Massive 3D digitization of sculptures: Methodological approaches for improving efficiency

Abstract

This paper describes a methodology for efficient massive 3D digitization of ancient sculptures under the scope of IU-Uffizi project. The project is sponsored by Indiana University (USA) with the technical support of Politecnico di Milano and the advice of a scientific committee of experts in the fields of art history and archaeology. The project aims at digitizing 1250 ancient sculptures in the “Uffizi museum”, Pitti Palace”, “Boboli Gardens” and a storage facility inside Villa Corsini in Castello near Florence. The authors have experienced a variety of different issues in the museum, including working with different lighting conditions, the placements of sculptures at difficult places for shooting images, inaccessible height and different ways for posing camera on the scene in an environment where the use of drones is prohibited. To solve such issues, specific technical choices were needed to reduce the digitization time and costs while maintaining a high coherence between the physical artefact and its digital counterpart. These technical solutions are being discussed, in a context where the purpose is to massively digitize complex objects in their original setting by minimizing the impact on the museum. Furthermore, several methodologies are being discussed to improve the efficiency of digitization regarding image capturing, 3D model creation, scaling and mesh editing.