Paul Boon

Current focus

I try to capture the visual appearance of objects using series of images (photographs) of these objects. These 'object movies' give a more complete representation than single images. The shape of objects is revealed by showing 'views' from different directions, but 'gradual' rotation gives a really strong depth impression. Not only the global shape but also the surface structure (roughness) is shown. This is especially prominent with 'grazing' angles of illumination which results in shadows from the small dents and bumps on the surface. This also reveals some of the surface geometry. Almost all surfaces look different when viewed or illuminated from a different angle. A common example are shiny objects, but more extreme are some butterfly wings, beetle wings and birds feathers that show a different colour under different view angles.

See examples: Ceramic fabrics and Lithics.

Using laser scanning or photogrammetric techniques it is possible to partially reconstruct (calculate) the objects geometry or 3D-model. This model can than be used to measure sizes or shape characteristics. Also the model can be visualised using 3D-rendering techniques allowing for viewing the object model (even interactive) from different positions and using different lighting conditions. The online rendering of these 3D-models is still far from being photo-realistic.

See example: 3D laser scanner of two small objects