First and foremost, the most significant thing I learned from creating my own 3D model is that it is a process of trial and error. Going into the process, I had a set game plan; choosing an object, taking images and creating a dataset, running it through the steps in Agisoft Metashape and delivering a 3D model of my journal. In reality, the process was not this linear. I had to learn from the results I got and often take one or two steps back to correct errors when I had learned from my mistakes.
In practice, I realized after I ran my first dataset of pictures, that the images where not good enough which made it impossible to align them properly. I attempted to fix this within the functions on Metashape but I was not able to. The problem seemed to be that my object was too flat and the overlap between certain pictures was too small. Therefore, I went back to shooting and tried to add the pen I always write in my journal with, to make the journal less flat. Yet, this unfortunately did not work. Then, I created a stand for my journal so it could be photographed at an angle. This solved my problem of alignment and I was able to run through all the steps in Metashape! To really optimize my 3D model I additionally refined and smoothened the mesh, in order to get rid of certain bumps and irregularities.
All in all, I went back to the shooting process around four times, and tried various different tools and settings within Metashape to ultimately arrive at a 3D model of my journal. By going through this process of trial and error over the course of a week, I really learned much about how the software works and what the important aspects to look out for are. As it was a long process, this is what made it definitely a valuable in the end. Ultimately, I feel like I have gained a much better understanding about the 3D modeling process. This better understanding of the 3D modeling software and process, I can now implement when I learn about the way 3D models can be valuable for the arts and humanities sector.
Here you can find the link to my 3D Model of my lockdown journal on Sketchfab!