From CT Scans to Morphable Digital Models: Methodologies for Revealing and Preserving the Internal Structures of Artistic Figurines

The revelation of the internal structure of objects through computed tomography (CT scan) contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of their creation, the assessment of their preservation status, and the prediction of their future behavior. Consequently, in the case of Yiannis Pappas’ collection, this knowledge aids in the perpetuation of the models it hosts, which are made from malleable materials, such as wax, plasticine, and mazut, on metallic armature. This publication presents the complete methodology for extracting three-dimensional (3D) models (reconstructions) of the individual construction materials of the figurines, with the aim of subsequently utilizing them in research, as well as in their digital preservation and restoration. The 3D reconstructions were obtained by automatic segmentation algorithms based on the absorption measurements of the materials of the specific figurines, and were furthered edited (post-processing) to obtain the final models.