By Matt Davies
Matt Davies is the Manager of the Digital Transformations Hub in the Faculty of Arts.
- Matt manages the University of Nottingham’s Digital Transformation Hub (DTH) in the Faculty of Arts. He provides access and support for staff and students who wish to use the Hub’s equipment and software to enhance their teaching and research with digital content.
- He also provides advice and runs workshops on the creation, manipulation and use of digital media in teaching, research and heritage projects.
- Matt annually recruits and mentors a team of student volunteers who work on real world arts and heritage digitisation projects organized and supervised in collaboration with academic staff and external partners.
- He also manages two scholarship postgraduate Research Associates, who provide support for student projects and users of the Hub.
- Student volunteers gain invaluable digital skills and work experience which supplement their studies and enhance their CVs.
The Curating, Researching, Digitising and Exhibiting (CRDE) Leicestershire Museum Collections Placement
The CRDE placement is a project that forms part of the Villiers Revealed exhibition at Carnegie Museum, which showcases a newly restored portrait of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham and lover of James I. During trips to the Collections Resource Centre and Carnegie Museum in Leicestershire, students working on this unique and groundbreaking project selected artefacts to research, respond to and digitise. You can read more about the exhibition, project, its historical context and significance to Leicestershire’s LGQBT+ community and explore the students’ responses via one of the links provided at the end of this blog post.
This post addresses the digitisation aspect of the project, all of which was carried out at the Faculty of Arts’ Digital Transformations Hub (DTH) with me Matt Davies; manager of the Hub, and with Susie Sherwin; technician and operator of the Artec 3D scanners, in the Archaeology Labs.
3D Photogrammetry in the Digital Transformations Hub (DTH)
In the DTH, where the objects were temporarily held, the students learnt about photogrammetry; a method using multiple photographs of an object to produce a 3D model. We have been teaching this method of photogrammetry over a few years to Faculty of Arts students working on a project to produce 3D versions of artefacts belonging to the University of Nottingham Museum. This year’s Museum project students deserve a mention here because they had already become incredibly accomplished by the time the CRDE project started and were keen to help out!
The object is placed on a turntable, which may be in a lightbox, or lit by studio lights and a DSLR camera is mounted on a tripod. Much time is spent adjusting the settings on the camera to ensure that perfectly sharp, focused, well-lit and colour-balanced images are produced. The turntable is synchronised with the camera using a Bluetooth app so that each time the object turns a few degrees, the camera shoots. Every aspect of the object must be captured in at least two of multiple overlapping photographs so that the software can later match them up.
Photo 1: To the left of the image are Jubilee Rock shoes on the turntable. To the right of the image, Christy Hsu, Isabel Ilett, Daniel Jandu and Ziyang Tang set up a photogrammetry shoot in the DTH.
The advantage of operating the camera remotely is that it allows longer exposure times (i.e. the shutter stays open longer, allowing more light onto the sensor) and therefore the capture of sharper photographs, without the camera moving and the photographs blurring.
The photographs are then uploaded to specialist software (Agisoft Metashape in this case) which matches recurring features and uses the position and orientation metadata from the camera, to produce a point cloud- a bit like a dot-to-dot version.
It then generates a geometric surface – joins the dots into triangles, and then applies the features gleaned from the photographs to the surface – almost like wallpaper!
Some examples of the 3D objects that we digitally reproduced using this method are a Victorian corset, a pair of 1970s Jubilee Rock ‘brothel creeper’ shoes and a ladybird book.
Particularly challenging, due to their size and their ultra-fine features, were a pair of preserved butterflies; these were captured with some very careful macro photography!
3D Laser Scanners in the Archaeology Labs
Photogrammetry – for a variety of reasons – was not suitable for all the objects, and for these, the students joined Susie in the Archaeology labs. Here the students were taught how to use the Labs’ recently purchased state-of-the-art 3D laser scanners. The Artec Space Spider and Micro 3D Scanner work by sending out beams of light and recording the time it takes for them to bounce back off the object. This allows a mesh of triangles to be created matching the shape of the artefact. Then, by joining up the separate scans of each object, the Artec software produces the 3D model.
The Artecs were used to produce models of four Care Bear toys, three Tammie dolls and some Ancient Roman coins, which work particularly well with the Artec Micro scanner. Also, a particularly unusual shoe!
Photo 2: Conrad Padgett and Bryony Reeves scan a Care Bear with the Artec Space Spider in the Archaeology Labs.
Photo 3: Isabel and Christy working on the Artec software in the Archaeology Labs.
2D Digitisation
Some of the objects that the students chose were 2D so obviously not suitable for 3D modelling, for these we used the DTH’s copystand and DSLR camera. This is a set up used commonly in digital archiving, and which we use weekly during term time to allow Arts students on the DTH Placement Scheme to gain invaluable skills and experience working on real world archiving projects. You can learn more about these projects in the links provided at the end of this blog post.
Like the photogrammetry set- up; remotely activating the mounted camera, controlling the lighting, and fixing the object, allows control over the environment and camera settings. This means we can produce the best reproductions possible and they can be straightened, cropped and colour balanced using Adobe Photoshop.
A ‘Maids Corset’ guide dating from the 1920s, and colourful brochure for Peter Pan Swimsuits were captured using this method.
Photo 4: Lily Roslof photographing the corset guide with the DTH’s copystand/DSLR camera.
All of the digital reproductions produced in the DTH and Archaeology Labs as well as some produced by Leicestershire County Council’s own archivists have been uploaded to a fantastic online exhibition created by One to One Development Trust. Follow the link below to explore the space; find out more about the exhibition, George Villiers himself and changing attitudes towards his ‘queer’ relationship with King James I and what it means to today’s LGBTQ+ community. You will find the 3D and 2D digital reproductions in the purpose-built Students Gallery along with information about each, and the students’ responses.
Here is the link to the Villiers Revealed virtual exhibition: https://villiers.digital-exhibition.uk/
Other links
- Read the student’s research on, and responses to the objects here.
- Find out more about the DTH and what we offer students at our webpages.
- Find out more about the DTH projects at our blog site Digital Dialogues.
- Find out more about the DTH and other Faculty of Arts Student Placements.