How to film a walkthrough for a 3D model
A 3D scan with your phone, no laser scanner involved: you walk through the space once and film while you do. This page is how to film so that it becomes a walkable 3D model in metres.
The rules, in orderSplatastic — how to film
Seven rules for rooms, 0.5× first — ordered by their effect, not by the order of your walk.
Seven rules for a walkthrough that can be reconstructed. 0.5× first.
1. 0.5× — ultra-wide
Best is 0.5×: 1.47 px loop error measured, while the same walkthrough stayed unsolved at 1×. 1× works too — another recording solved at 18.7 px — but it is riskier: less overlap, so walk slower; in bare rooms and narrow corridors the path can break. Do not use tele.
- Measured · The same walkthrough
- 0,5×
- 1.47 px
- 1×
- unsolved
- Another capture at 1× solved at 18.7 px — yellow.
- green ≤ 8 px · red ≥ 30 px
2. 4K60, HDR and action mode off
Resolution and frame rate high; everything that smooths, stabilises or lifts contrast afterwards, off.
3. Lock exposure and focus, lights on
Set the AE/AF lock before you start — and do not film into the sun or a window.
4. Walk slowly, never just pan
Keep the phone at the same height and walk a curve instead of turning on the spot. A short pause is fine, standing still for minutes is not: it only yields duplicates and pushes the revisits out of the memory of the pose solver.
5. Close the loop
Walk 3–5 m past your starting point so the loop closes unambiguously.
6. Pause briefly in doorways
Show every passage twice — from both sides — and on white, featureless walls keep an edge in the frame.
7. One pass per room, halls in sections
One dedicated pass per room; split large halls into 3–5-minute sections instead of one long take.
The long version, with the reasoning and the questions: splatastic.com/en/capture-guide
Frequently asked questions
Does this work on iPhone and on Android?
On both. What matters is not the brand but whether your phone has a 0.5× ultra-wide lens and records 4K at 60 frames per second. iPhones from the 11 onwards do, and so do most mid-range and flagship Android phones.
My phone has no 0.5× — what now?
Then film at 1×, but slower, with more overlap, and close the loop without fail. A wide field of view sees more of the room in every frame; at 1× you look through a narrower window, and on bare walls or in narrow corridors that is where the camera path breaks first. The run samples 1× material more densely by itself: 6 frames per second instead of 4, at full resolution. We do not accept tele.
How long may the video be?
Three to five minutes per section. A flat is done in one go; a hall you split into several sections and upload separately. Longer is not better — a very long video mostly adds more frames of the same places.
Do 360° cameras work?
Not yet. We do not accept raw 360° camera files (.insv, .360), and a full spherical video is not a usable source here either. What does work today: export a flat video with the "Linear" field of view from Insta360 Studio and upload that. Real 360° support is planned, not built — we would rather say so up front.
Do I need a scale marker or a tape measure?
No. The scale comes out of the depth estimate of the walk, and the delivery is metric: one unit is one metre. How accurate that is in a given case is something we are still measuring — until we have a number we can stand behind, we quote none.
White walls, glass and mirrors — do they work?
White, smooth walls are the hardest spot in any room, because there is nothing there to recognise again. Keep an edge, a door frame or the floor in the frame and the reconstruction has something to hold on to. Glass and mirrors stay unreliable: whatever is reflected in them travels with the camera.
How do I get access?
Splatastic is a closed service — access is granted on request. Tell us briefly what you want to capture and what you film with, and we will get back to you by email.
Got a space you want to show as a walkable model?
Request access