Redhead Designs Ltd

We have been asked to reconstruct many small, and not so small, artefacts for archaeologists. In this article I will be using several examples, from pottery to modern mass produced items.

Simple pottery is probably the easiest to model. For a bowl or pot without handles, a technique known as “lathing” is employed. A shape is drawn of the profile of the pot (as we are all familiar with from find reports etc) and then this shape is “lathed” around its centre point. This creates a model “mesh” which is a perfect model of the original shape. (See Fig. 1 and Fig. 2)

Fig. 1	Fig. 2

What then makes the items more realistic is the removal of the perfect lines and absolute symmetry that this method produces.  There are two ways of doing this. The easiest is to apply a “noise” modifier to the model. This moves the surface of the model in random ways based on a fractal noise algorithm. It can be applied in several stages to make the artefact look hand-made, worn and damaged.  (See Fig. 3 and Fig. 4)

Fig. 3	Fig. 4