Angebot anfragen
Reflective calibration sphere on a photographed wooden surface
Dabarti Capture

Create detailed textures from photographs.

Keep the camera fixed and move one light between photographs. Capture calibrates the light from a reflective sphere, then calculates normal, albedo and displacement maps from the set.

Buy licence Try demo How it works
Capture 1.0.1 / 3 September 2026Windows / local processing / signed installer

What it does

One fixed camera. One moving light. Three useful maps.

Photograph a surface several times while moving a single light. Include a reflective sphere in the frame so Capture can read every light position and recover the fine structure of the material.

We built Capture for our own scanning work and released it in 2017. In 2026 we replaced the old command-line workflow with a proper interface, visual calibration tools and batch processing.

  • Normal, albedo and displacement output
  • Visual light-probe selection
  • Precise per-light calibration
  • Batch processing queue
  • Capture-area masking
  • RAW and common image-format support

Setup

Fixed camera. Moving light.

  1. Fixed phone camera facing green fabric with a reflective calibration sphere in frame
    Fixed camera, material and reflective sphere
    01

    Set up

    Keep the camera and material fixed. Place a reflective sphere next to the surface.

  2. Hand moving a phone light above green fabric while the camera remains fixed
    The light moves while the camera stays fixed
    02

    Photograph

    Move one light between photographs. Do not move the camera or the material.

  3. Capture batch output showing albedo, normal and depth texture maps
    Batch-processed map output
    03

    Process

    Load the photographs. Capture reads the sphere reflections and calculates the texture maps.

  4. Detailed colourful normal maps created from photographed surfaces
    Detailed normal maps ready for 3D work
    04

    Export

    Save the normal, albedo and displacement maps for use in a 3D material.

Capture output folder showing albedo, normal and depth texture maps

Output

Normal, albedo and displacement from one image set.

Albedo
Base surface colour with most directional lighting removed.
Normal
Fine surface direction and small material details.
Displacement
A height map calculated from the processed normal map.

Current release

Capture 1.0.1

The 2026 release turns the original command-line tool into a practical Windows application for repeatable production work.

Buy licence Try demo
170 MB · signed Windows installer · demo output is limited to 1,024 px and one-third source size
Dabarti Capture 1.0.1 interface with a three-dataset processing queue
Capture 1.0.1 / Windows interface
  • 01

    A redesigned graphical interface

  • 02

    Batch processing with a queue for multiple datasets

  • 03

    Visual selection of the reflective-sphere probe

  • 04

    Manual adjustment of individual light calibrations

  • 05

    Capture-area mask creation inside the interface

  • 06

    Simpler licence activation and deactivation

  • 07

    Further workflow improvements and bug fixes

Original project

Made with Capture.

Salt, Pepper & Basil was one of the first studio projects made with Capture. We used the scanned surfaces for final materials, look development and rendering.

Salt, Pepper & BasilOriginal film / 2017
Basil and ceramic tableware rendered with captured surfaces
Captured surfacesBasil / ceramic / wood
Food still life rendered with captured material detail
Final CGILook development / render

Capture service

We can capture the samples for you.

Send the physical samples to our studio. We photograph and process each surface, check the maps and deliver the files ready for 3D production.

150–450 EURTypical range per sample

The final price depends on the sample size, shape, surface and capture setup. Shipping and return are quoted separately.

Ask for a quote

Learn more

Tutorials, research and earlier work.

  1. 01TutorialCapture textures with a mobile phone

    The full setup, photography and processing workflow.

  2. 02ResearchPhotometric stereo R&D

    The tests that led to the first version of Capture.

  3. 03Release noteDabarti Capture released

    The original 2017 release note and example renders.

  4. 04ProjectCaptured leaves

    A material test made with Capture and V-Ray RT GPU.

Availability

Buy Capture on Gumroad.

Try the same signed installer in Demo mode, then activate it with a licence key when you are ready. Purchase and licence delivery are handled by Gumroad.

If you need help with a specific capture setup, send us an email.

Buy licence Try demo Ask about Capture