The Digital Michelangelo Project

November 15, 2002 9:31 AM

The Digital Michelangelo Project A team of 30 faculty, staff, and students from Stanford University and the University of Washington spent the 1998-99 academic year in Italy scanning the sculptures and architecture of Michelangelo. They are now working on building 3D models from the data. (more inside)
posted by snez (6 comments total)

480 individually aimed scans, 2 billion polygons, 7,000 color images, 32 gigabytes, 1,080 man-hours of scanning, and 22 people just to scan David. Ever wanted to see David’s toe up close or his bulging belly? Or Night’s cancerous left breast? There’s even an animated flyaround of David (real player). Check out the poster they put on display wherever they were scanning. The 3D model of St. Matthew has been completed and the chisel marks are ready to be analyzed. Explanations of light fields and free 3D software to download. The project began with the scanning and 3D fax transmission of the Happy Buddha statue. Perhaps one day you and I will be able to download our own physical copy of Michelangelo.
posted by snez at 9:33 AM on November 15, 2002

Perhaps one day you and I will be able to download our own physical copy of Michelangelo.

Well, I'm sure he's stopped smelling by now, but I doubt he'd be of much use anyway.
posted by kindall at 10:08 AM on November 15, 2002

Great post.
posted by plep at 11:25 AM on November 15, 2002

Fascinating.
posted by Down10 at 12:08 PM on November 15, 2002

Hey, cool! I worked on this for a quarter. I'm a grad student at the UW. My advisor had just graduated from Stanford (he's the guy responsible for the Happy Buddha) and I was his first student here so I got to go. Pretty fun.

Here we are. I'm the guy pointing. And I'm not touching the statue. (I'm almost sure.)
posted by Wood at 12:58 PM on November 15, 2002

I got to the L'Accademia in Florence to see David this past winter and was astounded by how much cooler David was in real life. At the time I thought something like this would be the perfect thing for trying to get a sense of the magnitude of the thing not well captured in traditional media.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 3:11 PM on November 15, 2002