Fotogrammetry and 3D-models for the studied cave bear mandibles...checked!

We are grateful to have such dedicated and professional collaborators like Phd. Laurențiu Angheluță (aka Luthonium). The laborious and long process of documentating the cave bear mandibles has been successfully completed!

A set of 55 fossils was 3D digitized using a semi-automatic photogrammetric method. For each fossil, 294 photos were recorded, in RAW format, with a professional camera, with a resolution of 42 megapixels. Each photo set covered the object from all angles with the necessary overlays for 3D reconstruction algorithms. Shooting parameters took into account the depth of field to keep the object fully in focus, and the mandatory uniform illumination on the surface of the mandibles in all shots was set up using a specialized photography tent. Color and white balance cards were used to accurately reproduce the colors of the cave bear samples. Scaling coded targets were also used for accurate sizing (precision of 0.01 mm) of the generated 3D models.

The 3D models were generated at the maximum quality allowed by the rendering software, resulting, depending on the case, in 3D models with polygon counts between 2 and 6 million. For export and external use in third-party applications, it was decided to simplify the models to 1 million polygons and to use the glTF 2.0 fomat, the binary variant GLB.

Textures generated for color information and light interaction (diffuse and normal maps) were set at 8K resolution and were included in the single 3D file of each fosil.

Now that this stage is over, we can move on to the next one: the osteometric measurements!

See ya, friends!