This is the first part of a progressive post that shows the construction of a 3D Photo Realistic image of how we believe the Somerton Man may have looked in real life.
One of the ongoing items of interest on this blog has been that of the appearance of the Somerton Man. Over time many have made attempts, myself included, to bring together an image that would clearly show his features in as realistic a light as possible.
The work has been hindered somewhat by a few factors including the apparent modifications that were made to the original profile post autopsy photograph and the fact that the full face image of the man was taken from above but at an angle. The angle would have the effect of 'shortening' the mans facial features and distorting his appearance in other ways.
It seems that now though, with the help of some smart programmers and artists plus of course the great work already done by others including Professor Derek Abbott at the University of Adelaide, our own efforts with good input from Pete Bowes at www.tomsbytwo.com ,we are close to getting a much improved version of how he may have looked in real life.
In the lead in image you can see the beginning of this project, it's the first cut image that we are using to build on. In the image below you can see how the tools we use help us shape and manipulate the various contours of his face:
As I write this post, the next step of the construction process is happening and that is the sculpting of the base image you see on the left above to more closely match his appearance. The work is quite complex in that we have to make allowance for the fact that all of his facial muscles in the original photographs were in a completely relaxed state and that there would be points at which fluids may have gathered. There are a number of other quite small adjustments to be made to the more prominent features such as the nose, eyes
and ears. Once that is done we can look at adding texture but that's for the next post on this subject.
We'll be adding more to this post in the coming days so keep calling back or you can join the site to get updates whenever new posts are loaded.