Water bodies are difficult to model accurately because it is hard to identify and match features due to the uniformity and non-static nature of water. In order to enable PhotoMesh to model and texture a water body successfully, you can define the required water body by drawing or importing a corresponding polygon. PhotoMesh uses this polygon to generate a flat surface over the user-defined water body, and automatically reconstruct any above-water elements – boats, piers, small islands without requiring special user markings. The water body is defined by drawing or importing a polygon and then setting the water body’s altitude. Water bodies can be either of the following:
- Leveled – A constant water level (i.e., altitude) is set for all points in the water body polygon, to create level water bodies such as seas, lakes, ponds, and pools. This is especially useful for creating a level water body on top of a non-flat terrain or mesh, or for creating a flat water body based on an imported polygon with variable altitude values.
- Non-Leveled (Sloped) – PhotoMesh segments the water body polygon into multiple flat reconstruction tiles, each of which has a different elevation value based on the average elevation within the specific tile. This option should be selected to create an elevation gradient for water bodies such as rivers, with non-uniform water levels.
Imported polygon layers are each saved separately in the Project Tree, while new polygons that you manually create are saved into the “Water - Manually Created” group under the Retouch Layers group in the Project Tree. If you open a legacy project with water polygons, the water polygons are converted to the new feature layer format during the load. The project must then be saved to save the changes.
More about: Working with water body polygons >
See Water Bodies - Advanced Workflow for tips and pointers on creating maximally accurate water body polygons.