Intro to 3D Scanning, Photogrammetry & Gaussian Splats | NYU Tandon @ The Yard
Cultural Experiences
Digitally capture the world around you—from tiny props to entire rooms—and bring those scans to life in
Unreal Engine
or the browser-based
StorySplat
viewer. In this one-day intensive, award-winning immersive-media director
Winslow Porter
guides you through LiDAR, photogrammetry, and the latest breakthrough:
Gaussian Splatting
. We’ll trace the tech’s evolution, sample free capture tools, and build a showcase scene you can share on social media or add to your portfolio by day’s end.
In this class, we will cover all of the different methods of digitally capturing characters, objects, and environments. We will dive into the origins and evolutions of the technology and experiment with its most recent cutting edge developments with photogrammetry and Gaussian Splatting. We will also showcase all of these captures inside the Unreal game engine and in the web-based tool Storysplat.
At the end, each participant will have built a showcase scene you can share on social media or add to your portfolio by day’s end.
For more workshops like this, visit
Tandon at The Yard's 2025 Summer Workshops
page.
Who Is This For
XR artists, game developers, filmmakers
seeking authentic digital assets
Photographers & conservationists
interested in volumetric documentation
Creative coders & technologists
exploring new spatial-computing pipelines
A basic grasp of Unreal Engine navigation and camera capture is helpful but not required.
Materials
Laptop/desktop
capable of running
Unreal Engine 5.x
(Optional but encouraged)
DSLR / mirrorless camera
or smartphone with LiDAR/photogrammetry app
Free software
: RealityCapture demo, Polycam or similar, PostShot/Luma AI accounts
External
SSD / SD card reader
for large image sets
Headphones for focused work sessions
Workshop Schedule
10:00 – 10:15
Welcome & Intros
Grab coffee, settle in, share capture goals
10:15 – 10:45
History of 3D Scanning
From early measuring tools to LiDAR, photogrammetry & Gaussian splats; start downloading free software
10:45 – 11:15
Instructor Case Studies
Winslow’s projects
CLOUDS
,
Giant
,
Forager
,
Anicam
—lessons learned
11:15 – 12:15
LiDAR Capture Demo
Scan the room; pipeline to RealityCapture; texturing tips
12:15 – 12:45
Break - Ensure software installs are complete
12:45 – 1:45
Photogrammetry Lab
Shoot & process your own object scans with RealityCapture + Polycam (mobile)
1:45 – 2:45
Gaussian Splatting Intro
Tools: PostShot, Polycam, Luma; start renders for break
2:45 – 3:00
Break
3:00 – 4:30
Project Sprint
Build a mini-environment in Unreal or StorySplat; place at least one scan; craft a narrative
4:30 – 5:00
Showcase & Closing
Demo scenes, gather feedback, share next-step resources
Outcomes
By the end of the day you will:
Differentiate
LiDAR, photogrammetry, and Gaussian-splat captures—and know when to use each.
Execute
a complete capture-to-render workflow with free or low-cost tools.
Import & stage
scanned assets inside Unreal Engine or StorySplat.
Produce
share-worthy documentation (screenshots, turntables, or Web links) for your portfolio.
Access
a curated list of software, hardware, and reference tutorials for deeper exploration.
Presenter
Winslow Porter
— Winslow Porter is an award-winning director, producer and creative technologist specializing in virtual/augmented reality as well as large-scale immersive installations. His work focuses on embodying the unique timescales of non-human organisms, through various emerging technologies. His impact-based virtual reality projects Tree, Forager and Giant are known for pushing the boundaries of immersion through custom multisensory elements like scent, wind, heat, haptics and installation design. These experiences have been shown across the globe at events like Sundance, Tribeca Immersive, TED, The World Economic Forum in Davos/Tianjin/Cape Town, UN General Assembly, World Government Summit, Venice Film Biennale, SXSW, Unrealfest and many others.
Along with being a two-time Cultural Leader at the World Economic Forum, and an an eight-time mentor at NEW INC, he is also a professor at NYU and Columbia University.
His newest conservation endeavors include volumetric animal portraiture with FujiFilm, and an interactive (Gaussian Splat) documentary about traditional Japanese land stewardship, also known as Satoyama.
LinkedIn:
winslowporter
Information Source: Integrated Design & Media Program at NYU Tandon | eventbrite