Making bas-reliefs from photographs of human faces

Bas-reliefs are a form of flattened artwork, part-way between 3D sculpture and 2D painting. Recent research has considered automatic bas-relief generation from 3D scenes. However, little work has addressed the generation of bas-reliefs from 2D images. In this paper, we propose a method to automatically generate bas-relief surfaces from frontal photographs of human faces, with potential applications to e.g. coinage and commemorative medals. Our method has two steps. Starting from a photograph of a human face, we first generate a plausible image of a bas-relief of the same face. Secondly, we apply shape-from-shading to this generated bas-relief image to determine the 3D shape of the final bas-relief. To model the mapping from an input photograph to the image of a corresponding bas-relief, we use a feedforward network. The training data comprises images generated from an input 3D model of a face, and images generated from a corresponding bas-relief; the latter is produced by an existing 3D model-to-bas-relief algorithm. A saliency map of the face controls both model building, and bas-relief generation. Our experimental results demonstrate that the generated bas-relief surfaces are smooth and plausible, with correct global geometric nature, the latter giving them a stable appearance under changes of viewing direction and illumination

Photo2Relief: Let Human in the Photograph Stand Out

In this paper, we propose a technique for making humans in photographs protrude like reliefs. Unlike previous methods which mostly focus on the face and head, our method aims to generate art works that describe the whole body activity of the character. One challenge is that there is no ground-truth for supervised deep learning. We introduce a sigmoid variant function to manipulate gradients tactfully and train our neural networks by equipping with a loss function defined in gradient domain. The second challenge is that actual photographs often across different light conditions. We used image-based rendering technique to address this challenge and acquire rendering images and depth data under different lighting conditions. To make a clear division of labor in network modules, a two-scale architecture is proposed to create high-quality relief from a single photograph. Extensive experimental results on a variety of scenes show that our method is a highly effective solution for generating digital 2.5D artwork from photographs.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Analysis of Bas-Relief Generation Techniques

Simplifying the process of generating relief sculptures has been an interesting topic of research in the past decade. A relief is a type of sculpture that does not entirely extend into three-dimensional space. Instead, it has details that are carved into a flat surface, like wood or stone, such that there are slight elevations from the flat plane that define the subject of the sculpture. When viewed orthogonally straight on, a relief can look like a full sculpture or statue in the respect that a full sense of depth from the subject can be perceived. Creating such a model manually is a tedious and difficult process, akin to the challenges a painter may face when designing a convincing painting. Like with painting, certain digital tools (3D modeling programs most commonly) can make the process a little easier, but can still take a lot of time to obtain sufficient details. To further simplify the process of relief generation, a sizable amount of research has gone into developing semi-automated processes of creating reliefs based on different types of models. These methods can vary in many ways, including the type of input used, the computational time required, and the quality of the resulting model. The performance typically depends on the type of operations applied to the input model, and usually user-specified parameters to modify its appearance. In this thesis, we try to accomplish a few related topics. First, we analyze previous work in the field and briefly summarize the procedures to emphasize a variety of ways to solve the problem. We then look at specific algorithms for generating reliefs from 2D and 3D models. After explaining two of each type, a “basic” approach, and a more sophisticated one, we compare the algorithms based on their difficulty to implement, the quality of the results, and the time to process. The final section will include some more sample results of the previous algorithms, and will suggest possible ideas to enhance their results, which could be applied in continuing research on the topic

Faces of Cambodia: Buddhism(s), Portraiture and Images of Kings

In the late twelfth-century the face dominated the visual landscape of the Angkor Empire, appearing at the Mahāyānist Bayon temple in the form of monumental ‘face towers’, a distinctive architectural-cum-sculptural feature of the reign of Jayavarman VII, the first Buddhist king of Cambodia. Together with statues apparently sculpted as a physical likeness of the king, this artistic output probed the conceptual contours of the face and the scope of portraiture. Since the twelfth century the face, primarily in a four-faced configuration, has continued as a uniquely Cambodian trope, cited and revived in changing politico-cultural contexts. The monumental visages of Angkor have been the subject of a wealth of scholarship over the last century and a half, yet there has been a lack of consideration of the Cambodian faces as faces from a phenomenological perspective. Neither has there been a thorough interrogation of the precise mechanisms by which the faces ‘reappeared’ in twentieth-century Cambodia. Therefore, this thesis addresses questions of the face and portraiture within a multi-layered Buddhist-Brahmānic complex, in order to counter hegemonies which persist in art historical scholarship on the Bayon. This examination of the face is primarily formulated on three levels of interrogation: the face as portrait, the face as the locus of personhood or subjectivity, and historiographies associated with the face. Due to the subsequent, and indeed on-going, appropriation of the Bayon faces, the final chapters give critical emphasis to the face of the king in the contemporary visual landscape of Cambodia

Noseless in Nimrud: More figurative responses to Assyrian domination

no abstrac

Computer Assisted Relief Generation - a Survey

In this paper we present an overview of the achievements accomplished to date in the field of computer aided relief generation. We delineate the problem, classify the different solutions, analyze similarities, investigate the evelopment and review the approaches according to their particular relative strengths and weaknesses. In consequence this survey is likewise addressed to researchers and artists through providing valuable insights into the theory behind the different concepts in this field and augmenting the options available among the methods presented with regard to practical application

Assyrian Bas-reliefs at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Includes bibliographical references.https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/art-museum-collection-catalogs/1000/thumbnail.jp

A Study of the Formal Architectural-Sculptural Characteristics of El Tajin

El Tajín was an ancient metropolis in which rituals such as the Mesoamerican ball game were carried out, later to be recorded in the sculptural bas-reliefs of its architecture. The study of its morphologies is the recognition of the ways in which an ancient civilization is expressed, thus contributing to the characterization of a culture whose past belongs to World Heritage. This paper proposes a case-sample analysis of the bas-reliefs in the South Ballcourt based on reticular geometry and fractal dimension analysis. It was found that the geometry of the RA (golden rectangle), RR2 and RR3 are prevalent, in addition to the identification of iconographic naturalist and symbolic elements; from the box-counting fractal dimension, it was found that the elements, though of different sizes or composition, show similar complexities, with a value of around 1.7