.techniques applied to each rock model are dependant upon a couple of factors - first and foremost is the level of detail (LoD). One thing that you will learn when creating a visualization is that it is very difficult to portray everything about a site. Instead you have to prioritize the important features of the site that you wish to display.

Take for example, textures. If you were to take a picture of every inch of rock at a site and mosaic them together, the resulting file would be huge and unmanageable. Instead you have to prioritize the features of the rock you wish to display which in our case is the rock art. For most of the models in this project, a high resolution image is used for the area surrounding the rock art and a generic rock texture is used for the remainder of the rock surface. The generic rock texture, or a swatch, is a small representation of the rock at the site that is repeated multiple times over the model. For more information on the texturing techniques used for each rock model, please refer to the methods section for that particular site.

Narrows rock model textured with a generic rock texture and a high resolution image of
the rock art (outlined in red)

Step 4: Creating the rest of the site environment and the final animations

The rest of the site environment is reconstructed in SoftImage. Additional 3D objects such as the ground, trees, rocks, etc… are added to the scene using the 3D modeling tools available in SoftImage. These objects are then textured with pictures of the associated objects from each site. An emphasis is placed in every reconstruction project on using as many photos from the site as possible. This increases both the accuracy and realism of each model when compared to the original site. For more details and to view the results of each sites' environmental reconstruction, please see the methods section for that site.

Entire 3D reconstructed environment for the Narrows rock shelter

Once the entire site has been reconstructed in SoftImage, a final animation is created. The animation carries the user on a predefined navigation path throughout the site. Emphasis is placed on viewing the rock art features of the site and on establishing the context of the site environment in which the rock art is present. Once the final animation is rendered, it is exported from SoftImage. Compressed and uncompressed versions of the final animations are available in the results section for each site.

Click Here to view short animation showing creation of Narrows 3D model.