2D Mapping for a 3D Project
One of our cornerstone products at VRtuous is our incredible web-based 3D model viewer. This is an excellent tool for many industries from mining to watch manufacturing and many, many things in between. When we work with companies that have difficult to get to places, 3D is the way to go. Take mining and exploration projects, for example. You have a project a stone’s throw from Bumfuck, Nowhere. It’s a killer project with great prospects and your investors really want to know about it. You have rock sample data and maybe some drill data. Now you want to show that data in context. One of the key things you need to show the people of course is the project itself—where it is you are putting your muddy boots when you go there.
On most projects the landscape can change quickly.
In some cases you can rely on publicly available satellite imagery for this, but all too often the quality of that is terrible, obscured by clouds, snow or just plain lousy imagery. That’s where our inexpensive 2D ortho-style mapping comes in. Traditional orthophotography is prohibitively expensive. With VRtuous’ professional drones we can capture incredible quality “ortho” photography. Stitched together and draped over the 3D topography we create for our client, this is a fantastic way to step up your game. In addition, this quality, high-resolution image can be used for other marketing and communications work. Is it centimetre accurate? Hell no. Will it do for most purposes shy of a feasibility study? You bet it will.
Case in point: Banyan Gold has a terrific gold exploration play in the Yukon territory, just a stone’s throw from the little town of Mayo—rich in mining and First Nations history. Banyan Gold hired us to build a 3D model of their Aurex McQuesten Project and its new exploration results. The trouble however is that the company had neither orthophotography nor quality satellite imagery, nor budget to aquire them. That’s where we offered our services. We were able to inexpensively shoot the main exploration target area and add that to the 3D model we created for them.
What’s even better is that now that we have this useful asset, we can use it for lots of other work we do for the company. For example, when they asked us to build a video for them, we were able to inexpensively modify the 3D model use that as part of the video to help explain the project’s targets and their proximity to infrastructure. Here’s one video where we’ve used the 2D map we created… along with the 3D model (around the 0:43 second mark):
When it comes to the options for creating these high quality 2D mapping images, there are quite a few options but the basics of production are pretty straightforward. You’ll require a professional drone (licenced, insured and registered), and software for stitching the images together. The final product is entirely up to you but if you need quality, web-based 3D models, you can always contact VRtuous 3D via our contact page here.