. The delivery time for the xTex scanner is a good 4 weeks, but the scanning of materials is also offered as a service from 19 euros per material. The system can also be rented for a minimum period of 3 months. So far, Vizoo customers have come from the automotive design, luxury goods, fashion and sportswear sectors, but the games industry has also taken notice.
Conclusion
Fast, simple and high-resolution – three words to describe working with the material scanner. With the xTex system, the user receives a high-quality product with easy-to-use technology. The rental and scanning service options mean that the technology is not just reserved for larger studios. In particular, the option of automatic tiling is an ingenious feature of the software, which greatly reduces the time required for texture processing and sets the product apart from other scanning solutions.
