Centro tecnológico Cartif

3D projection technology to better understand the evolution of mural painting

Friday, 09 December 2011

The application of digital technologies to the study, preservation and dissemination of Heritage is leading to new ways of seeing, understanding, and even exploit cultural assets.

A specific application of interest is the 3D simulation of paintings (polychromy) in a significant monument. This application consists of the projection of virtual models obtained by laser scanning, which is provided with an artificial texture to reproduce its appearance in a given time. Thus, without any physical intervention, it can emulate the original polychromy had the place (even where it no longer exists) and its evolution over time (artistic changes and deteriorations).

The project has allowed CARTIF made ​​to develop the methodology and the necessary software, which combines the geometric information of the monument (captured by a laser scanner), with the color (given specifically designed for digital images). This procedure avoids the problems of distortion inherent in the direct projection of images in two dimensions, which is usually done in successive planes to create the illusion of three dimensions characteristic of other locations that offer this type of application.

As a practical example, has created a digital model for the interior of the central apse and two significant capitals of the convent church of Santa Maria de Mave (Palencia), one of the landmarks of the "Northern Romanesque." On these different elements have been superimposed images created by the company expressly Heritage and Restoration. The resulting overlapping sequences in a video projection that recreates the respective stages pictorial Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque (XII to XVIII) that appear in the temples of the area.