It’s really a stunning collection, and despite the fact that the sculptures are a century old, many of them look as though they could have been produced yesterday. Porcelain is a material that lasts – however, nothing lasts forever, and so the Imperial Porcelain Factory decided to preserve the collection in digital form. No matter how well something is crafted, some damage and wear is inevitable with time, which is why so many museums and historical institutions are turning to 3D scanning to preserve and reconstruct historical artifacts.
“The figurines are more than 100 years old. Any tactile manipulation was avoided,” she explained. “The whole process was completed in the presence of museum workers, and any movement of the exhibits was carried out with their help and under their supervision…High precision scanning was required to make copies very close to the original. Because of this, the figurines had to be scanned in parts.”
The RangeVision PRO was up to the challenges, however. The scanner has four scanning “zones” optimized for objects of different sizes; using the second scanning zone, the team placed each figurine on a turntable so that it could be captured from every angle without manipulating it more than necessary. Scans were taken from three different angles:
- 90º
- 45º from above
- 45º from below
“Through the work we got 4-5 scan groups for light figurines and 10 for dark ones,” said Ischenko. “This is a convenient volume of data for post-processing.”
Once the scanning was complete, the scans were processed in RangeVision ScanCenter software, and the models were prepared for 3D printing in Blender. They were then printed in a gypsum polymer material, fired twice under high temperatures, and carefully painted by professional artists from the Imperial Porcelain Factory to perfectly match the originals.
A project like this one is daunting, but worth the effort. If the original figurines should ever be damaged, the museum now has not only physical copies but digital ones so that more can be made at any point in the future. Nothing is ever quite the same as an original piece of art, but 3D scanning and 3D printing can ensure that not even the tiniest detail is ever lost to time. Discuss in the Peoples of Russia forum at 3DPB.com.
[Photos provided by Imperial Porcelain Factory / Project completed by ABS3D.RU(JSC “Kiberon Group”)]