Workflow

Photogrammetry Workflow Guide: From Scan to Finished Asset

You've captured a photogrammetry scan. Here's how to turn it into a Blender asset, a game-ready model, or a print, depending on what you're building.

onehuang · Jul 15, 2026

Cover image for a photogrammetry workflow guide about turning a scan into a Blender asset, game-ready model, or 3D print.

This isn't an introduction to photogrammetry, and it isn't a comparison of capture methods. If you're not sure what photogrammetry is yet, start with What is Photogrammetry. If you already understand the concept but you're not sure whether to use photogrammetry, LiDAR, or 3D Gaussian Splatting, read 3D Gaussian Splatting vs Photogrammetry vs LiDAR first.

This guide assumes you've already made that call. You've got a scan back, and now you need to know what to do with it. In KIRI Engine, this workflow begins with Photo Scan, which produces an exportable textured mesh from overlapping photos.

Choose Your Workflow by Final Output

Your goal	What the scan needs next	Main priority	Follow this workflow
Edit or render in Blender	Cleanup, topology decision, UV checks, texture baking	Editable, manageable geometry	Photogrammetry to Blender
Use it in Unity or Unreal	LODs (or Nanite), collision, engine-specific PBR packing, optional rigging	Real-time performance and engine compatibility	Photo Scan for Game Assets
Produce a physical print	Correct scale, watertight geometry, printable wall thickness	Solidity and dimensional accuracy	Prepare a 3D Scan for Printing
Preserve a scene visually, not as an editable mesh	A traditional mesh workflow may not be the right fit	Visual fidelity and real-time viewing	Compare with 3D Gaussian Splatting

Before You Start

The capture step isn't covered here. If you haven't scanned anything yet, or your results have been coming out messy, start with Introduction to Photo Scan for capture basics, or Photo Scan Common Failure Reasons if something's already gone wrong.

What You Actually Get

A raw photogrammetry export is usually a dense triangle mesh with a baked color texture and UV coordinates generated for that texture. It typically does not include production-oriented quad topology, LODs, a rig, or separate PBR material maps unless those were generated as additional outputs.

For visualization, that raw result may already be enough. For editing, animation, game engines, or printing, it usually needs additional preparation, and which preparation depends entirely on where the asset is going next.

If you haven't tried Photo Scan yet, see the Photo Scan feature page for pricing, supported formats, and export details.

Which Processing Steps Do You Actually Need?

Not every workflow needs the same preparation. This is the fastest way to see what applies to you.

Step	Blender asset	Unity/Unreal asset	3D print
Remove floating geometry	Usually	Usually	Usually
Repair holes	Depends	Usually	Required
Retopology	Depends	Usually	Usually not
UV cleanup	Depends	Usually	No
PBR materials	Optional	Usually	No
LODs (or Nanite)	No	Usually	No
Collision mesh	No	Usually	No
Real-world scale	Helpful	Important	Required
Watertight mesh	Not always	Not always	Required
Rigging	Only for animation	Only for animated assets	No

This is also why the three workflows below don't share a single set of steps: printing usually does not require production retopology or PBR materials, while a game engine asset needs nearly everything.

Path A: Editable Assets in Blender

Cleanup, topology decisions, UV checks, and high-to-low poly baking, so the asset is ready to sculpt, edit, or render further.

Full walkthrough: Photogrammetry to Blender: Cleanup, Retopo, and Export

Path B: Game-Ready Assets for Unity or Unreal

Everything in Path A, plus LOD generation (or Nanite for static Unreal assets), collision meshes, engine-specific PBR texture packing, and rigging if the asset needs to animate.

Full walkthrough: Photo Scan for Game Assets: Unity and Unreal Workflows

Path C: Print-Ready Models

A different set of priorities than Path A or B: correct real-world scale, a watertight mesh, and printable wall thickness. Production retopology and PBR materials usually aren't required.

Full walkthrough: How to Prepare a 3D Scan for Printing: Scale, Repair, and Export

Where KIRI Engine Fits Into These Workflows

KIRI Engine handles the capture stage and part of the preparation stage before the model reaches Blender, a game engine, or a slicer. Which tools matter depends on which path you're on:

KIRI tool	Most relevant workflow
Quad-Mesh Retopology	Blender, game assets
PBR Material Generation	Blender, Unity, Unreal
Auto-Rig Generation	Animated game assets
Dynamic Decimation	Heavy meshes that need a lower polygon count before editing, slicing, or export
Measure and Rescale	3D printing
Featureless Object Scan	Difficult reflective, transparent, glossy, or low-texture objects that still need an exportable mesh

When Photogrammetry Breaks Down

If your object is shiny, reflective, transparent, or has very little surface texture, standard photogrammetry will struggle regardless of which path you're on afterward. That's what Featureless Object Scan is for. It's built on a different underlying method (Neural Surface Reconstruction) designed specifically for those objects. It produces an exportable polygon mesh that can enter many of the same downstream workflows; depending on the export options you select, it also supports tools such as PBR Material Generation and Quad-Mesh Retopology.

Professional Workflow Example: A Footwear Scan

A footwear studio tested KIRI Engine and Reality Capture on the same white vegan sports shoe using 178 photos captured on a semi-automated turntable rig. The case study documents the full path from controlled capture to a retopologized, game-ready asset, including camera settings, lighting setup, and export choices. Full breakdown: Fast Photogrammetry: KIRI Engine vs Reality Capture for a White Vegan Shoe

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between a photogrammetry asset and a 3D Gaussian Splat asset? Photogrammetry reconstructs a textured polygon mesh. A standard 3D Gaussian Splat represents a scene with rendered splats rather than conventional polygon surfaces. Use photogrammetry when the next step requires topology editing, collision, rigging, conventional game assets, or 3D printing. Use 3D Gaussian Splatting when visual realism and novel-view rendering matter more than traditional mesh editability.

Can I 3D print directly from a 3D Gaussian Splat scan? Not from a standard splat file. Splats aren't polygon geometry, so they don't have a watertight surface a slicer can work with. If you captured with 3D Gaussian Splatting and used Mesh-Inclusive output, that mode also generates a polygon mesh alongside the splat file, and that mesh can go through the same printing workflow described in this guide.

I don't know which of these paths I need. Where do I start? The deciding question is usually what you're building for: editing or animation work points to Path A or B, a physical object points to Path C. If you're still unsure whether photogrammetry is the right capture method for your project at all, 3D Gaussian Splatting vs Photogrammetry vs LiDARis the better starting point.

Do I need a Pro subscription to follow this guide? Basic includes Photo Scan, common mesh exports, and Dynamic Decimation, which cover the core requirements for many scan-to-print and manual Blender workflows. Pro adds tools that automate or extend specific stages: Quad-Mesh Retopology, PBR Material Generation, Auto-Rig Generation, Featureless Object Scan, and higher Photo Scan upload limits. See KIRI Engine Basic vs Pro for the full breakdown.