Dump: ✨ My first few NYC subway station maps! ✨ The main ingredient is the 3D scanning of the station using rtabmap with iPhone Pro's LiDAR. After puzzling together all these partial scans, I create a fresh 3D model in Blender using the scan as reference. Choose a nice perspective & render: tadah! - ThreadSky

sjmielke.bsky.social • 57 days ago

Dump: ✨ My first few NYC subway station maps! ✨

The main ingredient is the 3D scanning of the station using rtabmap with iPhone Pro's LiDAR. After puzzling together all these partial scans, I create a fresh 3D model in Blender using the scan as reference. Choose a nice perspective & render: tadah!

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sjmielke.bsky.social•57 days ago

In December 2023 I started this process with 📍 Nevins St, a small station to see if this was feasible, and as you can see I didn't go the 3D modeling route yet, instead drawing the map in 2D---but I wasn't too happy with that, so for the next station...

sjmielke.bsky.social•57 days ago

...📍 14 St-Union Square, I switched to the aforementioned 3D process. That was a big one and one I was very happy with at the time, demystifying that station greatly for me! But the next jump was just as big: ...

sjmielke.bsky.social•57 days ago

...📍 Fulton St, a station so big it felt impossible to not rip floors apart into the view you see here. This station not only was the first time with this floor-separated view, affording me the easy addition of the street grid, but also using a non-ortho camera for the render, the addition of...

sjmielke.bsky.social•57 days ago

...platform labels in the final composition, upgraded models for primarily the elevators, and perhaps most importantly... a quality control step of sorts, having me walk the station again, my map draft in hand to notice what was wrong and what could be improved---and there always is a lot!

sjmielke.bsky.social•57 days ago

This last bit allowed me to stress less about the fidelity of the original scan, speeding up the process greatly---a fact I put to the test for the next map: 📍 Borough Hall / Court St. A relatively small station after the horrors of Fulton St, but nevertheless an interesting one!

sjmielke.bsky.social•57 days ago

I was able to use all the improvements of my process and add two interesting things into the mix: the subtle one being the gradients on the exit stairs and elevators as well as the gradient hiding the R tracks under the big mezzanine for legibility (I love doing crazy nodes stuff in Blender),...

mikefleche.bsky.social•56 days ago

I get lost just about every time I set foot in Fulton St. Thank you so much for making and sharing these!

charlie-zane.bsky.social•56 days ago

This is so cool!!

intesaralam.bsky.social•55 days ago

I feel like it’s impossible to make Fulton Street understandable. Especially considering how crazy the paths needed to get to the S/B J/Z and the 2/3 platforms.

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