A Tale of Two Models: Problems with Merging two 3D models together

This past week I made two models of every artifact that captures both sides of the models and built each model to be textured which is the last step in the process. I am still figuring out how to merge the models into one complete whole that leaves no gaps. There are a few different methods of alignment that I tried and so far I have had no luck with either. The goal moving forward is to find the best alignment method which should not take long to complete once I figure it out, but this will allow me to have complete models for each of the six artifacts that can then be printed.

                Also this past week I decided that the newer models I would create would have a lot more pictures in the profiles then I normally do. The other profiles had on average 50-80 pictures to create the model and I wanted to try capturing more pictures to see what type of difference that would make, so I captured 125 photos for one of the models which drastically increased the detail of the model I was working with but it took much longer to process. On average, to build the dense point cloud for the other models only took 2-5 minutes at the most, however, this conch shell that had 125 photos in it took almost an hour just to build the dense point cloud. Other steps in the process also took longer than normally. This created a scenario where I had to go work on something else while this processed, but I believe that it is worth the wait overall since the detail increased significantly. This is noticed just by looking at the sparse point cloud. Normally the outline of the object was suggested before, but the conch shell is already very prominent. Dense point clouds for all other models ranged between 1 to 1.6 million points while the Conch model had 3.4 million points which explains the processing time.

                This past week I printed a cylinder seal for Dr. Tiffany Spadoni and I also printed one for myself to use in a lesson on Mesopotamia for my 6^th grade classes. The ability to print artifacts like this off a cheap home printer has allowed me and will allow Dr. Spadoni to use these replicas as a teaching tool. I was able to show the students what a cylinder seal not only looks like but also how it works by demonstrating it on playdough. This is part of the benefit of the internship that I am working on, this allows a hands on approach to the past that not only interests students but creates a lasting impression of engagement.