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This article is from September 25, 2009, and is no longer current.

Make 3D Models with Digital Cameras

Strata, the company adding the power of 3D to the designer’s toolset, today released Strata Foto 3D CX 2. This new version of Foto 3D makes it even easier to create 3D models from photographs, allowing the use of image sets taken from video as well as still images. Foto 3D’s patented technology has revolutionized model creation of real-world objects and version 2 takes this technology to another level.
Strata Foto 3D CX allows the use of a standard digital camera to capture real-world objects as fully textured 3D models. Foto 3D is ideal for difficult to model objects like organic shapes, soft forms and hand made items.
A plug-in for Adobe’s Photoshop is included which integrates Foto 3D’s model creation with Photoshop’s image and 3D model manipulation capabilities.
New in Strata Foto 3D CX 2 is the ability to use images taken from a variety of sources, including aerial photographs, frames taken from video, and pictures of objects too large to fit within a standard studio setting. Key features can now be marked with “pins” in the software while smaller objects can still be placed on a printed template for enhanced automation.
Foto 3D models are ideal for developing packaging, games, illustrations, online catalogs and more. One of the major challenges facing virtual world projects is creating 3D models of existing objects. Users of systems such as Second Life can now capture the objects they need from the real world and bring them into the virtual world. This makes it possible to quickly expand on projects of many types without the skill and time required using traditional 3D modeling tools.
Strata Foto 3D exports standard file formats and connects to Strata Design 3D CX as well as other 3D packages. The model can also be imported into Strata Live 3D for interactive 3D display within a website, flash file, or an Adobe Acrobat PDF document (without any plug-ins).

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