ZBrushCentral

Forensic Facial Reconstruction of a 2800 Year Old Mummy

ZBrush Artworks
#1

I’m trained to do forensic facial reconstructions & had the great opportunity to reconstruct the face of a 2800 year old mummy. I’ve developed a pipeline for applying the traditional techniques of forensic reconstructions digitally using ZBrush. The mummy was scanned inside her sarcophagus using a 256 layer CT scanner. I worked from an STL database created from those scans. ZBrush allows me great control to maintain great accuracy during the reconstruction & offers endless options as far as views, lighting, skin & hair color choices, etc.

Hope you find it as interesting as I did. :smiley:

I’ve got additional pix & video on my website of the reconstruction @ www.joshharker.com

Check these links for interviews, articles, & info regarding the Mummy Meresamun:
Archaeology Magazine Interview
Archaeology Magazine article: “Getting By On Her Looks”
Chicago Tribune
Archaeology Institute of America’s “ArchaeolgyTV”
Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

Meresamun_recon_front.jpg

Attachments

Meresamun_recon_profile.jpg

meresamun_052009-detail_1.jpg

#2

Great piece. I love how that was probably someone…well, 2800 years ago. Kinda hot for an old lady :P.

#3

:+1:always wanted to try this-great:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:

#4

It would be nice to see some shots with perspective enabled :smiley:

#5

I cant help but think it isnt correct. Is that because of all the inbreeding ?
It is cool tho :stuck_out_tongue:

#6

again very cool:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1: thought i would add a link [http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.3d-doctor.com/skull2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.3d-doctor.com/images.html&usg=__fspVopZziRbwdHVCY3yOZjOsb18=&h=512&w=640&sz=60&hl=en&start=49&sig2=E-N5hAEtQy8Z50aV3Hek6A&um=1&tbnid=ryU9z_OSJPxEhM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcat%2Bscan%2Bmodels%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D40%26um%3D1&ei=Tu0-SqKxLZKlmQefo-jQDg](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.3d-doctor.com/skull2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.3d-doctor.com/images.html&usg=__fspVopZziRbwdHVCY3yOZjOsb18=&h=512&w=640&sz=60&hl=en&start=49&sig2=E-N5hAEtQy8Z50aV3Hek6A&um=1&tbnid=ryU9z_OSJPxEhM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcat%2Bscan%2Bmodels%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US<img src=) along this kind of stuff-this model sample available in several formats

[attach=145385]ZBrush Document.jpg[/attach]

Attachments

ZBrush Document.jpg

#7

Awesome! There’s nothing ZBrush can’t do, well almost. :smiley:

#8

thanks all- here’s a couple pix of what the CT scans looked like

[attach=145475]meresamun-CT-scans-2.jpg[/attach]

[attach=145476]meresamun-CT-scans-1.jpg[/attach]

Attachments

meresamun-CT-scans-2.jpg

meresamun-CT-scans-1.jpg

#9

very cool, what an excellent application of technology

#10

…

Realy interesting ! Excellent work :+1:

#11

VERY interesting work!!!
best regards, Selwy

#12

That’s really cool. Hopefully I’ll see them interviewing you on the History channel one day :slight_smile:

#13

Very interesting, do you people ever practice on not so old skulls that have physical evidence of what they looked like in the past, so you can compare the outcome of your works to say an old photo of the person.

#14

great work

it certainly is a very difficult process. ive tried this at my work in Dubai Police . they found this 8 months old skull of a person and had asked me to try to reconstruct a face.

since this was not my usual thing as we are into developing serious games for the force. but it was a great practice. certainly involves a lot of knowlege of different faces and imagining how it would have been just form fat deposit on the skeleton and other clues is a very hard try,

anyway great result.

#15

The technique has been applied more so to “currently” deceased than any other. It is what is commonly used in cold case/unidentified type scenarios. There have been many “hits” as a result of a reconstruction & it is extremely accurate when used by a trained artist. I have a bunch of reconstructions on my website but I do not have permission to show any of the actual photos of the victims. This reconstruction was done by forensic artist Karen T. Taylor whom I studied with. She is one of, if not currently the most prominent, forensic artist in the world. I think the images speak for themselves as far as similarity. The technique & methods are well proven.

#16

bump :wink:

#17

Here’s a turntable video of the reconstruction

//youtu.be/X5C_qqis9ds

#18

This is really cool! The skin is that thick!? The eyes kind of throw me off though. They look like they are too small and the upper eyelid should be covering a portion of the top of the iris. She has a bewildered look since here eyes look slightly popped.

#19

Yeah, In all the reconstructions that I’ve seen so far, including this one, what I find weird is the thickness of the skin, especially on top of the zygomatic bone. I think it’s too thick.

#20

I know it seems weird (the thickness of the scalp flesh always surprised me) but the thicknesses are determined from datasets created from measurements from dozens & in some cases hundreds of people. In the old days they actually poked probes into the flesh of cadavers & took the measurements that way. Now they use MRI to get the data. It’s very accurate & there is a ton of documented data. It’s all specific to race, gender & age. There are also normal/obese/emaciated adjustments that can be made. Also, the eyes & irises of humans are amazingly similar even throughout different ethnicities. (25mm for diameter & 11-13mm for irises). I could have made her eyelids a bit more closed which is more typical of a general relaxed state, but I wanted her “look” to be just a bit more intense.